Introduction

Three scenarios are provided, each depicting a difficult or “what if” situation. Students and instructors should engage in f2f or online discussions regarding the issues presented in the attendance, participation, and plagiarism scenarios. Students and instructors should also work to devise course policies to address the situations presented.

Objectives of the Application Activity

Engaging in discussion regarding different scenarios will enhance students’ knowledge and skills related to:

Understanding the need for various course policies
Understanding why some students engage in less than desired behaviors
Understanding and dealing with difficult situations

Scenarios

Attendance

You are teaching a large course (over 200 students are enrolled). You want students to attend each class session and you want their attendance to be reflected in their overall course grade. How can you (a) encourage or require attendance, (b) ensure an efficient means for monitoring attendance, and (c) deal with repeated absences by around 25% of the class?

Participation

A primary component of your class is that students work together to complete online and f2f environments assignments. Recently two students have confided in you that their team is experiencing difficulties. One of their team members refuses to share in the work load, another is late to all meetings and has been ostracized by many on the team, and yet another tends to take control of everything. What advise can you give the students and how can these types of situations be avoided when creating team/group assignments?

Plagiarism

The students in your class have a number of projects to work on over the course of the semester. Early on, they are required to complete a technical report/paper on a topic/issue/trend related to your discipline. The assignment includes four steps:

1. Select a topic (may provide list of options).

2. Conduct a comprehensive review of relevant literature (at least 10 resources, 5 of which must be empirically based). Citations should be included in text and at the end of your paper using APA style.

3. Compare and contrast findings across resources and from your own experiences.

4. Summarize the key issues and research findings that can be shared with colleagues and family members.

5. Paper should demonstrate knowledge regarding the issue/trend as well as possible solutions or future directions regarding research and practice.

As you begin grading the work of a student who is new to your program, you notice familiar phrases and sentences. You return to another student’s paper graded earlier and find the same phrases and sentences. The student also cites a number of online sources. You turn to your computer, go to the listed URLs, search for the key phrases and find that nearly 66% of the paper has been plagiarized. What do you do?

To learn more about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm

Resources for students on plagiarism

http://www.library.kent.edu/plagiarism/bibliography.html

Site with information and resources regarding copyright laws and fair use

http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/online/copy.htm

For a review KSU's policy on cheating and plagiarism

http://docwhiz.educ.kent.edu/digscap.html#scap

For a copy of KSU's digest of rules see the following

http://docwhiz.educ.kent.edu/digtoc.html