Plagiarism in e-Learning Systems: Identifying and Solving the Problem for Practical Assignments

A big part of life long learning is the move from residential lectures to distance education. Distance education falls under the multi-modal policy of the teaching institution and thereby a change in student contact. The lecturer facilitating the distance education course is also faced with a problem where the quality and originality of submitted assignments need to be checked. This has always been a difficult task, as going through practical assignments and looking for similarities is a tedious job. Software checkers are available, but as yet, have not been integrated into popular online e-learning systems. If closer contact and warning to students are given at an early stage the problem is minimized as they know they are being closely monitored. As shown in this article, plagiarism is a current problem with online practical submissions. We also show how this problem can be minimized through the integration of plagiarism checking tools and other checking methods into e-learning systems