Perception of Plagiarism and Plagiarism Checks Software (PCS) Amongst Lecturers and Students of Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated the perception of Plagiarism and Plagiarism Check Software (PCS) amongst lecturers and students of Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The purpose of the study was to determine the perception of plagiarism and PCS amongst lecturers and students of the University. The population of the study are lecturers and students of Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMINNA). Multistage sampling technique was used i.e. stratified and simple sampling techniques were used to select the samples of the study. The sample consisted of 79 lecturers and 378 students drawn from across the eight schools (faculties) in the University. Likert-type questionnaire titled Questionnaire for Perception of Plagiarism and Plagiarism Check Software (QPPCS) was used for data collection. It was validated by two experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.82 was obtained using Cronbach alpha. The QPPCS was distributed by research assistants identified by the researcher in the eight schools in the University. They adopted face to face method in getting the questionnaire filled and returned by respondents. The data collected waS analyzed using frequency count and simple percentages. Descriptive charts were used in describing the data analyzed. The study revealed amongst others; that lecturers and students have very high (89.79%) percentage of awareness of plagiarism and PCS. Lecturers insist on originality when assessing projects and thesis works and laziness was found to be the major actor responsible for plagiarism. lt is recommended that the usage of Turnitin PCS should be sustained and more studies should be carried out to determine the mechanisms and forms of tactics used to prevent detection of plagiarism even with PCS usage. lt was concluded that though there is awareness of plagiarism and PCS amongst lecturers and students in the University there is the need to sustain the tempo in mitigating and determining other criminal measures adopted especially by students' to evade detecting plagiarism acts.