[Paper Review] Collaboration Versus Cheating: Reducing Code Plagiarism in an Online MS Computer Science Program

Tony Mason, Ada Gavrilovska+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 22, 2019

Academic integrity and plagiarism46 references14 citations

TL;DR

The paper proposes a two-part intervention—clear academic honesty policies combined with a mandatory formal assessment—to reduce code plagiarism in an online MS in Computer Science program. This approach led to a statistically significant reduction in plagiarism, demonstrating that policy clarity and accountability can effectively deter cheating in online programming courses.

ABSTRACT

We outline how we detected programming plagiarism in an introductory online course for a master's of science in computer science program, how we achieved a statistically significant reduction in programming plagiarism by combining a clear explanation of university and class policy on academic honesty reinforced with a short but formal assessment, and how we evaluated plagiarism rates before and after implementing our policy and assessment.

Motivation & Objective

• To address the growing challenge of code plagiarism in online master's in computer science programs.
• To investigate whether reinforcing academic honesty policies could reduce plagiarism in online programming courses.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a formal assessment on academic integrity in deterring code plagiarism.
• To measure changes in plagiarism rates before and after implementing a structured integrity intervention.

Proposed method

• Developed and enforced a clear, formal academic honesty policy specific to programming assignments in an online MS in CS course.
• Implemented a mandatory, short formal assessment on academic integrity for all students before beginning programming assignments.
• Collected and analyzed plagiarism detection data using automated tools before and after the intervention.
• Compared plagiarism rates across cohorts to assess statistical significance of changes.
• Used statistical analysis to evaluate the impact of the policy and assessment on plagiarism behavior.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Does reinforcing academic honesty policy reduce code plagiarism in online programming courses?
• RQ2 To what extent does a formal assessment on academic integrity influence student behavior regarding code plagiarism?
• RQ3 Is there a statistically significant reduction in plagiarism rates after implementing policy and assessment interventions?
• RQ4 How do plagiarism rates compare between cohorts with and without the intervention?

Key findings

• The intervention led to a statistically significant reduction in code plagiarism rates after implementation.
• Students who completed the formal academic integrity assessment were less likely to submit plagiarized code.
• The combination of policy clarity and assessment created a measurable deterrent effect on cheating behavior.
• Plagiarism detection rates dropped significantly in the post-intervention cohort compared to the pre-intervention baseline.
• The intervention was effective without increasing student workload or altering course content.
• The results suggest that policy reinforcement and accountability measures are effective in online programming education settings.