Discursive Construction of Contract Cheating and Degradation of Higher Education: Comments on The Daily Mail Online

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more attention has been paid to practices of academic integrity in higher education institutions (HEIs). Part of this focus has been on contract cheating, which involves the outsourcing of assessments to third parties. There is little research on how cases of contract cheating are represented by journalists in the media and how readers interact and exchange comments regarding this subject. In this article, I surveyed the online section of the UK's most popular news brand, The Daily Mail, and commentary from readers. Through The Daily Mail's online database, I compiled a corpus of 983 comments written in response to articles regarding contract cheating in the United Kingdom. The corpus was analyzed using techniques grounded in the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (KELLER, 2005). I found that there are repetitive practices which structure common patterns of comment and response, including overlapping discourses of populist orientation, othering of international and overseas students, self-positioning as expert, and other-positioning of current students as lacking integrity and moral strength. These themes relate to strategies to negotiate the apportionment of blame for contract cheating to historical political governance, generational difference, and societal degradation.Seit dem Ausbruch der COVID-19-Pandemie wurde den Praktiken der akademischen Integrität in Hochschuleinrichtungen mehr Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Ein Teil des Interesses galt dabei dem Betrug, der die Auslagerung von Prüfungen an Dritte beinhaltete. Es gibt nur wenige Untersuchungen darüber, wie Fälle von Betrug von Journalist*innen in den Medien dargestellt wurden und wie die Leser*innen interagieren und sich zu diesem Thema äußerten. In diesem Artikel habe ich den Online-Teil der populärsten britischen Nachrichtenmarke, The Daily Mail, und die Kommentare der Leser*innen untersucht. Aus der Online-Datenbank der Daily Mail habe ich einen Korpus von 983 Kommentaren zusammengestellt, die als Reaktion auf Artikel über Betrug im Vereinigten Königreich geschrieben worden waren. Das Korpus wurde mithilfe von Techniken untersucht, die auf dem Ansatz der wissenssoziologischen Diskursanalyse beruhten (KELLER 2005). Ich fand heraus, dass es sich wiederholende Praktiken gab, die gemeinsame Muster von Kommentaren und Reaktionen strukturierten, einschließlich sich überschneidender Positionierungen im Sinne einer populistischen Orientierung, der Fremdbestimmung internationaler und ausländischer Studierender, der Selbstpositionierung als Expert*in und der Fremdpositionierung aktueller Studierender in Richtung Mangel an Integrität und moralischer Stärke. Diese Themen bezogen sich auf Strategien zur Verhandlung der Schuldzuweisung für Betrug an die historische politische Führung, den Generationsunterschied und die gesellschaftliche Degradierung

Reconceptualizing academic dishonesty as a struggle for intersubjective recognition: a new theoretical model

Renewed interest in academic dishonesty (AD) has occurred as a result of the changes to society and higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a broad body of research investigating why and how students engage in intentional violations of principles of academic integrity, the causes of these behaviors remain uncertain. In order to fully address the overarching issue of why students engage in academically dishonest practices, social philosophy can be invoked. This article reviews the current research on AD in higher education, and then seeks to develop a new theoretical understanding based on Axel Honneth’s (1995) Theory of Recognition, positing that it is not a moral deficit that drives students to commit such acts, but a struggle for intersubjective recognition and a subtle form of privatized resistance. This offers a universal model for interpreting and understanding the position of the student in higher education, while offering insight into a social pathology, namely, the social pressure that requires higher education to be viewed as an instrumental rather than intrinsic value

What are Automated Paraphrasing Tools and how do we address them? A review of a growing threat to academic integrity

This article reviews the literature surrounding the growing use of Automated Paraphrasing Tools (APTs) as a threat to educational integrity. In academia there is a technological arms-race occurring between the development of tools and techniques which facilitate violations of the principles of educational integrity, including text-based plagiarism, and methods for identifying such behaviors. APTs are part of this race, as they are a rapidly developing technology which can help writers transform words, phrases, and entire sentences and paragraphs at the click of a button. This article seeks to review the literature surrounding the history of APT use and the current understanding of APTs placed in the broader context of the educational integrity-technology arms race

Aplicació de la crítica immanent als mitjans en línia i a les crisis socials a Myanmar: una anàlisi del discurs de la representació de la minoria Rohingya

