How Students Use Technology to Cheat

1. Copy-and-paste plagiarism.
2. Calculator notes.
3. Texting.
4. Plagiarism-detection programs.
5. Paper mills (buying a term paper).
6. Circulating the exam.
7. Sharing Online.
8. Stretching.
9. Cribbing the bibliography.
10. Busted for Bragging.
4 of 10

4. Plagiarism-detection programs.

Many universities use plagiarism-detection systems, such as TurnItIn, which compares the entire contents of a students' paper to an ever-expanding vault of written works. TurnItIn searches not only what's available on the Internet, but also every other paper that has ever been submitted to its database. So if a student in Sydney sold her paper to another student in Toronto to reuse in a similar course, TurnItIn would knowprovided the professors in each case used the tool.

TurnItIn even delivers a percentage score to show how much of the paper is identical to other sources, which can tip teachers off if students are citing too extensively, even when the citations are done according to accepted standards.