Dozens of Plagiarism Incidents Are Reported in Coursera’s Free Online Courses

2 min read Original article ↗
Eric S. Rabkin, a U. of Michigan professor who also teaches a free online class for Coursera: “An accusation of plagiarism is a deeply serious act and should be made only with concrete evidence behind it.”

Eric S. Rabkin, a U. of Michigan professor who also teaches a free online class for Coursera: “An accusation of plagiarism is a deeply serious act and should be made only with concrete evidence behind it.”

Students taking free online courses offered by the startup company Coursera have reported dozens of incidents of plagiarism, even though the courses bear no academic credit. This week a professor leading one of the so-called Massive Open Online Courses posted a plea to his 39,000 students to stop plagiarizing, and Coursera’s leaders say they will review the issue and consider adding plagiarism-detection software in the future.

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Portrait of Jeff Young

About the Author

Jeffrey R. Young was a senior editor and writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education focused on the impact of technology on society, the future of education, and journalism innovation. He is now a freelance journalist and host of the Learning Curve podcast about AI and education.