Choose an online assessment type

Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct. 

"Plagiarism is defined as the use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source, for example:

• Wholesale copying of passages from works of others without acknowledgement.
• Use of the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgement.
• Submitting as one’s own, an assignment prepared by another student." (City, 2023, p. 19)

The Academic Integrity & Misconduct Policy 2024/25 outlines other areas of academic misconduct including:

• Self-plagiarism: A student submits work for more than one assessment without referencing it.
• Repeated poor academic practice: A student has repeatedly submitted work with poor paraphrasing, unattributed quotations or incomplete citations.
• Collusion: Students collaborate on a piece of work and each student submits the work as their own.
• An assignment which has been translated into English by another person or Generative AI tool.
• Falsification of evidence and Fabrication of data: A student makes up data or results.
• Theft of work of other students or practitioners.
•  Contract cheating:  Where a student asks/engages a third party to produce their assessment and then submit it as their own work.
• Fabrication of data.
• Falsification of evidence.
• Failure to obtain ethical approval prior to conducting research. 

Write learning outcomes that:

• reflect the desire for students to find something out for themselves by gathering and using information.
• avoid words like ‘list’, ‘describe’ or ‘explain’ as these invite students to copy.

Select assessment methods that:

• provide variety and require students to present their learning in a range of different (and potentially shorter) formats - e.g. by poster, oral presentation, literature search, web page, through observation/dialogue - rather than relying on extended written pieces such as reports or essays.
• map / schedule assessments to avoid over-assessment.
• ensure that students are not overloaded and to avoid bunching of assessment deadlines as these can encourage students to resort to dishonest tactics.

Vary assessment design:

Vary the assignment each year - in a different style, format, and wording to prevent students copying work or getting answers from previous cohorts.

Design questions and their wording to:

• Avoid very general questions as this increases the likelihood that relevant materials will be available on the web or to purchase.
• Avoid 'show you know' types of question (e.g. what were the causes? how would you treat?) as this can invite students to copy from texts.

Include something specific in the assignment;

• specific to the student - a personal experience
• specific to the subject - a case or theory
• specific to the moment - a recent news item
• specific to the location - a particular building/valley etc.

Be specific in your instructions:

• Refer to two recent books or two internet sites

Ensure tracking mechanisms are in place:

• ask students to complete some of the work in class so that it can be observed
• ask students to submit their essay plan, literature search or first draft
• integrate assessments - for example, a subsequent assessment building on the first e.g. an oral presentation of an essay or project report
• authenticate what the student knows via a viva or invigilated exam e.g. include an exam question that explores the same topics covered in an earlier written assignment
• introduce an element of peer assessment e.g. by getting students to judge each others work against the criteria so that they may spot plagiarism

Assess the process not just the final product

Rather than awarding all the marks to the final report/essay, the record of the activities leading up to the final product should also be explicitly marked. This can include:

• Comments given on draft work / essay plans / literature searches
• Log book or progress file
• Minutes of meetings
• Reflections on how the group worked
• Individual reflection

Write assessment criteria that reward:

• referencing and citation.
• individuality e.g. of thought or interpretation.
• higher level learning such as analysis, comparison, evaluation, argument, critical thinking, reflection on practice.

Develop student support strategies:

• Foster a culture where learning is valued.
• Assist in the development of students’ information literacy skills – identifying, finding, evaluating and synthesising resources materials.
• Include guidance on referencing, citation, academic writing practices and academic integrity in study skills development activities.
• Inform students about the rules, penalties and work with them to make clear what constitutes acceptable / unacceptable practice.
• Emphasise and encourage good practice rather than focusing on rules and penalties.
• Practise what we preach and ensure that our own course materials and handouts acknowledge their sources and are appropriately referenced.

Turnitin is an assessment management system that includes a web-based text-matching software system. It can compare assignment submissions against a wide range of online material including journals, websites and other material on the Turnitin database, including submissions from other UK universities.

Turnitin is used to:

• Assist with plagiarism detection by detecting instances of matched text.
• Provide supporting evidence in academic misconduct cases where plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion or poor academic practice are suspected. 

Turnitin does not identify whether a student has plagiarised, but provides staff with information on which they can make a judgement.

The Learning Enhancement and Development (LEaD) team are often asked what percentage of matched text is acceptable. There is no answer to this question. Different assignments may have different expected percentages. For example, an annotated bibliography assignment might have a high instance of matched text, because of the use of quotations and use of common phrases. Conversely, a reflective assignment or one plagiarised from unpublished or offline texts, purchased from an Essay Mill, or generated using generative AI might have 0% matched text. Identifying academic misconduct in a student assignment relies on academic judgement.

Turnitin does not:

• Match against print books, print-only journals and periodicals, unpublished research articles, images, diagrams, and charts.
• Check against essay-buying services.
• Determine whether a student has plagiarised (it just shows instances of matched text).

We highly recommend that Schools  take a consistent approach when deciding which papers to submit to Turnitin. This means submitting all papers for a given assignment or module. We recommend using Moodle assignment with Turnitin enabled (which will ensure all student assignments within a submission area are submitted to Turnitin) and accessing Feedback Studio through the Turnitin activity on Moodle. 

City, University of London (2023) Academic integrity & misconduct policy and guidance [online] Available at:https://staffhub.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/494576/Academic-Misconduct-Policy-and-Guidance-1920.pdf (Accessed: 27.11.2024)