A Technological Tool to Detect Plagiarized Projects in Microsoft Access

Over one in ten students surveyed have admitted to copying programs in courses with computer assignments. The ease with which digital coursework can be copied and the impracticality of manually checking for plagiarized projects in large courses has only compounded the problem. As current research has focused predominantly on detecting plagiarism for textual applications such as source code and documents, there exists a gap in detecting plagiarism in graphically-driven applications. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of a technological tool in detecting plagiarized projects in a course using Microsoft Access. Seven semesters of data were collected from a large technology-oriented course in which the tool had been in use. Comparing semesters before and after the technological tool was introduced demonstrates a significant decrease in the number of projects being duplicated. The results indicate combining technology and policy can be effective in curtailing blatant plagiarism within large technology courses.