Comments on: Been Slugged Lately Online? Do You Even Know What That Means?

By: Linda Mabli

Linda Mabli — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:13:26 +0000

Oh, I certainly do give my colleagues an ear full when they talk about all the plagiarism because of the “Googles.” :) My favorite story goes back around twenty years ago when I found a library book all marked up by a student so that when it came time to “write” his/her paper, all the student had to do was lift passages from the book.

Fortunately, at least for me, I use a Mac, so I never have any trouble opening up a .docx file, but some of my students do, so I ask students creating .docx files to also cut and paste their work onto the Blackboard discussion board. That helps.

Side Note: I added your blog to my blogroll.

By: Matt Crosslin

Matt Crosslin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:36:06 +0000

If they throw that in your face, just retort with “how do you know that every paper that is turned in to you was actually written by the student whose name is on it?” :)

One common problem I have run into is just that students save something in .docx format, see that it has to be in .doc format, so they rename the file by removing the “x”, and turn it in. That works fine for instructors with Word 2007 installed, because it will still open it no matter what. But if they are running Word 2003 with the 2007 filter, it won’t think to use the filter and will try to open it as a 2003 document. This will produce a bunch of gibberish. So, if anyone has that set-up on their computer, might think about adding the “x” to the name first before to see if that fixes the problem.

And then take off a few points for not reading directions :)

By: Linda Mabli

Linda Mabli — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:15:35 +0000

Holy cow! Something else for my colleagues to throw up in my face when it comes to my teaching online! I have had a couple of cases when I couldn’t open a student file, and it never dawned on me that slugging could be the reason; although, I must say, many of my students have older computers and really don’t realize that documents they generate on them may not open.

In any case, even though I do stipulate on my syllabi that submitted documents should be in specific formats, your info on slugging will keep my on my toes.

Thanks.