Plagiarism Prevention

There exist various sources that students can use to plagiarise. Sometimes it may be difficult to detect plagiarism in student assignments especially when students have hired someone to do the work for them or have bought the essay from an essay bank. Taking appropriate steps to prevent plagiarism is important when dealing with plagiarism.

It is important for academics to:

• educate themselves about what constitutes plagiarism and why students cheat; and to
• educate their students about what constitutes plagiarism and the penalties for plagiarising.

How to prevent plagiarism?

The following is a summary of some suggestions for good practice suggested by Carroll and Appleton (2001).

• Create new assessment tasks each time the course is taught.
• Avoid setting assessment tasks that only require students to collect and explain information. This kind of information is likely to be on-line and available on essay bank websites.
• Consider creating assessments that require analysis, evaluation and synthesis and adding information gathering to learning outcomes.
• Where possible, design tasks that can have multiple solutions and ask students to create their own solution with justification.
• Set a range of assessment tasks; for example, require students to submit artefacts such as outlines and first drafts on specific dates in the lead up to the final submission date. This will encourage students to do the work themselves rather that look for the finished product.
• Inform students about plagiarism in a student-friendly language. Teach students how to avoid plagiarism with active learning techniques.
• Take actions and treat all instances of plagiarism formally.
• Use a plagiarism detection tool such as Turnitin that checks for collusion as well as on-line cheating.
• Make use of assignment cover sheets mandatory that require signed declarations of originality.

These issues are elaborated in detail in Carroll's new handbook (2007), which you are highly recommended to consult.

References

• Jude Carroll and Jon Appleton (2001). Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide. JISC/Oxford Brookes University.
• Jude Carroll (2007). A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education (2nd Edition). Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.

Other Useful links

• Useful information about authorship and plagiarism targeted at students (from Essex University)
• An interactive tutorial for students (from Rochester Institute of Technology)
• A self-test on plagiarism (from Aberdeen University)