Centre of excellence

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Leaving it to chance? Not us. Not any
more!Julie PricePulling together
presentations/papers JISC Plagiarism
Conferences, IEJ (2005), ILT Conference
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Developing a plagiarism policy

• University has an Academic Integrity Policy
• Our policy operates at subject level
• Not about dealing with it once found
• Use of TurnitinUK

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About me

• Sport scientist
• Studied at Loughborough
• BSc (Hons) PE, Sport Science Maths / MSc Sport
  Science
• Worked on SSSP mens hockey
• School teacher
• 2 yrs PE Maths at 11-16 school
• Teach on sport undergraduate programmes at
  Southampton
• Physiology
• Programme Director for Sport
• BSc (Hons) Sport Studies
• BA (Hons) Sports Management Leadership

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Where did my interest in plagiarism start?

• Several things happened around the same time
• Introduction of TurnitinUK
• Got involved with previous new (IT) initiatives
• Approached to evaluate it
• Programme Tutor/Programme Director for Sport
• Deal with cases
• Research
• PhD

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Evaluation of TurnitinUK 1st early trial
Conclusion? Possibly good as LT tool
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Dealing with cases

• Became aware of staff dissatisfaction/frustration
  with penalties awarded to cases
• Remember one particular decision

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PhD

• Re-organisation at Southampton
• Sport moved into the School of Education
• Registered for a PhD
• Research into dealing with cases
• Registered in Oct 2003
• Thinking has changed tremendously
• Shaped by JISCPAS, Jude Carroll..

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The road to creating a Plagiarism Policy (for
undergraduate sport programmes)

• Where were we before the policy?
• No systematic way to find plagiarism
• Relied on luck as much as anything else
• Number of cases found and taken to a panel were
  few (in sport programmes)

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What happened next? TurnitinUK - going to have
to buy it!

• Early 1st trial was positive
• Southampton should we buy it?
• Sport tutors trialled it during free period (2nd
  stage of trials)
• Both via TurnitinUK direct submission and via
  BlackBoard
• Worked reasonably smoothly
• Realised potential LT tool deterrent
• Possibly more so than detection tool
• Tutors started to develop a policy for 2
  undergrad programmes
• University decided to invest in TurnitinUK

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Development of the policy Year 1 of operation

• 1st year undergrad LT
• All work submitted as paper copy to the admin
  office
• Self upload identified work via BlackBoard but
  set up by neutral tutor
• Upload early piece of work
• Upload after marked and returned (Jan)
• But told they would have to do this before they
  hand it in
• Assurance mark likely to remain unchanged
• Allowed to see report
• Asked to take it to their personal tutor for
  discussion
• Note all 1st yrs taught about citation and
  referencing 2-3 weeks after arrival in a skills
  unit

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Development of the policy Year 1 of operation

• 2nd 3rd year undergrad deterrent
• All work submitted as paper copy to the admin
  office
• Self upload via BlackBoard
• Told they will have to upload identified work in
  week 1 of exams each semester
• Work will have already been handed in
• Dont know which work until after all CW for that
  semester has been handed in
• Dont see the originality report

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Rational for decisions? 1st yr undergrad LT

• Early piece of work
• Catch the mistakes early
• After marked and returned / Assurance mark
  unlikely to change / Set up by neutral tutor
• Create a non-threatening, supportive situation
• See report and take to personal tutor
• To allow discussion regarding referencing
  citation
• To have contact with personal tutor rather than
  marker (again less threatening)
• Option to go to neutral tutor if personal tutor
  marker or moderator

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Rational for decisions? 2nd 3rd yr undergrad
Deterrent

• Told in exam week after all CW handed in
• Dont know which piece therefore (hopefully)
  careful in all
• Only 1 piece out of all work for each semester
• Reduce administration and chasing and reduce work
  for students
• Will change work each year
• Dont see the report
• Wont learn to beat the system (the bright ones
  picked up limitations in trials!)

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Spotting the limitations

• Comments from previous early trial
• Some highlighted sentences that JISC gave me
  were not from the source where they believed it
  to come from. JISC also failed to pick up on
  sentences and quotes that came from many other
  sources that I had used and referenced
  correctly.
• .the essay obviously contains some work that
  was not my own ie other peoples work which I had
  referenced, it seems like the database from which
  JISC compares work is not very large! My
  reference section contained over 20 references
  and the database did not pick up on a single one
  of them.

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What about detection?

• Main aims are as LT deterrent
• Detection is secondary
• But a bonus

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Reflections 1st yr of operation

• Few 1st yrs took reports to personal tutors
• Those who had found it helpful

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What could we discuss?
Required format Surname, year, pg No initials in
text
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What could we discuss?
Citing on-line sources
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What could we discuss?
Reliability of some sources
The need to acknowledge sources how!
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Reflections 1st yr of operation

• Few 1st yrs took reports to personal tutors
• Those who hadnt
• Not a priority
• Report disappeared (personal tutor cant
  see it so student had to take paper copy)
• Only small detected hence didnt see the
  point

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Reflections 1st yr of operation

• Several didnt upload (or werent successful) and
  had to be chased
• Given an extra time period
• After this went to tutor manual upload (hassle
  factor)

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Why didnt they upload?

• Forgot
• Didnt know they hadnt been successful
• 2nd 3rd yrs dont receive the originality
  report!
• Hoped to slip through the net and go unnoticed
• Clearly made a decision not to upload
• Penalty available but tutors tried more gentle
  persuasion

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Reflections continued

• Not all work suitable for upload
• Could students guess which work will be targeted?
• Students could upload different work to that
  submitted to the office in paper form
• Random check needed
• Havent found more cases
• Look at the figures and we should have found
  lots!
• Maybe it is working? Only time will tell

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Do students like it?

• 2nd 3rd yrs
• 3rd year more supportive (71) than 2nd year
  (52)
• Like it catch the plagiarists, reduce cheating
• Dislike it added pressure, didnt trust the
  system

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What have we changed for this year? 2nd year of
operation

• Continue with the policy
• Review timing of the upload for 2nd 3rd yrs
• No easy answer
• For 1st yrs
• Session in study skills unit on interpretation of
  report and reminder about citation
• Then still have opportunity to see personal tutor

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Additionally? Imperial plagiarism course

• 2nd 3rd yrs
• Complete at start of yr as reminder
• See personal tutor
• Personal tutor has TurnitinUK reports from last
  year!
• 1st yrs as part of study skills unit
• Few weeks in
• Problems at start of year hence very limited
  success this year
• 1st years have already reported it to be useful

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Plagiarism course
Explanations Quizzes Videos
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Who created it?

• Karen Handley Benita Cox
• Imperial College, London
• Advisory group
• Anglia Ruskin University
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Bath
• University of Hertfordshire
• Birkbeck University
• Imperial College, University of London
• University of Birmingham
• University of Leicester
• Bournemouth University

Nottingham Trent University University of
Brighton Open University Cardiff University
University of Southampton University of Durham
Royal Holloway, University of London University
of York
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Summary of what we do

• 1st yrs
• Study skills unit (taught about citation,
  referencing, search skills)
• Sport librarian involved
• Plagiarism course on BB
• Upload essay from another unit
• Session on interpretation of report (in study
  skills unit) raising issues
• Are they using correct style etc
• See personal tutor

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Summary of what we do

• 2nd 3rd yrs
• Plagiarism course on BB (reminder)
• See personal tutor and see last TurnitinUK report
• Uptake? Slow!
• Upload one piece of work during exam week each
  semester

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Any questions?