Free Essay: Computers, Society and Ethics

In any place of higher education, individual achievement is the basis of a degree. Therefore, plagiarism undermines the integrity of the accomplishment because of the use of someone else's work. Plagiarism involves not only a similarity of expressions such as parts of the program or code but also a similarity of ideas. The attitude of the staff, whether lenient or strict, plays a significant role. For example, leniency to plagiarizers and a fair attitude towards it will result in more students doing it. Motivation levels for staff to manually check for it are low. This demotivation is because of the high number of learners and the lack of an automated means for checking (Chuda et al., 2012). Plagiarism is likely to occur when using formal language than it is when students use natural language in software development. Students have quite an understanding of what plagiarism is, and they admit to engaging in it in different capacities. Chuda et al., (2012) cite reasons such as inadequate time, poor staff attitude, mild penalties, insufficient study materials, and lack of interest in the course as the reasons why the students engage in plagiarism. Therefore, there is a need for an automated method of checking plagiarism in learning centers. Programs such as Copyscape have been developed to assist in detecting plagiarism. The authors suggest that improving the attitude of staff and students on the seriousness in this matter through more strict disciplinary actions, and providing students with the necessary study guide will help curb plagiarism. In the article, the authors, therefore, seek to answer the question of why students engage in plagiarism. The authors conclude that 100% of staff and 94% of students are aware of what software plagiarism means. Besides, both the students and the staff agreed that a person who uses data without acknowledging the source irrespective of being intentional or unintentional is guilty of plagiarism. However, when the staff was asked what they would do with a plagiarizing student, none of them considered the option of expelling the student from the university. On the other hand, only 30% of the students responded that plagiarism is wrong. (Chuda et al., 2012).

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The authors of the second article seek to deal with plagiarism in professional education from the attitudinal point of view of students. Particularly, how they define it, the factors they consider to increase plagiarism and the justifications they give for plagiarizing. The authors suggest that learners engage in plagiarism because of the lack of a deep understanding of its ethical significance. Also, scholars lack support from learning centers in the form of policies or education on the same. The authors conclude that students lack a basic understanding of plagiarism in terms of ethics and consequences. Learners engage in it because their peers are participating in the same. Further, there are no policies in place to curb plagiarism, despite its serious ethical significance. The majority of tutees engage in it, and the number is continuously growing. Most incidences are undetected or unreported. According to Starovoytova & Namango, (2016), lack of punishment or light punishment in the case of plagiarism is a significant contributor to its rise. Technological advancements and availability of scholarly web information boost its prevalence in learning centers. The authors argue that more than half of the learners are not well informed about plagiarism. 52% of the respondents recorded that they have not received any education on it while learning centers, and staff ignore incidences of plagiarism. Also, 44% of faculty members reported that they had ignored at least one occurrence of plagiarism (Starovoytova & Namango, 2016).

These two articles have both similar and contradictory ideas. Both seek to determine students' perspectives of plagiarism. They try to answer the question of why learners engage in plagiarism, how they successfully engage in plagiarism, other factors that contribute to prevalence in institutions, and how to reduce instances of plagiarism. Both articles conclude that scholars plagiarize mostly due to a lack of adequate information on plagiarism and ease of getting away with it. Both articles agree that a high volume of learners and inadequate staff make it easy for plagiarism to go undetected. In both cases, a significant number of staff recorded to have ignored plagiarism at least once. Similarly, the lack of strict punishments or any punishment at all leads to increased instances of plagiarism. However, there are differences in their ideas. Chuda et al., (2012), in the first article, note that, the majority of students, 63%, declared that they have never plagiarized. In contrast, Starovoytova & Namango, (2016) in the second article, found out that the majority have engaged in plagiarism, as 76% of the respondents report that everyone around plagiarizes but lies about it. In the first article, most scholars are aware of what plagiarism entails as this was 94% of tutee respondents. In the second article, 86% are not aware of what plagiarism fully entails, and 52% have not had plagiarism explained or mentioned to them.

While doing this assignment, one gets to understand how little they know about plagiarism and how they may have been a victim of plagiarism in one way or another unintentionally. Understanding the ethical perspectives of plagiarism ensures that a student always works to submit original work regardless of the study materials available. The easiest part of the assignment was summarizing the authors' main ideas. The ease was because the opinions are direct and presented simply. Further, deciding on the best material for the assignment was simple since the selected articles provide insights on both subjects of Technology and Ethics. However, the most challenging bit of the assignment was determining the theses since both articles cover a wide scope in plagiarism and not just one single aspect. The authors all sought to find out students' and staff's perspectives on plagiarism and their attitude towards it. In the future, students that may be asked to perform this assignment need to understand what exactly they need to tackle. Narrowing down the ideas to a simple question makes it easier to identify the relevant articles for the study. Also, reading many articles addressing the same issue enables the student to pick the most appropriate source of information for their assignment.

References

Chuda, D., Navrat, P., Kovacova, B., & Humay, P. (2011). The issue of (software) plagiarism: A student view. IEEE Transactions on Education, 55(1), 22-28. doi:https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2011.2112768

Starovoytova, D., & Namango, S. S. (2016). Viewpoint of Undergraduate Engineering Students on Plagiarism. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(31), 48-65. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311307110_Viewpoint_of_Undergraduate_Engineering_Students_on_Plagiarism