Niagara College Faculty Resources Minimizing Plagiarism

Academic Integrity Ten principles of Academic Integrity

Seven focus topics on video  Shared understanding (definitions)  Designing in/out  Good induction and clear guidance  Early skills training  Encouraging a “NO Blind Eyes” Culture  Using a range of detection strategies  Fair, consistent, transparent processes for dealing with cases Jude Carroll on Plagiarism

Considerations for framework The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) in Australia recommended the following four strategies designed to minimize plagiarism:  Collaborative effort to recognize and counter plagiarism  Thoroughly educating students about expected conventions and enhancing skill development  Designing approaches to assessment that minimize the possibility of plagiarizing  Install visible procedures for monitoring and detecting cheating – including punishment and re-education Note:  First three strategies – proactive  Fourth – reactive but includes immediate response when plagiarism occurs Reference: Minimizing Plagiarism – CSHE

Is all plagiarism equal? Different approaches and strategies should be considered because of the following dimensions  The student’s INTENT to cheat  The EXTENT of the plagiarism  The response that might be made to deal with each case There are both Intentional and Unintentional Reasons

Unintentional considerations  Limited or incorrect understanding of what plagiarism really is  Incorrect understanding of citation and referencing conventions  Limited skills in summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, critical analysis, and researching  Personal challenges such as poor organization skills, time management, and workload stress

What is extent of the plagiarism? Review this example about the extent of plagiarism – Where is the line crossed? Extreme: Download essay to hand in as Minor: Misuse of quotes, paraphrasing and/or referencing conventions ng/03/plagMain.html#crossedline

Plagiarism Intent-Extent Response Graph © Devlin, 2002

Thoughts?  Serious plagiarism should be dealt with by senior academic staff on a case-by-case basis High intent and extent is a serious breach and needs an appropriate punitive response (as per Niagara College policy)  Punitive and Educative responses should not be seen as mutually exclusive Minor plagiarism should be offered support and targeted education as preventative measure  The response might vary depending on the intent and the extent of the plagiarism

Suggestions for consideration Three broad types of faculty based initiatives:  Strategies of Awareness  Strategies of Prevention  Strategies of Detection

Strategies of Awareness  Educate yourself about plagiarism  Understand why students cheat  Educating your students about plagiarism  Discuss the benefits of citing sources  Make the penalties clear

Types of Cheating  Plagiarism related –e.g. improper citations  Using notes in exams or tests  Dishonestly obtaining information prior to tests  Copying  Permitting students to copy your work  Soliciting work from others – e.g. essays  Unauthorized collaborations or collusion  Fabrication – making up data, quotes, etc.  Recycling or unauthorized multiple submissions

Resource Anti-Plagiarism strategies for Research papers (Harris, 2012)

Strategies of Prevention  Make the assignment clear  Provide a list of specific topics  Require specific components in your paper  Require process steps for your paper  Require oral reports  Have students include an annotated bibliography  Require most references to be up-to-date  Require a meta-learning essay

36 Strategies to minimize plagiarism  Teach students about conventions and how to avoid plagiarism  Counter plagiarism through design of assessment tests  Ask students for evidence that they have not plagiarized  Make positive use of collaborative work  Become familiar with resources that may be used for plagiarism  Make use of detection software and other deterrents  Respond quickly to incidents of plagiarism

Other Resources Easy steps to combatting plagiarism Anti-Plagiarism strategies for Research papers (Harris, 2012)

Strategies of Detection  Look for clues – from Coastal Carolina University  Know where the sources of papers are  Search for the paper online – internet sources  Use a plagiarism detector

Look for clues  Mixed Citation styles  Lack of references or quotations  Unusual formatting  Off topic  Signs of datedness  Anomalies of diction – e.g. cut and paste  Anomalies of style  Smoking guns – blunders of careless copying