Navigating Accusations of Plagiarism in an Online Course: A Personal Experience

Academic integrity is a cornerstone of education, yet misunderstandings can lead to serious accusations that might affect a student’s future. I recently found myself at the center of such a situation in my online college course, and I’d like to share my journey and how I navigated through it.

A few days ago, I received a rather alarming email from my professor. She stated that she suspected I had committed plagiarism by submitting another student’s assignment with her name attached. Initially, I was taken aback. It turned out there was some truth to her claim, but the context was essential.

The class required us to upload our assignments to a forum, and the submission instructions explicitly stated, “Post your assignment here so everyone can view your ideas.” Due to some confusion regarding the assignment format, I downloaded a peer’s PDF to assist me in drafting my own work. Unfortunately, during the submission process, I accidentally uploaded her assignment instead of mine.

Upon receiving the accusation, I quickly reached out to the professor, sincerely apologizing for the mix-up. I even forwarded her the correct document I intended to submit, along with a screenshot of the file’s metadata, which indicated I had modified my assignment prior to the submission deadline. To further substantiate my claim, I explained how she could verify the metadata for herself.

However, the response I got was disheartening. The professor stated that I would still receive a zero for the assignment because I had “crossed a line” by referencing another student’s work as a model. Frustrated, I reminded her that the assignment instructions practically encouraged us to do just that. I highlighted the specific phrase from the guidelines to back up my case.

In a twist of events, just as I was texting a friend to recount what had happened, I checked the submission page again, only to find that the very sentence I had quoted had mysteriously vanished. This occurred within minutes of sending my email. It seemed clear that the professor had deleted it, possibly to obscure the original guidance provided to students regarding our submissions.

In the hope of proving my case, I looked for a way to access previous versions of the site or recover the deleted sentence. Unfortunately, I learned that the site wasn’t archived on Wayback Machine, leaving me at a loss.

Update: To my relief, after further communication, my professor clarified that her intention behind removing the sentence was to eliminate potential