Advancement in information and communication technology has
presented us with infinitely large number of information resources than we used
to have some 50 years ago. We have millions of information just one click away.
In case of online courses, where one is always exposed to constant internet
resources, there is a large possibility that the students would try to
plagiarize someone’s “ready-made” work than spending some time using own
intellect. In general, it is likely that the online students are more capable
of using the web resources than traditional on-campus students. Thus, in online
courses, students are more prone to plagiarism and it tends to be one of the
big problems.
Similarly, another fact that can be considered in this case is
that students in online courses can feel more pressure of the deadlines due to
no fixed study hours. If they skip some work for the next day or so, they might
not realize that the deadline day is on the brink. And to avoid getting a null
score or bad remarks, they tend to use the exact contents or slight
modifications to save their day. If we analyze such events, it can be concluded
that “laziness” hugely contributes towards plagiarism. In online courses, where
one should be self-motivated to study, any sort of negligence or lethargy is a
big problem which leads to a bigger problem “Plagiarism”.
References:
Jennifer Golightly, Plagiarism and the online class: http://blog.ecollege.com/WordPress/?p=365
