ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL OF PLAGIARISM OF THE RESULTS OF THE ONLINE EXAMS AND THEIR CORRELATION WITH THE UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE WORK

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to reveal the level of academic fraud in the form of similarity and its correlation with online exams and online undergraduate degree papers at Universidad UTE del Ecuador. The study falls within the quantitative research paradigm. A correlational analysis technique was used with a simple regression test. The sample was determined by the purposive sampling technique, with a participation of 101 students of the Basic Education programme of the 9th semester of the UTE University, during the academic cycle B-2019-2020 and B-2020-2021. The levels of similarity were tested using Turnitin software. The research found that the level of plagiarism was 38.44%, with internet sources 36.42%, publication 7.25% and student papers 25.38%. Meanwhile, in the final degree works, it was revealed that the rate of similarity was 31.53 %, internet source 29.54 %, publication 7.79 % and student papers 25.47%. It can be concluded that chronologically from 2020 to 2021 plagiarism levels in student papers and publications increased by 10%. Paraphrasing was the most commonly used plagiarism technique among students between 2020 and 2021, while copying and pasting, which leads to exact matches with existing online sources, has experienced a marked increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.