The Effectiveness of an Online Plagiarism Intervention Module

More than half of all college undergraduates engage in academic dishonesty. Specifically, it is likely that plagiarism is more common than reported. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of an online academic integrity module (Group A) compared to a recorded online lecture (Group B). Thirty-six undergraduate psychology students were randomized to two groups. Participants in both groups completed an 11-item mastery-based quiz assessing their understanding of academic dishonesty. We hypothesized that students in Group A would exhibit fewer incidents of plagiarism and complete the quiz with fewer attempts as compared to Group B. Results revealed no statistically significant difference in incidents of plagiarism between the groups (X2 (1, N = 33) = .081, p = .78). A correlational analysis revealed a significant positive relation between the number of quiz attempts and the number of plagiarism incidents (r (31) = .388, p = .03)