WPP Part A- Description of Need or Opportunity

I need a tool to help students fully understand plagiarism.  My students are in college.  It is surprising to learn how many of them know little about plagiarism or how to avoid it when writing assignments.  From the survey results I've received from students thus far, I've discovered that about half of them have never formally learned about plagiarism in an educational setting before attending Henry Ford Community College.  Some have learned about it from other sources, and some have not learned about it at all.  This is quite shocking to me on one hand, but on the other, I see evidence of this more often than I am comfortable with.  This semester about 1/4 of my students engaged in plagiarism on some level within the first two weeks of class.  Being that I teach world religion courses, and not English courses, I need a comprehensive and reliable resource for students regarding plagiarism, that is not part of the regular curriculum.  I also need this tool to deliver information on multiple levels because some students understand some aspects of plagiarism, but have misconceptions about other areas of it.

I will create a Weebly.  This Weebly site will discuss the definition and scope of plagiarism and also methods for proper citation in order to avoid plagiarism.  It will serve as a repository of different types of information and interactive elements that will be useful to students who hold various levels of misconceptions on the topic.  The Weebly site will be used on an "as needed" basis throughout the semester, and I'm sure it will be used often.  When plagiarism occurs, I will certainly send students to the Weebly site to get the information they need to help them be successful in my course, as well as future courses and in the workplace.  I will also have a link to the Weebly site in the online courses that I run, so that students have access to it at any point that they choose to check it out.  This will provide an extra resource at the click of a button that can educate them at the time that they need it.  They will no longer have to research a topic they understand superficially, which in and of itself is worth the effort, as this type of research generally yields poor results in this area.

I plan on continuing to research more resources, but I have found a good deal of resources thus far to help implement my Weebly plagiarism project and my Diigo account is filling up fast.  My gracious instructor has advised that there is some wonderful information in "21 Things 4 Teachers" and "21 Things 4 Students", which I will certainly use as a guide regarding copyright and Creative Commons.  These sites get to the root of plagiarism by discussing copyright so students understand the whole reason why proper citation is needed, instead of just learning about citation as a "rule" to follow.  I have also found many tutorials and short films, and such, in MERLOT.  What I like about the two examples linked above is that they address the topic in a thorough manner and present it in a way that makes sense and in a format the promotes learning.  I plan to link to some of these tools in the Weebly to provide another platform for education.  Some of these tutorials and films are well made and there is no need to recreate the wheel in this regard when the resources are of such high quality and willing to be shared by the authors.  As far as content goes, in addition to the above, I will also be writing much of it myself.  Also, I plan on using the results from my student survey to help refine the kind of information presented to students.  This will help guide me in my overall plan.  These resources will serve as examples of how information is presented, what type of information is important, sources for interactive elements as well as resources that will be used by students directly.

I plan to get the Weebly up and running this semester so that students can begin using it as soon as it is finished, within a few weeks or so.  At this moment, I envision tabs on the Weebly covering the topics:  Plagiarism Defined, with tutorials; Avoiding Plagiarism, which will highlight citation methods; Copyright; Creative Commons; Consequences of Plagiarism, which may include an active blog where students can share  stories; and Resources.  {******I initially planned to have the entire Weebly site completed by November 20.  If this proves too daunting of a task, I will prioritize giving the most attention to the home screen, defining plagiarism, explaining copyright, and providing resources and tutorials promoting proper citation methods, such as APA, MLA, etc. ********}  I expect to then continue the use of the Weebly as a repository for new and interesting information that I find and build the site over time.  Beginning with next semester, I plan to have students take a quiz for assessment purposes and then require them to visit the Weebly site and take another quiz afterward.

{******I have read some articles, one written by Jonathan Bailey, that explains how to teach about plagiarism in a manner that actually helps students.  Tackling plagiarism as an academic unit really helps in eradicating the occurrence of plagiarism, instead of just expecting students to comply with the rules of plagiarism, although they haven't been formally instructed about it's meaning or purpose.  One key component related to this is to have students learn why avoiding plagiarism is important.  Many think of it as just some random set of rules that they are supposed to follow for some reason.  Stressing the importance of individuality, credit for work and copyright will aid students in deepening their understanding of why they should observe these "rules", which will in turn make them more likely to find the practices valuable enough to employ themselves.  Additionally, providing students with a person to consult about the topic, instead of just instilling fear about it, will also go a long way in alleviating the prolific nature of plagiarism for today's students.  I will use information such as this to help guide me in constructing my plagiarism Weebly and believe that these strategies will help this project be successful.*******}  I will be able to assess success of this project, if the scores improve from the assessment quiz to the quiz after working on the Weebly site.  But, I think the most fulfilling sign of success for me will the absence of plagiarism throughout the semester.  And, I would hope that some positive student feedback would also occur.  I expect that students will be happier having been educated on plagiarism so that the issue is no longer something on which they struggle to understand and apply.