Students may want to think twice before buying an essay off the Internet or copying and pasting information from Web sites.
That’s because University professors now have the chance to use an online plagiarism detection program.

The service, called SafeAssign, compares assignments submitted by students to four databases made up of content from the Internet, publications, past University students’ papers and essays submitted by students at other colleges, said John Morrison, director of user communities for Blackboard Beyond.
Blackboard recently acquired the program MyDropBox, a similar service to SafeAssign, and made the service available in August to all schools and companies that use Blackboard, Morrison said. Blackboard didn’t issue any extra licensing costs to those institutions.
More than 3,500 clients use Blackboard, said company spokeswoman Melissa Chotiner, including about 1,900 U.S. colleges.
University professors use Blackboard to post additional class information, including readings, grades and slideshows.
JQ Johnson, director of the Center for Educational Technologies, said faculty members in the psychology department last year used Turn It In, another online plagiarism prevention program. Ever since, Johnson said he’s been looking into similar tools but will stick with SafeAssign for now because it’s bundled with Blackboard.
Johnson said he doesn’t know of any faculty who are using the program this term, but he is trying to spread the word about the software. He said he’s been mentioning the new tool at Blackboard workshops and new faculty orientations and is working with the Teaching Effectiveness Program.
Johnson said anti-plagiarism software has two different roles.
“One, to detect cheating, but that’s not the most interesting,” he said. “The most interesting is to help students learn what the academy considers plagiarism. The software really has an educational function.”
Carl Yeh, director of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said students may not know what plagiarism is.
“Most of the people who are found to be violating our polices are doing it inadvertently or through ignorance,” Yeh said.
He acknowledged some students may intentionally buy a paper from the Internet or have another student write an essay for them.
In all instances, professors will have the authority to decide if students are plagiarizing, Yeh said. After students submit an essay, professors receive an “originality report,” which outlines what text is in question. The program also provides a link to the original essay. Professors may find the text is correctly cited or that no plagiarism took place.
If professors decide a student plagiarized, they will have the opportunity to “work out an appropriate resolution,” Yeh said.
He said resolutions may include re-writing the paper, flunking the student in the course or giving a flunking grade for the particular assignment.
If the students disagree with the resolution, they can take it to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards in 164 Oregon to request an administrative or panel hearing among peers and faculty, Yeh said. The panel may agree with the professor or come up with a different resolution.
Yeh said the panel will likely appreciate the new software in hearings.
“What will happen is that the program will add more evidence and information to the situation,” Yeh said.
Plagiarism has been a growing problem at the University because more and more research involves the Internet, Yeh said.
During the 2005-06 school year, “several” students committed multiple counts of academic dishonesty, according to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. The office also saw a growing trend in graduate students committing academic dishonesty that school year.
It is important for students to learn how to appropriately cite sources, Yeh said.
“If you don’t learn it now, chances are you’ll be taking other kind of shortcuts later on in life,” he said.
Ezra Black, a freshman English major, said the process was simple when he used Turn It In for a class at Churchill High School. He said the software could be helpful in some papers in which a lot of factual information is presented. He added that he might want to submit some of his essays into the database so future students don’t copy them.
“I guess if I wrote a really good paper, I’d want it in there,” Black said. “I don’t expect anyone to want to copy my stuff, though.”
Those interested can contact Johnson at the Center for Educational Technologies in the Knight Library for more information.
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