Neither an academic tome nor a prescriptive 'how to' guide, "The Theory and Practice of Online Learning" is an illuminating collection of essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex field of distance education.Distance education has evolved significantly in its 150 years of existence. For most of this time, it was an individual pursuit defined by infrequent postal communication. But recently, three more developmental generations have emerged, supported by television and radio, teleconferencing, and computer conferencing. The early 21st century has produced a fifth generation, based on autonomous agents and intelligent, database-assisted learning, that has been referred to as Web 2.0.The second edition of "The Theory and Practice of Online Learning" features updates in each chapter, plus four new chapters on current distance education issues such as connectivism and social software innovations.

The Theory and Practice of Online Learning

This paper reports on a pilot project of the Turnitin plagiarism detection software, which was implemented to determine the impact of the software on the level of plagiarism among University of Botswana (UB) students. Students’ assignments were first submitted to the software without their knowledge so as to gauge their level of plagiarism. The results recorded the average level of plagiarism among UB students to be 20.5%.The software was then introduced to the students and they were warned that their second assignments would be checked through the software. The results showed a 4.3% decrease in the level of plagiarism among students. A survey was conducted to find out the reasons why students plagiarise and also get the participants’ views on the use of the software to fight plagiarism. To win the fight against plagiarism, the paper recommends that the university adopt a more comprehensive approach in dealing with the problems that addresses, among other things, the fundamental reason why students plagiarise.

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Turning to Turnitin to Fight Plagiarism among University Students

This study investigates factors affecting the adoption of anti-plagiarism software. Using protection motivation theory as a basis, this research examines the influence of threat and coping appraisals, along with social influences, moral obligation, and actual control variables, on the adoption of anti-plagiarism software. A field survey of 218 faculty members working at U.S. public universities reveals that threat appraisals have a stronger influence on the adoption of anti-plagiarism software than do coping appraisals. The faculty members' moral obligation, academic rank, class size, percentage of creative assignments, and gender significantly affect software adoption, whereas social influence does not. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Understanding anti-plagiarism software adoption: An extended protection motivation theory perspective

Higher education institutions undertake a range of approaches to evaluating and making judgments about the quality of their e-learning provision. This paper begins by exploring benchmarking as one current strategy in common use in universities to identify and implement quality practices: from the use of checklists (for example, of best practices and standards) to a more contemporary dynamic systems approach involving continuous cycles of feedback and improvement centred around the learners’ experiences of elearning. These practices are influenced by the teachers’ design of e-learning and emerging technologies as well as by the institutional and societal contexts in which both learners and teachers operate. We give an account of two major evaluation studies at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), utilising a systems approach to investigate the consequences of e-learning, and we inquire into the value of this particular institutional approach for deriving e-learning quality. We use selections from the large dataset to describe and analyse students’ and teaching staff’s experiences of an e-learning system (LMS) over a two-year period. Our findings reveal that learners’ experiences warrant consideration in shaping future e-learning developments at UTS, and that students value e-learning in facilitating their access to education for making choices about their learning and for enabling engagement in collaborative and interactive learning activities, while they also recognise the current constraints on e-learning imposed by the developers of LMS technologies.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.10.2.17

Using Students' Experiences to Derive Quality in an E-Learning System: An Institution's Perspective

The ready availability of Internet resources has made it easier than ever for students to plagiarize and many higher education institutions have resorted to checking essays with plagiarism detection software. Student behaviour is likely to change in response to this increased scrutiny but not necessarily in the desired direction. Internet technology facilitates a ‘cut and paste’ assembly‐line approach to essay writing that will persist despite the use of plagiarism software. It is predicted that students will resort to increased use of paraphrase in order to drop below the radar of the detection software. To illustrate this trend, samples of student essays are analysed and limitations of plagiarism software discussed. The paper concludes with suggestions for developing a coordinated institutional policy on plagiarism, and recommends that policy encompass training and educational initiatives to complement any enforcement strategy using plagiarism software.

Plagiarism Software: No Magic Bullet!

Academic integrity issues are currently a major focus of concern at most tertiary institutions. This paper details the strategic framework for work at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) for management of these issues. It focuses on the introduction of plagiarism detection software which has served to highlight the wide variety of issues associated with academic integrity and the importance of embedding good practice on the part of both staff and students. The paper reports on the Pandora’s box of implementation issues – legal, workload, training and support – that have emerged and the strategies being used to manage these, as part of the project. It recommends the use of a model which focuses on an educative approach to the management of academic integrity, as well as including mechanisms for identifying and discouraging plagiarism, and where it occurs, proceeding against it as academic misconduct. Many of the issues raised by the project have challenged the ‘comfort zones’ of students, staff and university academic administration. These are being managed both through the approaches being used in the pilot and the project governance adopted.

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Opening Pandora's box of academic integrity: Using plagiarism detection software

This paper provides an introduction to benchmarking with a focus on the higher education sector. It reviews approaches to date, with reference to the literature and introduces a framework approach, developed as a collaborative project between the Universities of Melbourne and Tasmania. The Framework was trialled in 2004 amongst seven Australian Universities by centres charged with responsibility for supporting teaching and learning.

CF Goodacre

Papers

Opening Pandora's box of academic integrity: Using plagiarism detection software

Benchmarking in higher education: a framework for benchmarking for quality improvement purposes