Improvements to this Instruction and Certification Tests: 2002-2023

We initially developed these online learning resources for our own students. Our original goal: to help students better understand plagiarism when starting their degree programs in Instructional Systems Technology (IST) at Indiana University. New IST students were (and still are) expected to pass a Certification Test, and to submit their Certificate to the department. If they plagiarize, we do not accept the excuse that they do not know what plagiarism is.

That was in 2002, now over 21 years ago!

Since then, usage of these online resources by others has increased almost exponentially. Many instructors worldwide have adopted these resources, often expecting their students to pass one of our Certification Tests and submit their Certificate. We presume that this adoption has occurred through word-of-mouth, or people have found these resources by searching the Web, since we neither advertise nor do we receive compensation. Anyone is welcome to use our learning resources and tests on this site for non-profit educational purposes. We provide these resources free of charge, and have no control over how others may use them. See this news article.

A team of graduate students and faculty has contributed to these tutorials and tests over the years. Content is currently maintained by an emeritus faculty member in IST at Indiana University who donates his time and effort. We continue to do research to improve the effectiveness of these learning resources.

And we continue to present our findings at professional conferences and to publish these findings in scholarly journals and books. We hope that our research advances knowledge of instructional effectiveness during online learning. For example, see this published research journal article.

As others have discovered these online resources in the past 3 decades, worldwide usage has been increasing dramatically. Since 2016, after we had redesigned and significantly improved this online instruction, over 1,081,000 individuals from 225 countries and territories have passed a Certification Test (as of March 20, 2023).

Timeline of Major Changes since 2013

Yes, we know this is a long list, but we provide it for the record. We have made a lot of changes to improve the IU Plagiarism Tutorials and Tests. Based on feedback from college and high school instructors whose students use our online resources, we have made the following revisions:






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