Aquesta investigació té com a objectiu comprendre la representació del grup minoritari rohingya i les crisis de refugiats i desplaçament associades en els mitjans de comunicació en línia amb el Regne Unit. La investigació utilitza una metodologia d'Anàlisi del Discurs Assistit per Corpus i l'interpreta des de la perspectiva de la crítica immanent. Es demostra que existeix una contradicció entre la representació de tals crisis i els objectius generals que la societat globalitzada moderna pretén aconseguir. Això presenta una possible contradicció en les estructures subjacents de la societat i l'espai públic, la qual cosa justifica una investigació continua per a comprendre completament tals processos socials. El projecte d'investigació utilitza un corpus especialitzat, específicament dissenyat, i aplica un marc nou utilitzant tècniques quantitatives i qualitatives per a analitzar el text amb la finalitat de situar i comprendre les normes socials presents en el discurs, i comparar-les amb les normes aspiracionales de la societat globalitzada moderna. En resum, els resultats tenen àmplies implicacions per als estudis de refugiats, estudis de crisis humanitàries, sociologia, lingüística aplicada i estudis de mitjans de comunicació. La metodologia de combinar la crítica immanent amb els Estudis del Discurs Assistits per Corpus es mostra possible i ofereix un marc flexible per a interpretar el discurs i les normes socials a través de l'anàlisi textual en futurs projectes d'investigació.This investigation aims to understand the representation of the Rohingya minority group and associated refugee and displacement crises in UK online news media. The research undertakes a corpus-assisted discourse analysis methodology and interprets this from the perspective of immanent critique. The findings demonstrate that there is a contradiction between the representation of such crises, and the overarching goals that modern globalized society aims to achieve. This presents a possible contradiction in the underlying structures of society and the public arena, warranting continued investigation to fully understand such social processes. The research project uses a purpose-built specialised corpus and applies a novel framework using both quantitative and qualitative techniques to analyse text in order to locate and understand social norms present in the discourse, and measure these against the aspirational norms of modern globalized society. In summary, the findings have broad implications for refugee studies, studies of humanitarian crises, sociology, applied linguistics, and media studies. The methodology of combining immanent critique with corpus-assisted discourse studies is shown to be possible and offers a flexible framework for interpreting discourse and social norms through textual analysis in future research projects

A Review of AI-Powered Writing Tools and Their Implications for Academic Integrity in the Language Classroom

Writers have many digital tools available to help them with the creation of text. In some cases, these tools have been in existence for a long time, such as spellcheckers and basic grammar checkers that are available on word processing software. Today, new and increasingly more advanced tools are in use, and the ramifications of their use are not yet fully understood, particularly in the language classroom. Public interest in such tools has reached new levels with the release of artificially intelligent tools such as ChatGPT. In addition to this, the speed at which assistive writing technologies are developing may outpace that of the creation of institutional academic integrity policies and guidelines for their use. This results in grey areas, confusion, and a lack of awareness of such tools and their uses among educators, students and administrators. This conceptual article seeks to systematically review and categorize these tools drawing on the research literature and the authors’ personal experience in the classroom. From this inductive analysis, three categories of digital writing tools aside from ChatGPT and LLM-driven text creation tools are described. These are Machine Translators (MT), Digital Writing Assistants (DWAs), and Automated Paraphrasing Tools (APTs). The key contribution of this article is the development of these three categories which can form a basis for crafting comprehensive pedagogical approaches and academic integrity policies which focus on a broader range of tools than ChatGPT and LLMs alone

Learner Autonomy in the Vietnamese EAP Context: A Literature Review

This literature review explores the current body of research pertaining to learner autonomy in the Vietnamese English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context, investigating themes and research methodologies, conclusions drawn, limitations and possible avenues for further study and new research directions in the future. We demonstrate that although there are many studies exploring the concept of learner autonomy, the definitions as to how this term is described is not clear throughout the literature, and this is a limitation in the current research field. In addition to this, there is significant evidence suggesting that Vietnamese EAP learners are keen to engage in autonomous learning practices and can demonstrate the self-regulation required to do so, which disagrees with traditional conceptions of Confucian heritage culture learning approaches

Game of Tones: Faculty detection of GPT-4 generated content in university assessments

This study explores the robustness of university assessments against the use of Open AI's Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4) generated content and evaluates the ability of academic staff to detect its use when supported by the Turnitin Artificial Intelligence (AI) detection tool. The research involved twenty-two GPT-4 generated submissions being created and included in the assessment process to be marked by fifteen different faculty members. The study reveals that although the detection tool identified 91% of the experimental submissions as containing some AI-generated content, the total detected content was only 54.8%. This suggests that the use of adversarial techniques regarding prompt engineering is an effective method in evading AI detection tools and highlights that improvements to AI detection software are needed. Using the Turnitin AI detect tool, faculty reported 54.5% of the experimental submissions to the academic misconduct process, suggesting the need for increased awareness and training into these tools. Genuine submissions received a mean score of 54.4, whereas AI-generated content scored 52.3, indicating the comparable performance of GPT-4 in real-life situations. Recommendations include adjusting assessment strategies to make them more resistant to the use of AI tools, using AI-inclusive assessment where possible, and providing comprehensive training programs for faculty and students. This research contributes to understanding the relationship between AI-generated content and academic assessment, urging further investigation to preserve academic integrity

ECOLINGUISTICS AND THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Most ecolinguistic analysis is conducted with texts produced for the general public. This article explores the use of ecolinguistics in the education of young people. The analysis focuses on young people’s media, specifically focusing on films. Two children’s movies (The Lorax and Back to the Outback) are analyzed using the ecolinguistic concept of stories we live by and the ecojustice concept of intersectionality. This analysis is undertaken to explicate these concepts in the hope that others will employ these same concepts to analyze other texts. These example analyses are explained about classroom practice and generating “noticing” as a learning outcome. Finally, five further techniques for involving students and others in ecolinguistic and ecojustice analysis are described. This article gives important insight into practical tools that can benefit teachers and students in the classroom. Additionally, children’s films and other media developed for children and youths may also be useful for the enjoyment and education of adults

