Plagiarism: A study of 24 million college papers by Turnitin, which makes plagiarism-detection software, finds that college students are most likely to lift copy from Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, and Slideshare. The study counted all suspiciously similar language and did not consider whether students cited the sources they lifted from. Via the Scholarly Kitchen, where Phil Davis noted some of the study’s limitations.
Profanity: A Web site promoting Oberlin College co-created by its social media coordinator, Why the F*** Should I Choose Oberlin?, drew varied reactions and plenty of attention last week. The site, which notes it is not officially affiliated with Oberlin, collects profanity-laced quotes about why Oberlin is great. Georgy Cohen interviews the co-creator, Ma’ayan Plaut, who says she has “tacit and unofficial approval” from her boss. On Higher Ed Marketing, Andrew Careaga says his inner 15-year-old thought the site is brilliant, but his 51-year-old “shook his jaded head.”
Fraud: Educause offers advice on how colleges can respond to a Dear Colleague letter from the U.S. Department of Education that asks colleges to limit student-aid fraud in online programs.
Design: Keith Hampson argues that good design will play an increasingly important role in the college student experience as college move online. “Somehow, though, digital higher education—both its software and content—has managed to remain untouched by good design. Design is not even on the agenda,” he says.
Crosstalk is a weekly feature on Wired Campus that links to some of the best online conversations and ideas about technology in higher education during the past week. Send ideas to josh.keller@chronicle.com.
