The research carried out by an Israeli expert in information systems and his students, caused the three to complete the development of software for identifying the originality of texts that won a Microsoft award and Chief Scientist grants. The software is being piloted in a number of academic and secondary institutions whose students submit research papers
Dr. Eli Ron, an expert in information systems who has worked, among other things, for giant companies such as Chanel and Ford and authorities such as the City of New York, conducted a study together with his partners in which about a thousand papers from various academic courses of undergraduate students who came from colleges or universities were examined.
The study revealed that about half of the works contained copied material at various levels, from a single paragraph to an actual, verbatim copying of large parts of the work or even the whole. Dr. Ron points out that a little less copying was found in the works of students from universities than in colleges.
Dr. Ron, and two young entrepreneurs, his former students, Aviv Koren and Idan Frost, are behind the development of a revolutionary new software capable of identifying copies of texts, in other words - to identify their level of originality. The original development won the chief scientist grants and a prize in the Microsoft competition.
While checking "manually" or using search engines is limited and time-consuming, the new software is based on the development of new logarithms, sophisticated "web crawlers", unique databases and the ability to locate texts targeted for this purpose. Software of this kind in the world are an effective tool for copyright lawyers, writers and creators, popular and academic magazines, journalists and bloggers, and especially educational and academic institutions that want to make sure that the submitted works are original.
Ron and his two partners understand that the Hebrew language is a limited target audience in global terms and "build" as a business pitch on several languages in the world, for which there is no such solution. They see the use of software in the Hebrew format as involvement for the community out of caring.
"We knew that our business potential lies in other languages and not in Hebrew, but we started acting, the three partners, partly out of a sense of concern for Israeli society and its academic level. We also knew that the Ministry of Education promotes the conversion of more and more matriculation subjects to research work, so we also developed a Hebrew version of our product, which is user-friendly, as our contribution to Israeli society, for Israeli high schools and academic institutions," says Dr. Ron about the software, the Israeli version of which is currently already available in a pilot in several academic institutions.
Why is it actually necessary to know about copying works? Why should it be in the interest of the student or the lecturers or the universities?
"During the learning process," explains Dr. Ron, "the student acquires important skills for himself and for society, knowledge of details, facts, methods and processes. Basic ideas, recognition of rules, knowledge of conventions and procedures.
- Data collection: obtaining relevant information in real time
- Understanding of facts and rules. Translating verbal material into knowledge structures and connecting them appropriately to existing knowledge structures
- Application of knowledge: the ability to use knowledge and understanding in familiar situations as well as using them in new situations in a way that suits the new situation
- Analysis: Ability to analyze parts of the whole and the connections between them
- Synthesis: combination of facts and/or knowledge structures from different sources to create a new whole. Ability to combine thesis and antithesis (synthesis)
- Evaluation: judgment using the criteria and standards of estimators. Ability to judge quantitatively or qualitatively and systematically the value of ideas, works or solutions.
With the advent of the Internet, not only knowledge sites arose from which you can copy for free (for example - Wikipedia), but also sites that trade in students' academic works. There are several such sites in Israel. Their very existence for years is proof that they are financially successful.
A student who copies instead of creating original work does not develop these skills. He enters the job market without the necessary tools in a knowledge-rich society. Without these tools, the professions open to him are limited to low-paying jobs. A society that has a large number of unskilled people becomes a backward society.
Educational institutions that do not seriously fight this phenomenon not only produce graduates who lack skills (from understanding to evaluation) and thereby harm society and the mission they have undertaken, but the reputation of the academic institution is also damaged. There are advanced institutions in Israel that businesses prefer not to accept their graduates.
When the private market absorbs unskilled workers, it is forced to invest capital in training. The price of the training is passed on to the consumer. Another public price of great importance is the supply of goods and services at a level that suits the ability of the unskilled worker, i.e. a low level.
Edouard Deming, one of the fathers of modern management theory, noted that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it". The academic institutions in Israel do not have a tool to measure the phenomenon of copying. Therefore, the extent of the copying phenomenon is unknown. For example, what is the percentage of works that are not original? In which courses are copied the most or the least? In the absence of data and peer-to-peer measurement, college and university administrations cannot set targets for eradicating plagiarism. And it is known that good management is done by setting goals for different performance indicators (KPI - key performance indicators). Failure to measure such a common phenomenon is actually a systemic failure on a national level.
