PLATO - educating students about plagiarism, and citing and referencing information sources. Martindale

26/03/97 LILAC Conference
PLATO
PLAgiarism Teaching Online
Chris Martindale
Faculty Support Team Manager
Learning & Information Services
University of Derby

PLATO – PLAgiarism Teaching Online
Question “How do you make a £1.6m a year
and drive a Ferrari?”
Answer
“Sell essays for £400” Education Guardian 29/07/2006
One in ten students admitted to searching for model essays on
the internet according to a THES Survey in 2006

Student plagiarism 'on the rise' BBC 11/02/05
“A rise in the number of students in the UK, including undergraduates from overseas, is
likely to mean increased plagiarism”
Deterring, Detecting and Dealing with Student Plagiarism 2005
"A decision to plagiarise may be associated with increasing pressures on
students arising from, for example, undertaking paid work, heavier
coursework load, or lack of personal organisation skills.” op.cit.
"When stresses rise, students see plagiarism as a reasonable and
reasonably risk-free way out of difficulties." op.cit.

“Academic offences!, academic integrity!”
…..what’s all the fuss about?…………………
So what is plagiarism……………………?
Plagiarism is the “The taking and using as one’s own of the thoughts, writings or inventions
of another” Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1944 3rd
edition
“Submitting someone else’s work as your own” Jude Carroll, 2007
“Submitting”………………………………Giving the appearance of compliance to academia
“Someone’s work”…………………………What is the work? + who owns it? (Wikis, Blogs etc)
“as your own”………………………………’Originality’ – without a quotation & citation
“I found that the notion of cardinal literary virtue of newness was at odds with
my own sense of difficulty in achieving that newness” Laura B. Spencer 2004

“““Every generation has the privilege of standing on the
shoulders of the generation that went before; but it has no
right to pick the pockets of the first comer”
Brander Matthews
Recreations of an Anthologist 1967
The quality of academic writing must go beyond description
to analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This forces the need
for writing, time management and information literacy skills
‘drowning in information, and thirsting for wisdom’

Some additional issues
• Is plagiarism deliberate or genuinely accidental? Intent?
• The language adopted can be academic “malpractice” –
“cheats” + “offenders” + “detection” should students be
treated like criminals?
• Are International students more likely to commit plagiarism?
Cultural aspects of learning and IELT issues
• Needed! A shared understanding of what “academic
integrity” and what plagiarism really means!

How is the need to understand plagiarism relevant to
Information Literacy?
“Information Literacy Outcome 5, is that students
should understand economic, legal, and social issues
surrounding the use of information; and they should
access and use information ethically and legally.
Outcomes could include describing censorship or
identifying plagiarism. “
Information Literacy Project Team 2006 (Kings College)

“ “Local police launch new
crime initiative!”
“Is PLATO intended to teach
students how to plagiarise!?”

Background to PLATO
23,000 students at the University of Derby
Third part time & over 40% over 21yrs old
Largest no. of Learning Through Work stdts. in the UK
There are 500 purely e-learning students.
PLATO initiated from research with P.G. students
Confusion over what plagiarism is. Action needed a
strong need for an educational tool

• Some of the other findings included……………………..
• A strong belief in the need for academic integrity
• An awareness of risks of the ease of “copy and paste”
• A wide variety of diverse educational experience
• Pressure points – time mgt., fear of failure
• Lack of confidence in skill sets
• Lack of technical knowledge e.g. “how do I cite in the
text?”

Aims
• To build skills at referencing
• Address cultural & diversity issues
• Enable different levels of access
• Immediate responses to diagnostic tests
• Encourage reflection by problem solving
• Clear direction to sources of support

How was this achieved?
By developing skills through:
• Using diverse media: animation, audio & video
• Diagnostic testing to enable progression
• Varied entry level for beginners/advanced learners
• Advanced referencing section for wider examples
Navigation on screen by “point & click”
• Multiple choice questions
• True or false
• Drag & drop selection

A multiple route approach
• A multiple route approach to developing skills

Identifying plagiarism behaviour

Inclusive of Learners from diverse backgrounds

• Link

• PLATO

Previous instruction about how to avoid plagiarism
Recent survey of International Postgraduate Students
almost 50% at pre-entry level had not been shown how to
avoid plagiarism
Evaluation
75% - rated PLATO “easy to use”
60% - found PLATO “very helpful” in learning about how to
avoid plagiarism
Comments from International Post Graduate students
“Its use of real examples” “Very helpful, a good idea”
“It deters you from any form of cheating” and “gives you
confidence on how to reference”

Future developments
• PLATO introduced in December 2006
• Courseware evaluation – January 2007
• New version planned for July 2007
• Address full accessibility
• Further study skills
• Develop audio & visual presentation
• Wider use of examples video
• Involvement of Faculty & S.U. stakeholders

Partnership across the University
– Learning technologists
– Academic staff
– Learning support staff
“ I found PLATO easy to use and easy to understand
because of the animation guide was fun to do and very
direct and simple” Heny Tanu, PG student March 2006

Your solution
could be
PLATO
PLAgiarism
Teaching
Online

Thank you for listening
Enjoy trying PLATO out for yourselves.
http://www.preventplagiarism.co.uk
c.martindale@derby.ac.uk

PLATO - educating students about plagiarism, and citing and referencing information sources. Martindale

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PLATO - educating students about plagiarism, and citing and referencing information sources. Martindale