Educating about plagiarism and collusion

Research has established that many students regularly plagiarise without being aware they are doing so, and that they arrive at university without the research and writing skills required to avoid plagiarism. Educating your students about the seriousness of plagiarism, what it is and how to avoid it is an essential aspect of managing this problem.

Each faculty has its own strategies for educating students about plagiarism and collusion. These include prominent explanations in unit guides and assignment cover sheets of what the terms mean and the penalties they carry. Some faculties also provide a suite of resources related to plagiarism for students to access in their DSO sites. Teachers have found it helpful also to include in their own communicatons about assessment a note that they acknowledge the difficulties of academic writing, and to provide support and resources in this area. A supportive approach is likely to be more effective and satisfying than a punitive one.

If your DSO sites do not already contain links to resources and software to help students understand, recognise and avoid plagiarism and collusion, consider building in the following to your assessment instructions.

Plagiarism and collusion self-test

The online Plagiarism and collusion self-test was developed by the Division of Student Life and Institute of Teaching and Learning to help students understand and avoid plagiarism and collusion.

You might consider providing a link to this self-test in your assignment instructions, and encourage students to complete the self-test before finalising their assignment.

Turnitin

Turnitin is DSO software to detect text that may not be original. In most Deakin units it is not compulsory for students to use the software, but you can make it available by setting up one or more assignments with the setting to 'enable plagiarism detection' selected in your DSO sites. Turnitin can help students learn about plagiarism if you adjust the advanced settings so that students can submit their assignments as many times as they like before the due date and receive feedback on whether any of their text matches with other sources.

• For instructions on using Turnitin as a teacher, see the Dropbox with plagiarism detection (Turnitin) staff guides.
• For instructions on how to use Turnitin as a student, see the Turnitin student guides - it is a good idea to provide a link to this page in your assignment instructions as well, if you are using assignments with plagiarism detection enabled in your units.

Guide to assignment writing and referencing

The Division of Student Life provides every student with important study skill information on assignment writing. Consider adding a link to this page in your assignment instructions as well.

Division of Student Life language and learning advisers

Language and learning advisers on all campuses offer students face-to-face or phone-based consultation to improve their approaches to university learning, including helping them understand and avoid plagiarism and collusion. A link to the contacts page for language and learning advisers is another resource you could provide to students in your DSO site.