The issue that brought all this up was the assignment I graded last night...the terms, definitions and illustrations for the Prokaryotes Text were all done largely as I should have expected. Most students took the information they thought I want to see written down, and copied it over. Unfortunately, this meant that in most cases, students were just acting as copiers, but didn't really understand the information.
In light of this, I have asked everyone to redo the assignment, which will be collected Monday, regraded according to the new rubric, and entered as a replacement grade for the assignment. The goal is not to write a perfect "definition" that makes no sense to you, but to read carefully, do research and explain it to yourself, and then record THAT definition.
The grade is not the point. Having something to hand in is not the point. Comprehending what these ideas really mean IS the point.
The new rubric is up under the rubrics tab, and I'll put up some more definitions of these terms later today.