Components, impacts and costs of dementia home support: a research programme including the DESCANT RCT

BackgroundOver half of people with dementia live at home. We know little about what home support could be clinically effective or cost-effective in enabling them to live well.ObjectivesWe aimed to (1) review evidence for components of home support, identify their presence in the literature and in services in England, and develop an appropriate economic model; (2) develop and test a practical memory support package in early-stage dementia, test the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of routine home support in later-stage dementia and design a toolkit based on this evidence; and (3) elicit the preferences of staff, carers and people with dementia for home support inputs and packages, and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these approaches in early- and later-stage dementia.DesignWe undertook (1) an evidence synthesis, national surveys on the NHS and social care and an economic review; (2) a multicentre pragmatic randomised trial [Dementia Early Stage Cognitive Aids New Trial (DESCANT)] to estimate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of providing memory aids and guidance to people with early-stage dementia (the DESCANT intervention), alongside process evaluation and qualitative analysis, an observational study of existing care packages in later-stage dementia along with qualitative analysis, and toolkit development to summarise this evidence; and (3) consultation with experts, staff and carers to explore the balance between informal and paid home support using case vignettes, discrete choice experiments to explore the preferences of people with dementia and carers between home support packages in early- and later-stage dementia, and cost–utility analysis building on trial and observational study.SettingThe national surveys described Community Mental Health Teams, memory clinics and social care services across England. Recruitment to the trial was through memory services in nine NHS trusts in England and one health board in Wales. Recruitment to the observational study was through social services in 17 local authorities in England. Recruitment for the vignette and preference studies was through memory services, community centres and carers’ organisations.ParticipantsPeople aged > 50 years with dementia within 1 year of first attendance at a memory clinic were eligible for the trial. People aged > 60 years with later-stage dementia within 3 months of a review of care needs were eligible for the observational study. We recruited staff, carers and people with dementia for the vignette and preference studies. All participants had to give written informed consent.Main outcome measuresThe trial and observational study used the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale as the primary outcome and also measured quality of life, capability, cognition, general psychological health and carers’ sense of competence.MethodsOwing to the heterogeneity of interventions, methods and outcome measures, our evidence and economic reviews both used narrative synthesis. The main source of economic studies was the NHS Economic Evaluation Database. We analysed the trial and observational study by linear mixed models. We analysed the trial by ‘treatment allocated’ and used propensity scores to minimise confounding in the observational study.ResultsOur reviews and surveys identified several home support approaches of potential benefit. In early-stage dementia, the DESCANT trial had 468 randomised participants (234 intervention participants and 234 control participants), with 347 participants analysed. We found no significant effect at the primary end point of 6 months of the DESCANT intervention on any of several participant outcome measures. The primary outcome was the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale, for which scores range from 0 to 60, with higher scores showing greater dependence. After adjustment for differences at baseline, the mean difference was 0.38, slightly but not significantly favouring the comparator group receiving treatment as usual. The 95% confidence interval ran from –0.89 to 1.65 (p = 0.56). There was no evidence that more intensive care packages in later-stage dementia were more effective than basic care. However, formal home care appeared to help keep people at home. Staff recommended informal care that cost 88% of formal care, but for informal carers this ratio was only 62%. People with dementia preferred social and recreational activities, and carers preferred respite care and regular home care. The DESCANT intervention is probably not cost-effective in early-stage dementia, and intensive care packages are probably not cost-effective in later-stage dementia. From the perspective of the third sector, intermediate intensity packages were cheaper but less effective. Certain elements may be driving these results, notably reduced use of carers’ groups.LimitationsOur chosen outcome measures may not reflect subtle outcomes valued by people with dementia.ConclusionsSeveral approaches preferred by people with dementia and their carers have potential. However, memory aids aiming to affect daily living activities in early-stage dementia or intensive packages compared with basic care in later-stage dementia were not clinically effective or cost-effective.Future workFurther work needs to identify what people with dementia and their carers prefer and develop more sensitive outcome measures.Study registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN12591717. The evidence synthesis is registered as PROSPERO CRD42014008890.FundingThis project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research programme and will be published in full in Programme Grants for Applied Research; Vol. 9, No. 6. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

Study of Spin and Decay-Plane Correlations of W Bosons in the e+e- -> W+W- Process at LEP

Data collected at LEP at centre-of-mass energies \sqrt(s) = 189 - 209 GeV are used to study correlations of the spin of W bosons using e+e- -> W+W- -> lnqq~ events. Spin correlations are favoured by data, and found to agree with the Standard Model predictions. In addition, correlations between the W-boson decay planes are studied in e+e- -> W+W- -> lnqq~ and e+e- -> W+W- -> qq~qq~ events. Decay-plane correlations, consistent with zero and with the Standard Model predictions, are measured