PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online Chris Martindale Faculty Support Team Manager Learning

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PLATOPLAgiarism Teaching OnlineChris
MartindaleFaculty Support Team ManagerLearning
Information ServicesUniversity of Derby

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Question How do you make a 1.6m a year
• and drive a Ferrari?
• Answer
• Sell essays for 400 Education Guardian
  29/07/2006
• One in ten students admitted to searching for
  model essays on the internet according to a THES
  Survey in 2006

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Student plagiarism 'on the rise' BBC 11/02/05
• A rise in the number of students in the UK,
  including undergraduates from overseas, is likely
  to mean increased plagiarism
• Deterring, Detecting and Dealing with Student
  Plagiarism 2005
• "A decision to plagiarise may be associated with
  increasing pressures on students arising from,
  for example, undertaking paid work, heavier
  coursework load, or lack of personal organisation
  skills. op.cit.
• "When stresses rise, students see plagiarism as
  a reasonable and reasonably risk-free way out of
  difficulties." op.cit.

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Academic offences!, academic integrity!
  ..whats all the fuss about?
• So what is plagiarism?
• Plagiarism is the The taking and using as ones
  own of the thoughts, writings or inventions of
  another Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1944
  3rd edition
• Submitting someone elses work as your own
  Jude Carroll, 2007
• SubmittingGiving the appearance of
  compliance to academia
• Someones workWhat is the work? who
  owns it? (Wikis, Blogs etc)
• as your ownOriginality without
  a quotation citation
• I found that the notion of cardinal literary
  virtue of newness was at odds with my own sense
  of difficulty in achieving that newness Laura B.
  Spencer 2004

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Every generation has the privilege of standing
  on the shoulders of the generation that went
  before but it has no right to pick the pockets
  of the first comer
• Brander Matthews
• Recreations of an Anthologist 1967
• The quality of academic writing must go beyond
  description
• to analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This
  forces the need
• for writing, time management and information
  literacy skills
• drowning in information, and thirsting for
  wisdom

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Some additional issues
• Is plagiarism deliberate or genuinely accidental?
  Intent?
• The language adopted can be academic
  malpractice cheats offenders
  detection should students be treated like
  criminals?
• Are International students more likely to commit
  plagiarism?
• Cultural aspects of learning and IELT issues
• Needed! A shared understanding of what academic
  integrity and what plagiarism really means!

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• How is the need to understand plagiarism
  relevant to
• Information Literacy?
• Information Literacy Outcome 5, is that
  students should understand economic, legal, and
  social issues surrounding the use of information
  and they should access and use information
  ethically and legally. Outcomes could include
  describing censorship or identifying plagiarism.
  
• Information Literacy Project Team 2006 (Kings
  College)

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online
Local police launch new crime initiative! Is
PLATO intended to teach students how to
plagiarise!?

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Background to PLATO
• 23,000 students at the University of Derby
• Third part time over 40 over 21yrs old
• Largest no. of Learning Through Work stdts. in
  the UK
• There are 500 purely e-learning students.
• PLATO initiated from research with P.G. students
• Confusion over what plagiarism is. Action needed
  a strong need for an educational tool

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Some of the other findings included..
• A strong belief in the need for academic
  integrity
• An awareness of risks of the ease of copy and
  paste
• A wide variety of diverse educational experience
• Pressure points time mgt., fear of failure
• Lack of confidence in skill sets
• Lack of technical knowledge e.g. how do I cite
  in the text?

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Aims
• To build skills at referencing
• Address cultural diversity issues
• Enable different levels of access
• Immediate responses to diagnostic tests
• Encourage reflection by problem solving
• Clear direction to sources of support

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• How was this achieved?
• By developing skills through
• Using diverse media animation, audio video
• Diagnostic testing to enable progression
• Varied entry level for beginners/advanced
  learners
• Advanced referencing section for wider examples
• Navigation on screen by point click
• Multiple choice questions
• True or false
• Drag drop selection

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A multiple route approach
PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• A multiple route approach to developing skills

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Identifying plagiarism behaviour
PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online
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Inclusive of Learners from diverse backgrounds
PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online
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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Link

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• PLATO

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online
Previous instruction about how to avoid
plagiarism Recent survey of International
Postgraduate Students almost 50 at pre-entry
level had not been shown how to avoid plagiarism
Evaluation 75 - rated PLATO easy to use 60
- found PLATO very helpful in learning about
how to avoid plagiarism Comments from
International Post Graduate students Its use of
real examples Very helpful, a good idea It
deters you from any form of cheating and gives
you confidence on how to reference
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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Future developments
• PLATO introduced in December 2006
• Courseware evaluation January 2007
• New version planned for July 2007
• Address full accessibility
• Further study skills
• Develop audio visual presentation
• Wider use of examples video
• Involvement of Faculty S.U. stakeholders

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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online

• Partnership across the University
• Learning technologists
• Academic staff
• Learning support staff
• I found PLATO easy to use and easy to
  understand because of the animation guide was fun
  to do and very direct and simple Heny Tanu, PG
  student March 2006

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• Your solution could bePLATO

PLAgiarism Teaching Online
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PLATO PLAgiarism Teaching Online
Thank you for listening Enjoy trying PLATO out
for yourselves. http//www.preventplagiarism.co.u
k c.martindale_at_derby.ac.uk