Cheating students are trying to outsmart a new service used by many colleges. Here’s what they’re up to: 

As homework-copying sites like Course Hero and Cramster have gained popularity among unscrupulous students, colleges are turning to anti-plagiarism technology like Turnitin.com. The site is currently in use by 9,500 high schools and colleges.

But that hasn’t stopped plagiarizers from trying to beat the system, by:

• Replacing a common character like “e” throughout the text of the paper with a similar-looking foreign language character (like a Cyrillic “e”)
• Using Word Macros to disguise copied text
• Replacing spaces with invisible white text, and
• Putting quotation marks around the entire document.

So far, Turnitin’s constantly-updating algorithm has caught all these attempts.

But some educators are abstaining from using the service, saying it undermines trust by presuming students are guilty. They believe educating students on plagiarism is more effective.

The National Bureau of Economic Research backs that up. A recent study showed students who completed a Web tutorial on plagiarism were two thirds less likely to cheat than students who hadn’t undergone the tutorial.

What’s the best way to curb academic cheating? Offer your advice in the comments section.

Tags: anti-plagiarism services, cheating websites, National Bureau of Economic Research, plagiarism, Turnitin.com