Plagiarism - University of Leeds Guide

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Teaching resources

The University aims to develop its students into upstanding members of their academic and professional disciplines. Involved in this is the development of individual academic integrity. This is an aspect of student education that needs to be specifically included and valued within degree programmes.

The resources and strategies on this page are suggested as examples that can be adapted and utilised to develop student understanding and skills and so hopefully reduce the associated problems of plagiarism.

There are a number of examples offered:

1. Presentation slides
2. The plagiarism game
3. Using TurnitinUK as a teaching aid
4. Plagiarism web quest
5. Plagiarism quiz
6. Plagiarism and referencing fact sheets

Staff ideas, comments & feedback:

• If you have used any of the resources or strategies below, or any others you have developed, then you may wish to share your experiences with other staff by taking part in this plagiarism teaching resource poll.
• If you wish to view the comments of other staff then view the plagiarism teaching resource poll results.

1. Presentation slides

A presentation providing a brief overview academic integrity, plagiarism, its detection and the related penalties, and good practice (e.g. referencing) is a valuable inclusion in student induction.

NB - a single isolated presentation in student induction will not be sufficient to tackle these serious issues. Instead this presentation should form part of a wider strategy that also includes related activities, use of the detection system, tutorial/seminars that focus on developing some of the related skills etc.

• Example MS Powerpoint slides (PPT) (20 mins approximate duration)
• Example MS Powerpoint slides including PRS electronic voting activities (PPT) (60 minute duration - used with Computing Postgraduate students Sept. 2005) - a description of the use of this presentation is available on the electronic voting web site.

2. Plagiarism game

A team game which develops an understanding of what plagiarism is through active participation and discussion. Ideal as an ice-breaker in a student induction programme.

This game is based on an idea presented by Jude Carroll (Oxford Brookes) developed and applied at Leeds by Nina Bunes (LUBS) and Clare Wiggins (Law). It involves groups of students (or staff) sorting a set of predefined statements (written on separate cards) describing different sorts of academic practice into:

1. Plagiarism
2. Poor practice (but not plagiarism)
3. Good practice
4. Other

More detailed instructions and the statements used by the Law School (DOC) (opens in a new browser window).

NB - you may wish to customise this game by including different statements and/or categories.

3. Using TurnitinUK as a teaching aid

1. Students should not be encouraged to routinely rewrite assignments to obtain a ‘clean’ originality report.  It is recommended that students are allowed to see an originality report based either on a model assignment or a draft of their own work and perhaps resubmit as a learning exercise early in their academic career.
2. Consider anonymising existing originality reports and sharing with students for discussion. Ask students to identify those parts of the report that would be deemed plagiarism by the marker and explain their answers.
3. Demonstrate Turnitin and an originality report to students for discussion.

4. Plagiarism web quest

Students work in groups, each taking on a different role for example: student accused of plagiarism, tutor who marked the work, students union rep, head of Office of academic appeals and regulations. A piece of work has been suspected of plagiarism. Using the University websites on referencing, guidelines and penalties, student support etc the students determine whether the student is guilty and what the penalties might be.

5. Plagiarism quiz

An on-line self assessment quiz that develops an understanding of plagiarism and referencing skills. If students get a "pass" mark at the end of the quiz they are presented with a customised on-screen certificate of success which they are invited to print out. This can be used as evidence of successful participation in the activity.

Take the plagiarism quiz (opens in a new browser window). You will be asked for your name and group before beginning the quiz. This information is recorded in the assessment database with your results and is used in the final certificate.

6. Plagiarism and referencing fact sheets

The University of Alberta has created a set of concise one-page handouts for its students which cover issues related to plagiarism (University of Alberta fact sheets). This concept has been taken up by the School of Law at Leeds to create their own fact sheets to be distributed to students (links below open MS word documents):

1. 10 tips to avoid plagiarism (DOC)
2. Paraphrasing (DOC)
3. To quote or not to quote (DOC) - common knowledge

NB minor amendments will be needed if these fact sheets are to be used in other disciplines.

 

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