OVERVIEW

In an online environment, this is one of the greatest concerns in regards to student achievement.  Whether intentional or not, the use of other people's work is a violation of the DoDEA Virtual High School’s policy of Academic Integrity and can result in severe consequences.  You are encouraged to work with your peers through the use of Spark IM, discussion boards, blogs and wikis as needed.  However, note that any obvious signs of cheating or copying will result in an administrative referral and a zero for the assignment.

Image: Judge's Wooden Gavel with flag in background; Shutterstock.com

COMMON ERRORS

One of the most common errors made when using technology is the gross misuse of "cut and paste".  This can include text and images.  All wording for assignments MUST be your own.  The instructor frequently will search databases to identify cases of "cut and paste" from web sites.  As easily as you may be able to find information and copy it, it is just as easy for your instructor to locate the source.  Simply changing a word here or there using the thesaurus will not hide the overall pilfering of content from an external source.  Instead, make a point to hand write the general idea of what you are reading and then type it in your own words into the word processor.  This is one way to assist you in avoiding plagiarism. 

Additionally, anytime you use an image from the internet, you should cite the source with a minimum of the inclusion of the web address.

EXPECTATIONS

All students are expected to comply with the guidelines for academic honesty.  Academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, cheating or copying the work of another, using technology for illicit purposes, or any unauthorized communication between students for the purposes of gaining advantage on assignments or exams is strictly prohibited. 

DVHS POLICY

The DoDEA Virtual High School’s Academic Integrity Policy covers all school related work including, but not limited to, class assignments, quizzes, projects and exams.  All students are expected to comply with the guidelines for academic honesty.  Academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, cheating or copying the work of another, using technology for illicit purposes, or any unauthorized communication between students for the purposes of gaining advantage on assignments or exams is strictly prohibited. 

PLAGIARISM DEFINED

Plagiarism is defined by the Random House Dictionary as:

"The unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."  

Note the use of the words "close imitation".  This means that you do not have to copy verbatim for it to be considered plagiarism.

CITE THE SOURCE

There are a number of places to go for information about citing sources (giving credit to someone whose work you used) but your school media center person is the best and closest source. Basically, you need to tell who wrote or created what you are using, who did it originally, and when and where it was published.

The best rule of thumb is that if you are in doubt about whether or not to cite a source, cite it. And, in case you were not aware, there are commercially available “plagiarism-fighting” tools on-line that make it easy to check for plagiarize information. 

If you want more information on plagiarism, you can go the following websites:

The Nuts & Bolts of College Writing

Plagiarism in the News - Bridgewater College, Bridgewater Virginia

IMPLICATIONS FOR YOU

What does this all mean for my on-line course?

In this course you will want to do research to find information for various topics.  There is nothing wrong with including other people's findings or creativity as a part of your project as long as you give proper credit to those people within your project.  Your goal should be to look at what other people have done, analyze that information and properly synthesize it into your work.

Should you have a question about any of these topics, please ask first before turning in something that could cause you to receive no credit for that project.