I see your point, I think maybe there is lack of sufficient evidence to treat that as the reason.
I think you underestimated the effect of these two factors: Laziness and dominance. It's sport for some. I don't think it is 'habitual' or that grades have corrupted the process. For some it is a way show you are smarter than the teacher. We are a competitive species and one way to show dominance is to outsmart the other person. I think often that plagiarism is about those kinds of things. But, not always. Sometimes it is time pressure (whether created by the student's inattention to working ahead or the demands of multiple assignments due in near proximity), sometimes it is lack of understanding of the material that leads to a student believing this is the choice: 1) write something that is incorrect or 2) copy what I see because it is certainly correct. Because we emphasize correctness so much, many students would rather copy (regardless of if it is known to be bad behavior or not) than be wrong. All of these can be in effect regardless of if there is a grade at stake or not. And, given this course's peer review system, that may even encourage plagiarism. Students may assume that fellow students are insufficiently skilled to recognize plagiarism, or lacking in fortitude to call a fellow student out on it. >From the evidence any of the above, or any number of other factors I've not >yet imagined or listed could be to blame. We can't know without data. Paul On Aug 18, 2012, at 10:57 AM, Christopher Green wrote: Paul, I think you've missed the point. Plagiarism has no purpose whatever when the course is not for credit. These are people for whom plagiarism has become so habitual, they are unable to not do it, even when there is no reason to do so. I used to argue that if we stopped giving grades, plagiarism (and other cheating) would end because all that the students could get from the course was the knowledge it provided. Apparently I underestimated how deeply, permanently corrupting the process of grading is. Chris ---------- On 2012-08-18, at 9:55 AM, Paul C Bernhardt wrote: I am shocked, shocked to find there is plagiarism going on in this course that has no admissions or prerequisite criteria! This reads like an Onion article. The professor pleading that it stop is both pathetic and hilarious. What do these folks think they've created when they build a course with 39K 'students' and no controls over any aspect of the students who take the course? It is so idealistic that it is foolish, IMO. Paul On Aug 18, 2012, at 12:18 AM, Christopher Green wrote: Apparently plagiarism has come unmoored from its instrumental source -- viz., receiving higher grades than one deserves. It is now a functionally autonomous recreation. /: - | http://chronicle.com/article/Dozens-of-Plagiarism-Incidents/133697/ Chris --- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=19815 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-19815-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-19815-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=19829 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-19829-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-19829-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=19834 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-19834-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-19834-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=19841 or send a blank email to leave-19841-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
