Whither plagiarism in distance learning academic assessment during COVID-19?

摘要

Because of the widespread plagiarism in evaluating student performance, many researchers consider that the evaluation of students' performance in the Corona era (COVID-19) would not be objective. It will be difficult to truly measure student performance. Plagiarism has spread in many of the scientific works that students accomplish (exams, scientific research, assignments, quizzes, research projects.i.) in most of the world's universities. The issue of plagiarism causes a lot of anxiety to people working in the educational field (supervisors, professors, administrators). Meetings, conferences and seminars are organized and held to study this topic and search for solutions that could put an end to the problem, especially after most educational institutions (universities, secondary schools, schools) in the world had adopted e-learning (distance learning) during and after the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has halted traditional learning for more than half a year (December 2019). In this context, this paper aims to shed light on some aspects of this problem, and offer some proposals that could contribute to limiting its spread in the various educational institutions. Based on a literature survey on the topic of plagiarism in distance education, the following results were obtained: Based on the foregoing, the current research seeks to answer the following questions: 1. Is cheating inherent in distance learning? 2. What kind of cheating is used in distance learning? 3. What are the measures taken to tackle this problem? 1- With regard to the first question, it was found that the results of the studies are conflicting, which contributed to an increase in the belief that the practice of plagiarism in distance education is great. 2 - As to the second question, it was concluded that the types of cheating used by the learners are many and varied. 3- Concerning the third question, it was found that there are two approaches used to control plagiarism: the preventive approach and the therapeutic approach. It has been emphasized that the preventive approach can be more effective in controlling plagiarism as a whole. 1- With regard to the first question, it was found that the results of the studies are conflicting, which contributed to an increase in the belief that the practice of plagiarism in distance education is great. 2 – As to the second question, it was concluded that the types of cheating used by the learners are many and varied. 3- Concerning the third question, it was found that there are two approaches used to control plagiarism: the preventive approach and the therapeutic approach. It has been emphasized that the preventive approach can be more effective in controlling plagiarism as a whole.