A Quarter of My Online Students Plagiarized Their Essays. What Now?
Professors are increasingly concerned about students using AI to cheat on assignments. But what do we do when students aren’t even trying to hide it?
Today is the deadline for submitting final essays, and a quarter of my students have plagiarized.
I am an adjunct professor teaching English Literature at a state university. My teaching responsibilities span across in-person lectures, online synchronous classes, and online asynchronous courses. This semester, I am teaching an online asynchronous Introduction to Literature course. The course is entirely web-based with no live sessions, allowing students to access materials and submit assignments at their convenience through our learning management system, Blackboard. I track attendance and participation by monitoring log-in times and assignment submissions.
This semester, something peculiar caught my attention in the essays.
Case 1: The Mirrored Essays
The first major assignment for students is to write a comparative analysis of two literary works, focusing on themes and stylistic elements.
While grading, I noticed two essays that were strikingly similar. Both students had chosen the same works, which isn’t unusual, but the analyses were nearly identical, right down to specific phrasings and examples used.
Intrigued, I ran both essays through a plagiarism detection tool. The results were eye-opening: not only were these two essays nearly identical, but significant portions were lifted from an obscure academic article available in a little-known journal.
Case 2: The AI-generated Text
Another suspicious submission came from a student who had consistently struggled with previous assignments. This latest essay, however, was flawless — sophisticated in its argument, perfect in grammar, and rich in literary references.
Suspecting foul play, I did some investigation. Using an AI detection tool, I discovered that the essay was indeed generated by an AI text generator, which explained the sudden leap in writing quality.
Addressing the Issue
Realizing that academic integrity was at stake, I decided to take action. I reached out to both students whose essays mirrored each other. During our discussions, it became evident that they had collaborated closely, sharing drafts and ideas, but had crossed the line into plagiarism.
For the AI-generated essay, I contacted the student and confronted them with my findings. The student admitted to using an AI tool, citing pressure and a lack of confidence in their writing abilities as reasons for resorting to this method.
Moving Forward
To combat these issues, I plan to implement several strategies:
- Education on Plagiarism and AI Tools: I will incorporate sessions that educate students about plagiarism and the ethical use of AI tools.
- Stricter Monitoring: Using advanced plagiarism detection and AI identification tools for all submissions.
- Assignment Design: Creating assignments that require more personalized responses and reflections, making it harder to copy or generate content using AI.
As educators, it’s crucial to adapt to these new challenges and ensure that our assessment methods uphold academic integrity while supporting genuine learning.
