Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

186 Studying online 
more cheating with online students than there has ever been 
with traditional studying. As a result, it isn’t yet clear if those 
who study online are more likely to want to cheat. Te issue 
appears to be the opportunity to inadvertently cheat is greater 
for online students than traditional students. As a result, there 
is a higher chance that online students will face accusations of 
Academic Misconduct, even though there is no deliberate at-
tempt to deceive amongst the majority of students learning at 
a distance. 
You do not want an Academic Misconduct 
investigation 
Universities use plagiarism detection software, such as Turnitin, 
Copyleaks, or Copycatch. Tese can detect copying from websites 
and from work submitted by students in other universities around 
the world. Tese plagiarism detectors have massive databases and 
artifcial intelligence, which can spot even small amounts of copy-
ing from elsewhere. All of your work will inevitably go through 
at least one of these detection systems, and should elements of 
your assignment or your exam be found to be copied, you could be 
called in for an Academic Misconduct investigation. In this, you 
will be questioned by someone other than your lecturer and asked 
to explain how the material was copied. You may have to face a 
panel interview, or the Academic Misconduct ofcial will just 
consider the evidence provided by Turnitin, for example. Apart 
from the stress of not knowing what will happen, several problems 
can arise from even inadvertent copying. Some of the options that 
universities select include: 
y
Reduced marks for the assignment, taking into account the 
amount copied 
y
Te need to resubmit the assignment, but only for marks that 
are capped at the pass mark 
y
A score of zero for the assignment 
y
Te need to resit the entire module and complete new 
assignments 

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