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Our On©ite reporter has been collecting stories about academic honesty from around campus.
For each of these stories, click the headlines below:
Lending your essay - friendship or deception?
| Recently it was discovered that two students enrolled in STU101 had submitted alarmingly similar essays. The students involved have declined to comment, but inside sources claim that one of the students had lent their assignment to the other, as they were behind in their study; the 'lender' was apparently completely unaware that the 'borrower' had blatantly copied their work. The question now is "who is at fault?" | Our On©ite reporter has consulted the University's Third Party Assistance in UG and PG Coursework Guidelines, which states that the 'lender' is as much at fault as the 'borrower'. Therefore it looks very serious for both students. An interview with a staff member within the faculty suggests that the matter is being taken very seriously and confirms that, in cases such as these, further disciplinary steps are normally taken. |
University of Auckland's guidelines on academic integrity.
Recycling - good for cans and bottles but not for academic work
| Although conscientious waste disposal and recycling is encouraged around campus, the re-submission of coursework is strongly discouraged. Recently, several cases where students have submitted essays for more than one assignment have come to the attention of staff. These cases have ranged from reusing multiple paragraphs within a previous essay to reusing the entire essay with a new title. Each case is being reviewed separately, but all are considered direct plagiarism even though it is their own work that students are plagiarising. | Our On©ite reporter interviewed one of the students involved... "I really thought that because I had written the essay in the first place that I could reuse some of the paragraphs. After all, the essay topic wasn't much different and I got a really good mark for it". However, having spoken to the department it transpires that this student received a zero the second time around. Apparently, this type of recycling produces red faces rather than a greener planet. |
University of Auckland's guidelines on academic integrity.
When referencing your sources, how much is enough?
| Last week our On©ite Reporter was contacted by a distraught student who had been accused of plagiarism for failing to include a reference list in her coursework assignment. The student, who declined to give her name, said that she was not aware that she needed to have a reference list. She had diligently referenced her sources with in-text references throughout the assignment and assumed that this was sufficient. The student was concerned that her academic record would be damaged and that she would be labelled as academically dishonest. | Our On©ite Reporter contacted the staff member that had marked the assignment and discovered that the situation was not as simple as it appeared. Full details of the assignment requirements were printed in the course guide and, further more, the issue of plagiarism and how to reference correctly, with both in-text references and a list of sources at the back, had been covered in at least two of the course lectures. The course lecturer asserts that it is the student's responsibility to be aware of this information. |
University of Auckland's guidelines on academic integrity.
Too close for comfort - collaboration or cheating?
| How close is too close? was the question posed by our On©ite Reporter, following a recent high profile disciplinary case at the University. Students are often encouraged, or required, to work together for coursework assignments but the point at which 'collaboration' becomes 'cheating' is often poorly understood by students. Obviously, the submission of identical assignments is not acceptable but at what point should students separate and work individually. A staff member from the Faculty of Arts clarifies what is acceptable and what is not for an individual assignment... "We strongly encourage students to discuss the issues and concepts they are taught in their courses, | and there is no doubt that discussion around the assignment topics is beneficial to the end result. However, the line is drawn when it comes to writing your assignments – this must be your own work and written in your own words". Our On©ite Reporter also enquired at the library as to appropriate behaviour with shared resources. The response was very similar..."It is fine to use some, or all, of the same resources as your fellow students, but how you interpret and paraphrase the information should be your individual work". |
University of Auckland's guidelines on academic integrity.
Words, data, computer code, pictures - what do they all have in common?
| A recent survey has indicated that many students are not aware that words, data, computer code, and images, such as graphs and photographs, all need acknowledgement. Most students in the survey were fully aware that they must acknowledge the sources they have used in their academic work, but surprisingly many students believed that this was only relevant for written words and did not realise that it extended to other forms of information. Our On©ite Reporter spoke to a staff member from the Faculty of Business earlier today... "We quite often get students asking whether they need to acknowledge data that they have used from a spreadsheet. Of course we try to make it as clear | as possible that students need to reference all of the sources that they have used, but occasionally we do have plagiarism of this nature and have to give a zero for the assignment as is faculty policy". Similarly, a staff member from Computer Science said..."We had a case last week where a student had used computer code from a source on the internet and had failed to acknowledge that source. It is very important that students understand that the author giving permission for the code to be used elsewhere does not mean that they do not need to acknowledge the original author – they do!" |
University of Auckland's guidelines on academic integrity.
