The new procedure : scope for education and prevention

1
The new procedure scope for education and
prevention

• The Edinburgh experience

2
How are we doing so far?

• Good news
• Some places are getting better at dealing with
  this
• and bad news
• There is still huge variation in how we view and
  deal with plagiarism
• Having this new process and guidelines doesnt
  eliminate the problem
• There is still a lot to be done

3
Plagiarism the reality

• An insight from experience
• Why people do it
• What can we do about it?
• How does the new procedure help?

4
Assumptions about plagiarism

• Staff
• Of course students know what it is, and how to
  avoid it
• There is no such thing as innocent or inadvertent
  plagiarism
• How do people know?
• Plagiarism is cheating and will not be
  tolerated. Students suspected of plagiarising
  work will be referred to the Head of School
  (2003-04 course website)

5
Assumptions about plagiarism

• Students
• Dont all know what it is or dont know where
  the boundaries are
• Dont all know why its so important
• Dont all know how to avoid it
• Unless we tell them!

6
The reality

• Some are innocent,
• Some arent
• We need a robust procedure that can deal fairly
  with different types of cases.

7
Plagiarism does one word catch all?

• Need to acknowledge the context in which
  plagiarism has occurred.
• Make a distinction between inadvertent and
  deliberate cases
• Within this distinction there are other
  variations
• Not straightforward!

8
Inadvertent Plagiarism

• 1st years
• Later years
• Postgraduates
• International students

9
Deliberate plagiarism

• With mitigating circumstances
• With no obvious mitigating circumstances
• Problem areas
• What happens if they dont admit it?
• What happens if theres very little evidence?

10
How about this one?

• Student submits a piece of work that is simply
  too good
• No similarity to other students work
• Google doesnt bring up anything relevant on the
  web
• Student says they did it themselves. Did send it
  to an old teacher abroad to ask their opinion,
  but cant provide a record of that version or the
  response.
• What would YOU think?

11
And another one..

• 2 students submit work that is similar
• It is possible to check their electronic files
  and this shows that one submitted the essay 1st
  and the other one after.
• Follow same structure, includes fragments from
  the other
• One uses a particular version of Word and their
  essay has some sections in it that uses
  punctuation styles peculiar to a different
  version of Word used by the other student
• Assignment is based on data that only exists in
  ones file area
• The students deny any collusion

12
And.the bit in the middle

• Few students have a clear idea of where the
  boundaries lie
• of course, if you copy from someone, thats
  against the rules
• How about these?

13
The rules

• 2 Students write essays about a film they watched
  together, and discussed afterwards. They live
  together and used the same library books.
• Students discuss how they are getting on one
  shows the other an essay plan.
• One shows the other a rough draft
• One shows the other the final version
• One uses notes the other has made from the books
• One uses something from the lecture notes and
  doesnt reference it

14
Closing the gap

• Making students understand
• Why good academic writing, and avoiding
  plagiarism is important
• How to do it properly
• The risk (detection)
• The consequences of plagiarism

15
Closing the gap the role of the panel

• Educating the individual student
• a warning and further advice
• I hope this has been a salutory lesson to you
  and we will not be seeing you again on this
  issue
• Feeding back to subject area if there are
  potential areas for improvement
• guidance
• practice in dealing with cases
• assessment tasks

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e.g

• Told to watch someone doing a particular activity
  and describe it, using specific terms. 300 word
  assignment using prescribed structure and
  headings. Students allowed to observe the same
  thing.
• 2 students observed the same thing. No word for
  word similarity in the assignment, but broadly
  similar. Students deny any collaboration.
• Any thoughts?

17
Beyond the individual case

• Good news real potential for improvement and
  development in staff and student practice
• Sharing good practice School-wide.and beyond
• Feed back into university-wide guidance, and
  encourage more Schools/subject areas to create or
  improve their own