The Business of Online Plagiarism in Post-Secondary Education
Abstract: This doctoral research investigates an online industry that is positioned to cheat students of learning and change the very nature of education. Although encouraged to attend post-secondary education (PSE), the Net Generation is often unprepared for the stresses that come with higher-level learning. Using their relationship to and comfort with technology, they often look to the virtual world to find solutions to their problems. There exists an online plagiarism industry (Industry) that offers to “help” students by completing assignments and connecting them with surrogate writers through secure sites. The Industry promotes this type of “contract cheating” by leaning heavily on a re-framing of “original” and “non-plagiarized” discourse. The “plagiarism tsunami”, representing upwards to ninety percent of plagiarism that takes place in both face-to-face and distance education environments (Ercegovac & Richardson, 2004), creates an unfair playing field for students, teaching complications for faculty, and devalued criteria on which universities award degrees.
Presider: Jennifer Lock, University of Calgary