assessment design as part of deterring students from plagiarism: Jude Carroll for University of Kent, January 2013

Why focus on assessment design? You have to start somewhere Assessment is the students’ experience of university Probably, changes will mean high impact + relatively low demand….. but changes will require push and support

Summing up: Can assessment design deter students from plagiarism? Task level: Designing OUT opportunities for easy copying, taking & faking Programme level: Designing IN chances to learn and practice Policy level: Designing penalties that can shape decisions

A reminder…. 1.Awareness raising [Knowing what….] 2.Teaching the skills 3.Designing programmes for skills practice & feedback 4.Designing assessments to discourage copying 5.Spotting it when it happens (and doing something) 6.Dealing with cases using procedures that are fast, fair, and defensible the holistic approach

First, we need a few assessment tasks….. Can we have 5 or 6 examples of assessments / coursework tasks your colleagues set [or that you set….] for students Have a think, then be ready to tell me

Why do it? How can you do it? How to design assessments that make copying, finding, faking, buying etc etc more difficult……?

The clue is in the definition…. “Submitting the words, ideas or work product of a named person or source in a situation where originality is expected as if it is the result of your own work for credit or other benefit.” Fishman, 2010

Three design strategies to deter plagiarism 1. Yes: you design ‘make an answer’ tasks No: you set ‘find an answer’ tasks 2. Focus on process: you get students started, you make the process valuable, you make them work 3. Authentication: You check, ‘Who did this work?’ You make students think, ‘Will I get spotted as a plagiarist???’

Wiki-friendly coursework Concepts, categories or topics (‘Jean Muir: fashion designer’) Explain, discuss, describe (‘What are the best ways to manage a diverse workforce?) Show-you-know tasks (‘ ….causes of the current recession’) one-answer questions (‘Role of CO 2 in the physiology of emphysema’)

Many two-concept questions are also Wiki-friendly….. ‘Using anthropological theory, analyse the Eurovision song contest’ Ten relevant pre-written sources …. in 2009

easy-to-pretend coursework Go and interview x about y and write it up. Make a change in your own lifestyle designed to improve health, keep notes about the impact, and report after a month Write a marketing strategy for company x

Make or find? 1. What factors influence the success or failure of speculators on the commodities market? 2. Download a current set of commodity futures prices [ then five questions about how to analyse and interrogate the download]. If your answer to (5) shows an imperfect hedge result, explain the probable main reasons for this. If your result is a perfect hedge, explain why this is unexpected given this is a contango market. Rank the factors relevant to the success or otherwise of speculating in this example. Explain the ranking. Rosser, U of Coventry, 2008

What strategies were used? Download some data. Analyse it Make a judgment [perfect hedge or imperfect hedge?] Justify your judgement. Explain the unexpected in a specific context [a contango market] Rank the factors relevant to the success or otherwise of speculating in this example. Individualised Recent Using the data Applied theory in a specific context ‘Higher order thinking’

Summing up so far Go for Individual, recent Application in a specific context Specified data / sources Higher-order thinking Avoid wiki-friendly topics wiki-friendly combinations one-answer or ‘show you know’ questions

NO: An essay on ‘smoking and public health’ YES?: Find 3 ‘stop smoking’ campaigns. Rank them as being worth government funding because they improve health. Justify your ranking, using your own criteria. Explain your criteria using data. YES??: Select a recent decision made somewhere in the world on smoking. Is it likely or unlikely to have a positive impact on [population zzz]? Why? Draft advice to a health- promotion campaign to strengthen impact. YES??: Here’s a case study, evaluate it against xxx criteria. YES?: Debate, ‘The best way to improve public health is to stop people smoking’. [write the script in class]

1. 3 campaigns, rank them against criteria for funding. Justify the rank. 2. Recent decisions w. impact on smoking. Most / least likely to have a positive impact? Why? Draft advice to a health promotion committee. 3. Here’s a case study, evaluate it against xxx criteria. 4. Debate 5. Take on a role in designing a ‘stop- smoking’ campaign. Prioritise your arguments + support each one with cited evidence from recent reliable studies. What is the underpinning principle that makes students do the work?

Blocks to this suggestion? Time and timing ( to create, to mark ….) ‘Tried and tested’ Spotting one’s own Choosing the wrong method for checking…. How would you counter or deal with these objections?

Strategies that value the process 1. Force students to start 2. Make the process public 3. Make the process valuable 4. Make the task significant 1. stages, drafts, chunks…..) 2. peer review; on-line posting; observe it 1. assess it; make students reflect 1. authentic, personal, individual

Strategies that check ‘Who did this?’ Make students change the final product under observed conditions… Meta-writing (writing about their writing under observed conditions) Triangulation through examination Random oral examination of a % Create a corpus via Turnitin to check across the cohort

Summing up: Can assessment design deter students from plagiarism? Programme level: Designing IN chances to learn and practice Task level: Designing OUT opportunities for easy copying and taking Policy level: Designing penalties that shape decisions

You try it: 15 minutes List of strategies + List of assignments. Task: redesign them so the students work the learning outcomes are assessed the burden on teachers is realistic. Be ready to share what you learned from doing this

Teaching students to use sources correctly….. Why do this? When to do this? Who should do this? on line materials published materials lecture notes other students’ work publicly available code data diagrams

The sub-skills of scholarship 1. Finding ‘good stuff’ 2. Making notes – keeping link between source and notes 3. Weaving in others’ words and ideas : summary, direct quotes, paraphrasing 4. Structuring an argument, using evidence 5. Signaling use (formal, informal) – when to signal? what to signal? how? 6. Using an agreed referencing system consistently

Design issues for writing skills alerting students – ‘wake up!’ ‘New game, new rules’ early diagnostics (‘Ah, I have these weaknesses …) teaching all the skills safe practice and feedback progression – improving skill use achieving exit- level competence

How to design in teaching and practice: Programme-level thinking Mapping for skills development Sharing the burden…. Referring: Using external support and guidance Embedding skills development in real, discipline-specific tasks Planning for progression (moving to exit- level skills) Assessing & recognising skills

Programme mapping

Programme design tools Sharing the burden…. the whole programme takes some of the teaching tasks Using external support and guidance Embedding specific skills development in real, discipline-specific tasks Getting real: Paired discussion 10 minutes each way. How would these work in your own programme? Getting real: Paired discussion 10 minutes each way. How would these work in your own programme?

Exit round: ‘…the key message I would take to my colleagues on the programme about design to deter plagiarism….