Assessing academic writing on a pre-sessional EAP course: Designing assessment which supports learning

Pre-sessional EAP courses in the UK fulfil a difficult dual role. Not only are they charged with helping students learn the academic language and literacy skills they will require on their degree courses, but they are also expected to summatively assess those skills in order to decide on the readiness of students to begin English medium degree study. This creates tension between assessment and learning. Students are often extrinsically motivated by the need for a passing grade rather than focussing on the learning gains they make throughout the course. For this reason it is important that the approach to assessment on pre-sessional courses actually supports learning. This paper outlines the approach taken to the assessment of academic writing on the PEAP course at Nottingham Trent University. It describes how the assessment was redesigned to emphasise process over end product and to maximise early and sustained student engagement. This was achieved by careful scaffolding of the writing process, the strategic use of summative elements of the assessment, and an emphasis on formative feedback, reflection, and understanding of the assessment criteria. The paper considers how this approach to assessment is supporting student learning but also points out some ongoing concerns

ETHICS BUILT IN: A DIALOGIC APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS ETHICS EDUCATION

The study of ethics is unarguably a key component of Management Information Systems (MIS) education. From the early days of the discipline, concerns abounded that computing and information were fraught with the possibility of misuse, leading the profession to determine that it had an obligation to do its utmost to encourage ingrained ethical practice. I propose a new approach to ethics teaching in Management Information Systems, one that addresses the need to inculcate habits of ethical thought as an integral part of the design, deployment and use of Management Information Systems. Students would learn the necessity of including ethical analysis at the beginning rather than at the end of MIS initiatives because ethics would be presented as “built in”, an essential organic element of major MIS topics. The habits of ethical thought would be supported by introducing students to models and frameworks using a dialogic approach

Encouraging good writing practice in first-year psychology students writing: an intervention using Turnitin

There is growing concern among many regarding plagiarism within student writing . This has promoted investigation in to both the factors that predict plagiarism and potential methods of reducing plagiarism. Consequently, we developed and evaluated an intervention to enhance good practice within academic writing through the use of the plagiarism detection software Turnitin. One hundred and sixteen first-year Psychology students submitted work to Turnitin and 71 of these students evaluated their learning experiences. For the next assignment the students completed, there was a reduction in academic misconduct cases compared to the previous year and students evaluated the session positively. The findings have implications for teaching good practice in academic writing

Is it cheating or learning the craft of writing? Using Turnitin to help students avoid plagiarism

Plagiarism is a growing problem for universities, many of which are turning to software detection for help in detecting and dealing with it. This paper explores issues around plagiarism and reports on a study of the use of Turnitin in a new university. The purpose of the study was to inform the senior management team about the plagiarism policy and the use of Turnitin. The study found that staff and students largely understood the university’s policy and Turnitin’s place within it, and were very supportive of the use of Turnitin in originality checking. Students who had not used Turnitin were generally keen to do so. The recommendation to the senior management team, which was implemented, was that the use of Turnitin for originality checking should be made compulsory where possible - at the time of the study the use of Turnitin was at the discretion of programme directors. A further aim of the study was to contribute to the sector’s body of knowledge. Prevention of plagiarism through education is a theme identified by Badge and Scott (2009) who conclude an area lacking in research is "investigation of the impact of these tools on staff teaching practices". Although a number of recent studies have considered educational use of Turnitin they focus on individual programmes or subject areas rather than institutions as a whole and the relationship with policy

Try it on: Voice, concordancing and text-matching in doctoral writing

Appropriate use and acknowledgement of sources continues to be a central concern of academic integrity. A major challenge for research students in using sources is the development of a confident authorial voice that matches disciplinary expectations in language use, yet manages to do so without plagiarising through inappropriate text- matching or recycling of language. This is a daunting challenge for all research writers, particularly for English as an Additional Language (EAL) researchers who are still grappling with English grammar and syntax. In order to develop novice research writers' understanding of acceptable use of sources and mastery of disciplinary language, we have developed a process called "Try it on" that uses concordancing software alongside text-matching software (Turnitin). Here we present textual analyses of two cases using this process: in one, the student's percentage of matches decreased as he developed his authorial voice; in the second, the percentage of matches increased as the student's language choices came to reflect more closely the expected usage in the discipline, thus replicating the expected authorial voice for that particular audience. These cases demonstrate how "Try it on" can be used to help students write in an appropriate authorial voice while also avoiding plagiarism

Is plagiarism changing over time? A 10-year time-lag study with three points of measurement

Are more students cheating on assessment tasks in higher education? Despite ongoing media speculation concerning increased ‘copying and pasting’ and ghostwritten assignments produced by ‘paper mills’, few studies have charted historical trends in rates and types of plagiarism. Additionally, there has been little comment from researchers as to the best way to assess changes in plagiarism over time. In this paper, we discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of research designs for assessing changes in plagiarism over time, namely cross-sectional, longitudinal, and time-lag. We also report the results of our own time-lag study of plagiarism. We assessed self-reported engagement in, awareness of, and attitudes towards plagiarism in three comparable groups of students at the same university on three occasions, each separated by five years (2004, 2009, and 2014). The data from our study paint an encouraging picture of increased understanding and reduced occurrence of several forms of plagiarism, with no upward trend in verbatim copying or ghostwriting. We suggest that technological and educational initiatives are counteracting the potential for increased plagiarism from online sources

PLAGIARISM AMONG JUNIOR LECTURERS IN INDONESIA: HOW AND WHY?

Purpose of the study: Lecturers of public universities in Indonesia are encouraged to publish articles in internationally reputable journals frequently. Due to their workload and tight schedule, they may be tempted to copy some or part of their works. This study aimed at investigating the reasons for young lecturers on plagiarism in English academic writing. Methodology: A quantitative method was used to describe and explain the phenomenon of the junior lecturers’ plagiaristic conduct. A set of questionnaires was used as the instrument to obtain the data. The data were collected from 82 young lecturers who were attending an English intensive program at the Language Centre of Syiah Kuala University, the oldest and biggest university in the province of Aceh. Main Findings: The results show a contradiction between junior lecturers’ awareness of their practical behavior. Their high awareness of plagiarism was not a benchmark from the misconduct or plagiarism. Surprisingly, the findings show some of the junior lecturers were intentionally plagiarizing by paying more professional writers to finish their articles. They also copied the whole source or part of it to produce better writing work. Finally, lack of consequences and lack of ability in academic writing are the major reasons why young lecturers plagiarized. Applications of this study: This study applies to the area of English Teaching and Learning. However, it does not rule out the possibility that the study result applies to other fields of study. Novelty/Originality of this study: Moreover, the study result might be useful for readers’ conceptual development because there is very little research related to lecturers’ plagiaristic behavior, especially in Indonesia. A more in-depth investigation can be obtained and tested using this study result

Managing plagiarism of South African Honours students: Does an intervention have any effect?

The aim of the study was to investigate whether an intervention to address post-graduate student plagiarism in an Honours programme in Human Resource Management at a South African university had an impact one-year later. In a quasi-experimental design, the sample comprised 34 students in a control group and 70 students in two intervention groups. Student essays were examined for different types of plagiarism at two different times and compared by means of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Findings indicate that students who were exposed to both parts of an intervention evidenced less plagiarism in their essays one year later than those who were exposed to only one part of the intervention or no intervention at all.https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.82.1.230