Implementing an OnlineUniversity-Wide Solution to

Plagiarism Awareness

R Walker, W Britcliffe & R PapworthE-Learning Development Team, University of York

Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference Jan 2009

Drivers for a University-wide solution to plagiarism awareness training

Rising number of cases of academic misconduct

Inconsistency in timing / content of academic skills training

Commitment to developmental learning & feedback – as part of wider skills agenda

Wish to establish standardised approach & baseline understanding – to reduce misconduct cases & simplify appeals procedure

Implementation approach

all new students at University & those who have committed academic misconduct

all staff with supervisory responsibilities for students (inc PGWT)

On-line tutorial: developed by Epigeum, delivered via Yorkshare

Targeted at:

Implementation approach: York

Compulsory & audited: progression dependent on successful completion of tutorial

Complementary to existing departmental training (f2f tutorials)

Completed prior to first assessedassignment (2008-09)

VLE delivery enabling:

– student registration by SITS course code/departmental affiliation

– tracking via performance dashboard

Contents of the tutorial

IMS content package

60 mins self-study: video, quiz, interactive scenarios

Focus on academic context to plagiarism: how to avoid it

Advice on correct referencing & citations

Interactive simulation

Student’s perspective through ‘vox-pop’ interviews

Integration within Blackboard

Disaggregation of content items – insertion into CMS & repackaging

Master template design: learning units, quizzes & wiki for departmental examples

– Web links to departmental referencing page

– Personal journal for note-taking / reflection

– Transcripts (PDF/Doc) for all resources

Mark reviewed tool deployed & adaptive release to force linear progression through materials

Certificate (HTML) generated after successful completion of final tests

Content customisation

Academic context to materials

Examples of plagiarism

Unintentional plagiarism:

– paraphrasing; patch writing

Guidance ondepartmentalreferencing styles

Consequences ofplagiarism

Postscript page

Usability: Easy to Use

Student feedback from pilot courses(Autumn term 2007-08)

‘Very easy to use & navigate

around.’

Intelligibility: Easy to understand

Student feedback from pilot courses(Autumn term 2007-08)

‘It explained everything really well.’

Value: Usefulness of materials

Student feedback from pilot courses(Autumn term 2007-08)

‘It was useful to go back to it,

and check things when

writing my essay.’

‘The examples were very

useful as you can apply

these to your own work.’

What’s next?

Spring term review: to reflect on institutionalroll-out (Autumn term 2008-09)

Policy issues: handling joint-honours students

Next steps:

Monitoring completion: Grade Centeremail alert facility

Enhancements: subject-specific examples; collusion

Further actions:

Intermediate version of materials

Mandarin version addressing cultural issues bound up in academic practice

Future plans:

Skills tab on Yorkshare

Questions