Good point. I teach in an online school, and we run term papers through an automatic plagiarism-checking program. Even before we had that, it was easy to tell when a student who formerly only communicated using the language of text-messaging suddenly is using PhD-level phrasing and vocabulary. Then you do a simple Google search to see where they copied it from, and then give them a zero. I used to teach in public schools, but I won’t go back unless we are literally starving and about to start living in a box.
I teach in public school now...we live in south Jersey and it’s not TOTALLY corrupt. My daughter is leaving her public school job because it’s in North Jersey and crazy! She’d like to try teaching in an on-line school, but hard to find them here since it’s Jersey after all. But you are right about how to catch papers that have been copied. I tell my students that, believe it or not, they have a style of writing. My first assignment is always in class. From that point on, I can tell what is their writing and what is not. I tell them....Cheat by Google....Get caught by Google.