Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Ethical Issues of Plagiarism, and Copyright Infringement Associated with the Use of E-Learning Platforms.

Abstract

E-learning has become a permanent feature of university education in Nigeria, yet the ethical Issues of plagiarism, and copyright infringement of the students who use these platforms has not received the same attention as the platforms themselves. This study set out to examine undergraduate students’ perceptions of plagiarism, and copyright infringement, Academic dishonesty and Software piracy, associated with the Use of E-Learning Platforms. A survey research design was adopted, and a sample of 282 was drawn through convenience sampling from the undergraduate population of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Abuja. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data, which were subsequently subjected to descriptive analysis. The results show that plagiarism-adjacent behaviour, particularly uncredited paraphrasing and the occasional submission of unreferenced assignments was common even among students who professed strong citation habits. Copyright infringement emerged as the most pervasive of the four concerns, with the overwhelming majority of respondents admitting to downloading or sharing copyrighted audio, video, and image files without authorisation. Academic cheating in its classic forms, examination collusion, impersonation through mobile devices, paid coursework, was reported by a markedly smaller but still consequential minority. Software piracy persisted chiefly because licensed alternatives were judged unaffordable. Recommendations are offered for curriculum-embedded information literacy ethics instruction in the areas of plagiarism avoidance, copyright laws, software use and academic integrity.