Here at Sequoia, both Canvas and Google Assignments have plagiarism checkers that are attached that show teachers what work is the students’ own, and what work is from the internet when you turn an assignment in. Although this has helped many school students and administrators, there is still a certain amount of worry that comes along with it. It may help a lot of students with their work, yet it still does not eliminate all of the dishonesty in the classroom.

After doing distance learning for almost two years, teachers and students may not see eye to eye on the subject of academic dishonesty. Even some teachers at Sequoia have a different view on whether plagiarism is a big issue in a learning environment. While schooling online, teachers across the United States ran the risk of students looking answers up online to tests and papers. 

“[Online School] made it way too easy for kids to cheat. It made the answer so available.” sports leadership teacher and Athletic Director Melissa Schmidt said. There is a difference between teachers of separate subjects as well. A science teacher may have a different experience with academic dishonesty than a foregin language teacher does.

“I feel like at least the classes that I taught didn’t have as many issues with [plagiarism] because I wasn’t giving like reading quizzes. I don’t typically give tests like you would see in a math class, all the assessments are very much authentic in the sense of their writing of some sort or presentation of some sort and of course,” English I-ICAP teacher Hannah Singh said.

Teachers and school administrators are putting more thought and effort into the content that they are assigning to their students.

“What changed for me is my approach to assignments. I had to do a lot of thinking about how I could design assignments. It was hard.” Schmidt said.

“[Being online] really put into perspective for me like, why I am assigning, what I am assigning, is it actually going to help students practice the necessary skills to the best of their ability online, or is it just busywork,” Singh said. “I think a lot of students benefited from getting rid of some of that busywork.” 

Even with all of these precautions, students can still cheat in their writing. Another reason students tend to turn to cheating in an academic setting is the pressure of failure. Some students become too involved with their schoolwork that they forget the actual content of what is being learned. It becomes too much to take on and students can easily get overwhelmed.

“I do have a lot of work and sometimes I think it’s easier to look up the answers.” freshman Charlotte Dugoni said. “But then I’m gonna get in trouble from teachers and that stresses me out. There can be too much work and not enough time.”