How can we work with students to promote and develop good academic conduct?
Projects relating to academic conduct in the OU are lacking in the repository, therefore it is important to fill the gap in our understanding of this important aspect of assessment and the awarding of credit. This proposed project is important because ensuring academic rigour and upholding standards is a critical aspect of higher education institutions’ academic reputation. To uphold academic rigour and standards and to ensure that students do not gain credit for work that is not their own, it is a requirement that HEIs have policies that support this aim. However, plagiarism remains a significant threat to all HEIs, both nationally and internationally and as Curtis and Tremayne (2019) assert, it is important to continue to prevent and detect plagiarism, as well as continuing the education of students and academics in this endeavour. In ECYS, each programme has a colleague who is a named Academic Conduct Officer (ACO), this group of colleagues meets regularly to discuss and develop ACO work in the school. We are supported in this work by colleagues in other departments of the OU. Despite our efforts to promote ‘good’ academic conduct in our students, as well as responding to cases of plagiarism, there continues to be a significant number of students who are referred for investigation following their work having been detected as potentially not their own by plagiarism detection software, or referral from their tutor. The number of cases has increased during the period of lockdown, in particular, the number of cases that have been identified as originating from essay mills has increased. The increase is so significant that the QAA urges HEIs to review the options that are available to tackle the threat (QAA 2016), conducting scholarship such as the project proposed here is one option to tackle the problem. In addition, there is an increase in the number of students who are falling foul of the software detection because of sharing their work with other students, usually via social media, such as via WhatsApp groups. Therefore, there is a pressing need to investigate students’ knowledge and awareness of what can be seen a blurring between collaborative working versus collusion. The OU invest a significant resource into the prevention and identification of plagiarism and the development of ‘good’ academic conduct, however, there is a paucity of research available to enlighten our knowledge about students’ understandings of and motivation to plagiarise. Therefore, this proposed piece of scholarship will explore students’ perceptions and experiences of academic conduct processes at the OU.
Cite items from this project
Funding
Praxis
Project lead(s)
Jackie Musgrave ; Diana Hardie
Team members
Sadaf Rizvi ; Helen Perkins
Authorship group
- Academic - Central
Project reference number
PRAXIS 2021/22 08 JM
Project start date
Project end date
Project status
Completed
Institutional priority category
- Achieving Study Goals
Themes
- Accessibility
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- Student Experience
- Student Satisfaction
- Student Academic Experience
Subject discipline
- Education, Childhood, Youth, and Sport
Project findings and recommendations
Despite the lower than planned response to the survey, the data collected from the 26 participants revealed some valuable findings, as did the participant who took part in the semi-structured interview. In relation to the responses to the multiple-choice questions which sought to find out participants’ understanding of key terms that are used in relation to academic conduct, such as plagiarism, enabling plagiarism and so on, there were several incorrect responses selected. None of the questions were answered correctly by the participants. Participants were asked: why is it important that students are able to develop good academic conduct? Please list as many reasons as possible was a particularly revealing finding. The responses fell into three main themes. Firstly, the value-based motivations for students demonstrating good academic conduct described by Medway et al., (2018) and Guo (2011) were identified in the responses from the participants. Secondly, the participants cited motivations linked to motivations that aimed for success and a fear of failure. The third theme was described as development of self, and the comments related to students’ development from an academic and personal perspective. Table 2 summarises the participants’ comments. Discussion and recommendations The data revealed findings that fitted with the themes that emerged from the literature, which were: • students and staff understanding about the terminology and definitions relating to academic conduct • students’ motivation and institutional factors • ways to support students to develop good academic conduct Terminology and definitions relating to academic conduct: staff and students The data revealed that the participants had mixed, and inaccurate understandings of the terminology used in relation to academic conduct. This has implications for how students are encouraged to engage with resources that are aimed at developing their knowledge and expertise. Participants suggested that there was a need for a variety of ways to help students to learn about the terminology used and the definitions. In relation to staff understanding of academic conduct, although staff were not participants in this research, the data raised some areas for consideration about their level of understanding. This links to the participant who had been investigated for academic conduct who stated that the outcome of the case was found to be as a result of inaccurate referencing and difficulties with the process of including references, rather than having deliberately copied others’ work. As many of the academic conduct cases that are referred for investigation are found to be attributed to poor referencing or a lack of paraphrasing, this raises questions about the processes that is followed prior to referral. The software that is used to identify matches between students’ work and other sources that are available on the internet produces reports which are used to identify high matches. The interpretation of what is an acceptable level of match is not an exact science, and it in order to interpret reports, it is essential that staff are trained to do so. if staff are interpreting a high match as being plagiarism, this is likely to lead to unnecessary referrals for investigation, because the more likely outcome is that a student had inaccurately referenced their work or has yet to develop their academic writing skills. The use of materials produced by the Open University as the main source of learning for students creates another way that students can inadvertently produce work with a high match. students’ motivation and institutional factors Table 1 summarises participants responses to why the data revealed that students were aware of many reasons why good academic conduct is important. This reflects the view that emerged in the literature of the need of a value-based approach, suggesting that universities should embed the values of trust, honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage into their culture (ICAI, 2021). ways to support students to develop good academic conduct The findings reveal the need for students to be provided with information relating to academic conduct in a variety of ways, because it appears that there is not one format is unanimously identified as being most helpful. The module website, content and their tutor were the 3 highest sources of information. Exactly what the module content was that was cited as being helpful is not known, but it is known that modules where study skills such as referencing and other activities that develop good academic conduct are well received by students (Parry and Shrestha 2018) The participant who had been referred for academic conduct investigation had previous qualifications equivalent to less than 2 A levels. This point is a reminder that many of our students have low previous qualifications and may need more time and support to develop their understanding of how to produce work that is academically robust. It is interesting to note that the least useful source of information is cited as being other students. One participant wrote ‘Student WhatsApp groups are full of people ‘over sharing’ it’s a significant issue’. Clearly students cannot be prevented from forming their own informal support and communication systems, but it is important to warn students about the sharing of information which can lead to high matches between students’ work which may be inadvertent plagiarism or collusion. The role of tutors in relation promoting good academic conduct was identified within the data. The participant who was interviewed made it very clear how his tutor was instrumental in developing his understanding of academic conduct and preventing plagiarism. He made the important point that this process started in induction and was then ‘drip fed’ throughout the module. This highlights the importance of students being reminded about how to ensure their work complies with good academic conduct. Participants made comments that suggest that they experience a lack of consistencies between approaches used by modules and also by tutors. This point highlights the need for the OU to develop a more consistent approach during module production and during presentation to the way that academic conduct is taught to students.
Keyword(s)
equality ; diversity ; accessibility ; inclusivity ; terminology ; behaviours ; completion ; progression ; attainment ; student motivation ; student engagement
