HMEMSSO 2019 ASSIGNMENT 01 FOR SEMESTER 2

HMEMSSO 2019 ASSIGNMENT 01 FOR SEMESTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 OVERVIEW Due to plagiarism being on the rise and fast becoming an unmanageable phenomenon. This has led to conclusions being drawn about the construct from the legal, moral and academic perspectives. It has, therefore, been described as fraud, deception, and intellectual theft (Bazdaric, Bilic-Zulle, Brumini, & Petrovecki, 2012, p. 224; Hosny & Fatima, 2014, p. 749; Maina et al., 2014, p. 225). Ogilvie and Steward (2010, p. 130, as cited in Minnaar, 2012) argued that dishonesty in academia is not just a "trivial form of deviant behaviour because dishonesty has the potential to produce lasting repercussions for individuals and institutions". It also affects the reputation of the institution as it compromises "the equity and efficiency of educational assessment" (Minnaar, 2012, p. 1). 2.2 STUDENT IN DISTANCE EDUCATION DEFINITION The oxford Mini School Dictionary (2012, p. 591) defmes a student as a person who studies a subject, especially at a college or university. Students in the open distance education system receive their learning instructions and course material online and through the postal service system (Linardatou & Manousou, 2015). Their success is based on their personal motivation and the support system of the institution (Baloyi, 2013; Krishnan, 2012). Academic dishonesty may happen among them as much as it happens in conventional schools (Kier, 2014; Walker, 2010). But, as Kier (2014, p. 229) observed "the degree to which plagiarism is committed in online courses remains uncertain". 6 2.3 DEFINITION OF PLAGIARISM Studies have repeatedly remarked that there is no universal definition for plagiarism (Lewis, Duchac, & Beets 2011; Minnaar, 2012; Sentleng & King, 2012). Sprajc et al. (2017, p. 33) commented that "while we search for a common defmition of plagiarism, we are coping with a challenge for which no answer yet exists. A clear-cut definition of plagiarism is difficult because of the complexity of the factors involved (Minnaar, 2012) .. Various authors advocate different definitions". However, Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines the word plagiarise as "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source" . Plagiarism is caused by many factors which can be classified as subjective or objective (Sentleng & King, 2012). Subjective factors are premised on one's attitude, personality and cultural values. On the other hand, objective factors involve external forces like the pressure from the family or society and expectations by these forces (Sentleng & King, 2012). Individually, these causes as listed by Hosny and Fatima (2014), Sentkeng and King (2012), Eret and OK (2014), Ison (2014) and many other researchers, include: • Negative attitudes towards one's studies • Lack of knowledge about referencing • Language constraints • Peer pressure • Internet temptation which provides easy access to information • Time management 7 There are various acts in academic writing which have been termed as plagiarism. m • Verbatim - copying material word for word from a source without citation, (Walker, 2010, p. 46). • Patch writing refers to combining own ideas with verbatim quoting from another source without acknowledgement, or combining one's own thoughts with paraphrased ideas and failing to acknowledge the source (Obeid & Hill, 20107). • Purloining involves submitting a substantially similar work done by someone with or without their knowledge (Walker, 1998, as cited in Walker, 2010, p. 46). Sentleng and King (2012) referred to this submitting someone 's work without their permission. • Sham is the practice of correctly citing a direct quote but failing to insert quotation marks, thereby presenting the material as paraphrased (Walker, 1998, as cited in Walker, 2010, p. 46). • Invented referencing or bibliography, this is the fabrication of a source (Sentleng & King, 2012, p. 58). • Self-plagiarism where "one's previously published idea, text or data is being reused and presented as original work (Roig, 2010, as cited in Bazdaric et al., 224). 2.4 MEANING OF DISTANCE EDUCATION INSTITUTION Distance education is also known as correspondence or home study (Zawacki-Richter et al., 2015, p. 113; Saikia, 2011, p. 72). This is because it is a form of learning that does not require a student to be at the institution's premises for them to receive learning instructions. The emergence of correspondence education system has its origin in Europe since the mid nineteenth century when Isaac Pitman introduced his shorthand correspondence courses, according to Shrestha (1997, as cited in Tait, 2003). The system offers flexibility in terms learning times, place and age. 8 According to Baloyi (2013), Saikia (2011) and Linardatou and Manousou (2015) Open Distance Education (ODE) and Open Distance Learning (ODL) have been used interchangeably to refer to all approaches that provides tuition and training to students without the constraints of time and place to suit learners' individual lifestyles, learning preferences and personal development plans. £-learning is a form of distance education which is "defined more narrowly than distance learning, since the latter may also include print-based study materials and correspondence communication" (Zawacki-Richter et aL, 2015, p. 114). 2.5 ANALYSIS OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH 2.5.1 Methodologies and Research Findings Various methods were used on this issue of plagiarism.The research addressed specific areas ranging from its nature, its forms and causes, its prevalence and methods of combatting it. Kisamore, Stone and Jawahar (2007) investigated the relationship situational factors, like demography and personality and how they may influence one 's perception about plagiarism. Their fmdings showed that age and personality may have an influence on one's attitude towards plagiarism. Eret and Ok (20 14) studied the possible effects of the internet on teacher candidates regarding plagiarism. il their findings, the internet made it easy for teacher candidates to plagiarise, and further, that gender, department and length of computer use were also significant contributors to acts of plagiarism. Hosny and Fatima (2014) conducted a case study on undergraduate and postgraduate female students at a university in the Middle East. The aim of their research was to examine students' awareness of plagiarism and their attitude towards cheating. The findings revealed that most students viewed plagiarism as a lesser offence than cheating in an examination, even though 81% of the undergraduate students surveyed believed that plagiarism was unethical while 3% responded that their religion was against the practice (Hosny & Fatima, 2014, 9. 755). An old research study by Varvel (2005) found that cheating in online classes was as common as cheating in face-to-face classrooms. Other researchers found that the extent of cheating and plagiarism by online students was even lower than that for students attending full time campus courses at the same university (Walker, 2010). This was confirmed by Ison (2014) whose studies 9 did not support the notion that online students were more inclined to plagiarise than brick-andmortar students. Lewis et al. (2011) looked at the role played by publishers in abetting or curbing plagiarism. They suggested that publishers should also be held accountable for combatting plagiarism. While stressing that there should be no exceptions to the condemnation of plagiarism, Lewis et al. (20 II, p. 490) proposed that "a universal rule mandating strict avoidance of plagiarism could be considered an application of ethical absolutism, a deontological perspective of ethics whereby rules are co idered importantly immutable, and departures from the rules cannot be justified". However, Sentleng and King (2012) analysed the causes and forms of plagiarism, and recommended ways of curbing the practice, which include moral awareness, re-structuring the education system, proper education and the imposition of strict policies at institutions of higher learning.