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NSO 2006

Academic Computing Center > ACC in the News > Online Test to Limit Plagiarism at AUB

Online test aims to limit plagiarism at AUB

Source: Outlook Student's Newspaper, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5

Ghadeer Rahhal

Contributing writer

The registrar’s office demanded last week that the students take an online palgiarism test and added in an email: “Students who fail to pass the test will not be able to carry any registration activities for the Spring Term 2006- 2007”. All students are required to take and pass the online plagiarism test once they are enrolled at AUB; they need only take the plagiarism test one time. The test may be repeated

as many times as a student needs to pass. For the ease of students, a tutorial is provided to explain the basics on plagiarism and give them the required knowledge to pass the test. Academic Computing Center

(ACC) Director Rosangela S. Silva explained that the test is intended to “make others aware of plagiarism and avoid ignorance to the topic”. Registrar Moueen Salameh said: “Students will not be able to say that they don’t know what plagiarism is… in the long run, learning how not to plagiarize will benefit students in their lives.” Silva and Salameh said they were aware that some professors criticized the plagiarism test, but that “the test does not teach students how not to plagiarize; rather, it gives them a basic knowledge on what plagiarism is.” They added that if students know what plagiarism is, then they can reduce or completely eliminate it in their coursework. One flaw of the test is that students can easily cheat. The plagiarism test has a total of 10 questions that are generated in random order. The answers to the questions are always the same, the only difference is the order in which the questions are asked. Silva and Salameh stated that they were aware of the fact that students could cheat; however, Silva explained that “no test is perfect”. AUB has a very strict policy on plagiarism. The Turnitin software is an integral tool to help eliminate plagiarism. Introduced to AUB faculty members in 2004, Turnitin has proved to be imperative in reducing plagiarism.

No software is perfect, and Turnitin is no exception. Due to this reason, numerous workshops are held to better inform professors of what is and what is not considered plagiarism.

Silva said: “We try and stress that Turnitin simply matches terms. For this reason, there is no such thing as a percentage of plagiarism. We greatly emphasize that Turnitin gives a percentage of matches and it is the professor’s responsibility to determine whether the student has plagiarized or not.” For the past few years, AUB has been stressing the importance of academic integrity. Through Turnitin and the plagiarism test issued by the Office of the Registrar, plagiarism is on the decrease. As Salameh put it, “The process is getting smoother.”