Plagiarism, Course Hero, Studocu, APA, and inside information of Unicheck at UoPeople

I want to talk about plagiarism in this entry and what the UoPeople does to counter it. The last term someone posted my discussion post assignment on a cheating website called Course Hero. I love my work and value it dearly, so it really made me furious when I found out about it. The way I discovered it was I looked over what I wrote about credit cards the previous week in a course I was taking as it was related to the discussion that week. When I ran my last week's post through a plagiarism checker (which everyone should do before submitting their work), it came back as a 100% match with my name and all other information. This post is just a cautionary experience to tell others to be wary that the assignments you do could end up on questionable websites with your name and other information, courtesy of some perpetrators among us in the classes. Also, don't re-use your own work again, even a sentence you wrote previously, as you never know that it could already have been floating on the web, credit to our dishonest peers. Besides, re-using your own work comes under the UoPeople's self-plagiarism policy, so avoid it altogether. 

I'm sharing very important insights about plagiarism at the UoPeople, which I learned from one of my instructors. I'm posting the information verbatim below.

"All assignments are scanned through the University plagiarism checker, Unicheck.

If your reply post has a similarity level of over 50%, it will receive a score of 0. As a general guideline, use no more than 1-2 short sentences worth of quotation to ensure that your assignment remains mostly original. When this happens, the plagiarism scan will show an under 20% similarity level, as well as appropriate use of quotations, in-text citations, and a reference list. If it is between 20% and 49%, instructors will grade the assignment, but it will lose points based on the degree of plagiarism that occurred. In most cases, it is better to paraphrase rather than use direct quotes.

Instructors are asked to report cases of plagiarism to the university. Responses to classmates in the discussions shouldn’t have any similarity levels at all (under 5%). If you have greater than this, you likely used an outside source, and it should be cited properly. If you are finding that you are getting high levels of plagiarism, rely less on quotations and paraphrase instead.

Plagiarism extends to self-plagiarism, and high levels could occur even if you borrow a few words, but across several instances. If you have any questions about plagiarism or this policy, please reach out. Instructors also recommend checking the Student Orientation Module’s notes on plagiarism and paraphrasing as an additional resource. Also note that if you are using a plagiarism checker that is not Unicheck, you will not receive the same results as your UoPeople instructors and the plagiarism team. A copy of a different plagiarism checker is not sufficient evidence that plagiarism did not occur, since these scanners do not include the full library of documents that have been submitted to the university by students and instructors.

If your plagiarism level is above 50%, there may not be sufficient content to be graded. It becomes more difficult to assign a grade at this level if your assignment does not meet the minimum suggested word counts instructors have posted. Often, assignments that have an above 50% plagiarism level earn a score of 0 because it is mostly unoriginal, and instructors are interested in your paraphrased thoughts and personal discussion. There is actually no need to use any quotes for any of your assignments at all, so if you are seeing high plagiarism levels, try using none and just paraphrase. If you do use quotes, the guideline of no more than 1-2 sentences from an outside source should prevent you from getting high similarity levels.

The university only uses Unicheck for this, so do not submit your own plagiarism checker as evidence. Unicheck has assignments from past students and courses, so any alternative will not detect the necessary plagiarism. For this reason, do not reuse assignments you have submitted to other courses, uploaded online, or used elsewhere in this course, in part or whole. If you have taken any course previously, you must write a new assignment for each submission."

In short:

• The university has all the previous submissions of students.

• Plagiarism checkers other than the university's Unicheck don't look for internal documents submitted to the university previously.

• Your classmates could upload your assignments on questionable websites with your name on it without your permission.

• If the preparators submit someone's work on external websites, then the potential cheaters won't be getting away with plagiarism at the university from that work.

• Never ever re-use your own work used in the same or other courses at the UoPeople. Your classmates could already have uploaded your work somewhere on the web, and you could end up getting reported for using work from cheating websites when in fact it was your own. Besides, re-using your own work comes under the UoPeople's self-plagiarism policy. So, it's a big no-no!

• Cheating is absolutely wrong, and you should always do your own work otherwise you would get expelled or suspended from the school, and there will always be plagiarism violation in your file at the school.

The above grades are from one of the toughest graders I've seen at the UoPeople. I was able to do well because I kept my thoughts very original and always cited. I never missed citing a single thought or idea taken from an outside source. Think things through your mind after doing your reading assignments. It's not very hard at all. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. It's all part of the learning curve. Ask questions from your instructors. If you don't understand something, then have a discussion about the topic with your friends or family. Research things. Go on YouTube, Discord, or Reddit. Life is all about connecting the dots, we connect one thing to another and that's how we succeed. There is no substitute for the satisfaction in doing your own work. 

Lastly, always properly cite your work using APA guidelines. APA citations have two components, namely, in-text citations and end references. If you take an idea from a source, you must also tell the reader wherein the text you used it; otherwise, nobody could tell which is your idea and which is taken from the source. This is called in-text citations, and it includes any idea taken from a source whether or not you paraphrased/quoted it in the text. APA references are incomplete without in-text citations and end references. As the name suggests, end references are pasted at the end of the work, and in-text are put inside the work. APA guidelines require both. APA references are incomplete if either one of them is missing.

I personally use Unicheck. It's so cheap. The website builds a database of whatever you check through it. Every organization/student has its own database. In other words, if you check your submission through it, the UoPeople wouldn't have access to it. Even if you delete your submission, it remains in their database. Whatever is submitted at the UoPeople, it goes through Unicheck. So, don't cry wolf if you get caught cheating. Always do something original and cite properly. Don't steal ideas, cheat, and upload the assignments of others on any website. Be honest with yourself, and others. Good luck!

You would find the following APA guide useful: