plagiarisim | Learning, Teaching and Leadership

Coming in 2021! New book: Plagiarism in Higher Education: Tackling Tough Topics in Academic Integrity

August 10, 2020

Pretty excited to see that my upcoming book now has an official webpage on the publisher site! The manuscript has been officially approved by my editor, the wonderful Jessica Gribble. The next steps are for it to move into production. The scheduled release date is early 2021.

The book is not yet available for sale though. You’ll have to wait until closer to the publication date for that. In the meantime, you can send the book info to your friendly neighbourhood librarian, and ask them to put it in their ordering queue!

Plagiarism in Higher Education: Tackling Tough Topics in Academic Integrity

Libraries Unlimited

Pages: 230

The book will be available in paperback and e-book formats.

Description

Plagiarism is a complex issue that affects many stakeholders in higher education, but it isn’t always well understood. This text provides an in-depth, evidence-based understanding of plagiarism with the goal of engaging campus communities in informed conversations about proactive approaches to plagiarism.

Offering practical suggestions for addressing plagiarism campus-wide, this book tackles such messy topics as self-plagiarism, plagiarism among international students, essay mills, and contract cheating. It also answers such tough questions as:

Why do students plagiarize, and why don’t faculty always report it?
Why are plagiarism cases so hard to manage?
What if researchers themselves plagiarize?
How can we design better learning assessments to prevent plagiarism?
When should we choose human detection versus text-matching software?

This book focuses on academic integrity from a teaching and learning perspective, offering comprehensive insights into various aspects of plagiarism with a particular lens on higher education to benefit the entire campus community.

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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, and the Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity, University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of the University of Calgary.

This blog has had over 2 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Microsoft’s new “Rewrite” feature: A challenge to academic integrity?

April 20, 2020

Microsoft has just announced a new feature in Word: “Rewrite”. Microsoft shared details of the feature in this blog post last Friday. The feature is designed to provide “sentence-level suggestions” to help users improve their writing. Microsoft reports that, “This feature is powered by cutting-edge, neural-network, machine learning models, which are trained on millions of sentences.” Zhang Li of Microsoft writes that the new feature:

“Improves fluency: These suggestions aim to improve the flow of the wording, including mechanics like grammar and spelling.

Concise phrasing: The goal of these suggestions is to express an idea clearly, without extra words.
Paraphrased sentence: These suggestions offer synonyms for alternative wording.

Improves readability: The goal of these suggestions is to make the writing easier to read for people with different reading abilities. In general, suggestions will include shorter, simpler wording.”

Reading through the blog post comments, users are anticipating this will replace services such as Grammarly. People in the tech world are already calling it a “game changer”.

From an academic integrity perspective, it certainly could change the game. Drastically. Scholars such as Ann Rogerson and Grace McCarthy started publishing articles about the impact of paraphrasing software a few years ago. Their article “Using Internet based paraphrasing tools: Original work, patchwriting or facilitated plagiarism” prompts us to consider how paraphrasing software impacts our notion of writing, plagiarism and “originality”.

Microsoft reports that the new feature is currently only available in English and requires a subscription to Microsoft Office 365.

My prediction is that this new feature will change writing as much as spell check has, but in ways that are infinitely more complex. Spell check offers suggestions on individual words. Grammar check highlights possible grammar errors. A feature designed to re-write entire sentences has the potential to shift writing in significant new ways.

This may challenge our notions of “original writing” in ways we cannot yet predict. Educators and administrators will have to figure out how, if at all, this will impact our understanding of plagiarism, authorship and originality. Only time will if assisted and augmented writing will become the new normal.

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Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, and the Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity, University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of the University of Calgary.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Journal of Educational Thought: Special Issue on Academic Integrity and Ethics

January 14, 2020

JET Cover 52(3) I am so pleased to share that the special issue of the Journal of Educational Thought dedicated to academic integrity and ethics is now out. I am excited about this work because it adds to the growing body of scholarly and research literature on these important topics, not only in Canada, but globally, too.

I was the guest Co-Editor for this special issue, together with the journal’s editor-in-chief, Ian Winchester.

Here’s an overview of what’s in the issue:

Editorials

Winchester, I. (2019). Academic integrity in the university. Journal of Educational Thought, 52(3), 187-190.

Eaton, S. E. (2019). Considerations of corruption, ethics and integrity in educational contexts: Guest editorial. Journal of Educational Thought, 52(3), 191-192.

Research articles

Lock, J., Schroeder, M., & Eaton, S. E. (2019). Designing and implementing an online academic integrity tutorial: Identifying the challenges within a post-secondary context. Journal of Educational Thought, 52(3), 193-208.

Lancaster, T., Glendinning, I., Foltýnek, T., Dlabolová, D., & Linkeschová, D. (2019). The perceptions of higher education students on contract cheating and educational corruption in South East Europe. Journal of Educational Thought, 52(3), 209-227.

Henry, R., & Gabel, C. (2019). “It’s not just a picture when lives are at stake: Ethical considerations and photovoice methods with Indigenous Peoples engaged in street lifestyles”. Journal of Educational Thought, 52(3), 229-252.

Miron, J. B. (2019). Academic integrity in a student practice environment: An elicitation study. Journal of Educational Thought, 52(3), 253-273.

All of the research articles underwent double-blind peer review.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Academic Integrity: Resource for Teaching Assistants

September 16, 2019

Academic Integrity resource for teaching assistants

As a Teaching Assistant (TA) it can be tricky to know what your responsibilities are if you suspect or observe academic misconduct. This resource is intended to help both TAs and course instructors about the roles and responsibilities teaching assistants play in upholding academic integrity at the University of Calgary.

Teaching assistants are responsible for acting with integrity, maintaining the privacy of all parties involved and reporting any suspected or actual cases of academic misconduct to the course instructor. TAs are not responsible for confronting student(s) who may be allegedly responsible for academic misconduct and nor are they responsible for imposing sanctions (discipline). It is the responsibility of the course instructor to follow the guidelines established by their faculty for responding to allegations of academic misconduct.

Open communication between course instructors and teaching assistants is key. Establishing expectations early in the term, before issues might arise can be very helpful for teaching assistants.

It is important for teaching assistants to know they are not alone when it comes to upholding academic integrity.

This one-page tip sheet is intended as a suggested guideline to help teaching assistants figure out what to do if they encounter or suspect a breach of academic integrity. This handout is not exhaustive and it may not cover all situations. This resource was developed specifically for teaching assistants at the University of Calgary and may not apply to TAs at other institutions.

Here is a link to this free and downloadable .pdf resource: U Have Integrity: Resource for Teaching Assistants.

Here is the text of the .pdf for anyone wanting a quick read:

As a teaching assistant it can be tricky to know what your responsibilities are if you suspect or observe academic misconduct. This resource is intended as a suggested guideline about what to do in such situations in your role as a teaching assistant (TA). This resource may not cover all situations, but in can serve as a starting point.

What to do

Familiarize yourself with the University of Calgary Student Academic Misconduct Policy and Procedure.
Familiarize yourself with the resources and services offered by the Student Success Centre about academic integrity.
Start a conversation with your course instructor at the beginning of the term about what they expect from you in terms of upholding integrity in your role. It is a good idea to do this before you undertake your work so both parties have clear expectations.
Act as a role model for academic integrity.
Discuss any alleged or actual breaches of integrity with the course instructor.
Gather evidence related to the alleged misconduct. Keep detailed notes of the incident, including dates and times, who was involved, etc. Provide this information to the course instructor.
Remember that learning how to address academic misconduct is part of your training as a teaching assistant, but you are not alone!

What to avoid

Do not keep the incident a secret (even if the student asks you to). Talk to the course instructor.
Do not discuss the matter with any other teaching assistants, students, etc.
Do not confront a student. It is the role of the course instructor to address alleged or actual academic misconduct with the student(s) involved.
Do not impose any sanctions (punishments) on your own. The course instructor (not the TA) is responsible for following the guidelines established within the faculty about how to address actual or suspected cases of academic misconduct.
Do not share details (even if they are de-identified) on social media, even in closed or private groups.

Related posts:

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

The foundations of scholarship: Original sources

September 3, 2019

Bowers 1964-sm.jpg I am always telling my students to find and cite the original sources rather than relying on secondary sources. In the work I do on academic misconduct, the work of William Bowers is often cited as a seminal study in the field. The problem is that Bowers’s original work is hard to get your hands on. I was able to find a copy of his 1966 doctoral dissertation, but the original 1964 book seemed almost impossible to find. The two sources have exactly the same title. Although both texts are based on the same content, it is presented in different ways in both texts.

I can say this because I’ve now read both sources in their entirety.

Thanks to our amazing librarians at the University of Calgary, who were able to track down a copy of Bowers’s original 1964 work. Through the inter-library loan system, they were able to request the book from another library (thanks, University of Waterloo!) and have it sent to the university where I work so I could read it.

It is a beautiful volume, obviously produced on a typewriter with painstaking detail. This work was a true labour of love. I so appreciate having the opportunity to read it for myself. I now understand Bowers’s work much better. (I purposely do not offer a synopsis of his work in this blog post, so as to encourage others to go read the original works themselves, rather than relying on someone else’s summary!) Although more updated studies have been published since then, this nevertheless remains an important foundational book in my field. I am delighted to have had the privilege to read it.

I encourage anyone who wants to undertake deep scholarship in a particular field to find the original works upon which the field was built. If you can’t find the books, ask your friendly neighbourhood librarian for help. You might be surprised how they can help you be a better scholar.

References:

Bowers, W. J. (1964). Student dishonesty and its control in college. New York: NY: Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University.

Bowers, W. J. (1966). Student dishonesty and its control in college. (Doctor of Philosophy). Columbia University, New York.

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This blog has had over 2 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of the Werklund School of Education or the University of Calgary.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Learning, Teaching and Leadership