Dr. Ron points out in relation to the developed project that it also has a Hebrew version despite the fact that there are few users of this language in the world. "We knew that our business potential lies in other languages and not in Hebrew, but we started acting, the three partners, partly out of a sense of concern for Israeli society and its academic level. We also knew that the Ministry of Education promotes the conversion of more and more matriculation subjects to research work, so we also developed a Hebrew version of our product, which is user-friendly, as our contribution to Israeli society, for Israeli high schools and academic institutions," says Dr. Ron about the software, the Israeli version of which is currently already available in a pilot in several academic institutions.
The study by Dr. Ron and his colleagues joins the conclusions of another fascinating study, by Dr. Yobb Eshet, who, together with Yehuda Peled and Keren Grinoutsky, examined academic dishonesty and personality. Regarding academic dishonesty, it turned out that a fifth (20%) of the students start cheating in first grade.
About half (56%) of middle school students cheat. About 70% of high school students in Israel resort to dishonesty. Three quarters (75%) of undergraduate students admitted to cheating at least once during their studies.
The study examined the unique relationships between personality characteristics and attitudes toward academic dishonesty in the US and Israel among a sample of 1,376 undergraduate students from two universities in the US and four academic institutions in Israel. A comparison was also made between e-learning courses and face-to-face teaching courses.
9 תגובות
And what about those who buy ready works?
Is it more moral?
I think a link to the research they did should also have appeared.
Especially considering that this is actually an advertisement for their software!
Thanks for the interesting article. Some of my students also copied papers endlessly. "Manual search" of copies is impractical in terms of the amount of time I can afford to spend on each and every job.
That's why I use a site called Copyleaks (address: http://copyleaks.com) which allows me to link it to students' works (Word files, PDF and a few more) and it tells me where they are on the Internet. By the way, this is also an Israeli company.
Nice try but you can't be both the owner of the company and a user of the product. Or or, and if you are the owner of the company as evidenced by the link in your username, you pay for advertisements.
with gratitude. Avi Blizovsky
A. Ben Ner
Copying is one thing and quoting is another. When quoting and indicating the source of the quote is another matter. Where does the problem start? Where most of the work is quotes with several connecting sentences of the student. For years, students don't know how to write papers let alone spelling mistakes. The reason for this is a failure of the secondary and primary smile system. In most high schools, students do not know how to write an essay because they are not taught how to write. They also don't read books, so their language is poor. And the result is copy and paste.
Miracles
No lack of stupidity, on the scale. I know that a number of schools in Ramla teach philosophy, of course adapted to the age of the students, bless you. If I'm not mistaken it was done in the schools in the Christian schools.
The question arises, where is the fine line between copying and quoting a learned idea.
After all, the vast majority of learning, in general, is based on memorization and copying.
Copying is the most effective and common learning method in human culture.
The degree of originality possible in student works is extremely small.
After all, the teachers and lecturers also expect the students to express their ideas in the tests
They were taught them in the course.
Even academic studies are based on copying and citations and only a tiny bit of them
are original innovations.
I guess the goal was to prevent copying and citations in general, to prevent copying
"blind" mechanics of works in their entirety, in a way that frees the copyist from having to deal with
The meanings of the ideas expressed in the copied passages.
Therefore, there is no need for a "microscopic" examination of copying small pieces from the text, but,
Focus only on "massive" copies of large and prominent parts of the ceremony. For example, you copied
Complete chapters, etc.
Therefore, I do not see much importance for the above software and I do not even see it as having the potential for significant commercial success.
time will tell.
Life
Let's split in two. People copy because it's easy and almost risk-free.
I agree that many teaching methods are outdated. The big problem is that Israel's education system is in decline.
Just yesterday I heard two shocking things. The first is a story about a huge surplus of physiotherapists following the failure of the MLA. The second is the stupidity of the Minister of Education who wants to increase the number of students in classes.
Miracles
I absolutely agree with you. There will always be scammers and at the same time it is advisable to do the type of inspection I am talking about. New insights may grow from this regarding new ways of teaching for the 21st century. I understand that you are an engineer by profession and most likely also engaged in training. I assume you have many methodical means at your disposal. Try to lift the glove. With your extensive experience I think you can do it.
Life
I guess the problem is that half the students are cheaters. Ockham's razor - no?
This initiative is most welcome and at the same time the academic institutions should check why students copy works. There may be another factor that leads to the copying of works. Maybe there is something in the curriculum that causes this. Maybe outdated study methods. My impression is that you should check it out.