assessment design as part of deterring students from
plagiarism:
Jude Carrollfor University of Kent, January 2013
Why focus on assessment design?You have to start somewhere
Assessment is the students’ experience of university
Probably, changes will mean high impact + relatively low demand….. but changes will require push and support
Summing up: Can assessment design deter students from plagiarism?
Task level: Designing OUT opportunities for easy copying, taking & faking
Programme level: Designing IN chances to learn and practice
Policy level: Designing penalties that can shape decisions
A reminder….1.Awareness raising [Knowing what….]
2.Teaching the skills
3.Designing programmes for skills practice & feedback
4.Designing assessments to discourage copying
5.Spotting it when it happens (and doing something)
6.Dealing with cases using procedures that are fast, fair, and defensible
the holistic approac
h
First, we need a few assessment tasks…..
Can we have 5 or 6 examples of assessments / coursework tasks your colleagues set [or that you set….] for students
Have a think, then be ready to tell me
Why do it?
How can you do it?
How to design assessments that make copying, finding, faking, buying etc etc more difficult……?
The clue is in the definition….“Submitting the words, ideas or work product
of a named person or source in a situation where originality is
expectedas if it is the result of your own work
for credit or other benefit.” Fishman, 2010
Three design strategies to deter plagiarism1. Yes: you design ‘make an answer’
tasks No: you set ‘find an answer’ tasks
2. Focus on process: you get students started, you make the process valuable, you make them work
3. Authentication: You check, ‘Who did this work?’ You make students think, ‘Will I get spotted as a plagiarist???’
Wiki-friendly courseworkConcepts, categories or topics (‘Jean
Muir: fashion designer’)
Explain, discuss, describe (‘What are the best ways to manage a diverse workforce?)
Show-you-know tasks (‘ ….causes of the current recession’)
one-answer questions (‘Role of CO2 in the physiology of emphysema’)
Many two-concept questions are also Wiki-friendly…..
‘Using anthropological theory, analyse the Eurovision song contest’
Ten relevant pre-written sources …. in 2009
easy-to-pretend courseworkGo and interview x about y and
write it up.
Make a change in your own lifestyle designed to improve health, keep notes about the impact, and report after a month
Write a marketing strategy for company x
Make or find? 1. What factors influence the success or failure
of speculators on the commodities market?
2. Download a current set of commodity futures prices [ then five questions about how to analyse and interrogate the download].
If your answer to (5) shows an imperfect hedge result, explain the probable main reasons for this. If your result is a perfect hedge, explain why this is unexpected given this is a contango market.
Rank the factors relevant to the success or otherwise of speculating in this example. Explain the ranking. Rosser, U of Coventry, 2008
What strategies were used? Download some data.
Analyse it
Make a judgment [perfect hedge or imperfect hedge?]
Justify your judgement.
Explain the unexpected in a specific context [a contango market]
Rank the factors relevant to the success or otherwise of speculating in this example.
IndividualisedRecentUsing the
data
Applied theory in a specific context
‘Higher order thinking’
Summing up so farGo for
Individual, recent
Application in a specific context
Specified data / sources
Higher-order thinking
Avoid
wiki-friendly topics
wiki-friendly combinations
one-answer or ‘show you know’ questions
NO: An essay on ‘smoking and public health’
YES?: Find 3 ‘stop smoking’ campaigns. Rank them as being worth government funding because they improve health. Justify your ranking, using your own criteria. Explain your criteria using data.
YES??: Select a recent decision made somewhere in the world on smoking. Is it likely or unlikely to have a positive impact on [population zzz]? Why? Draft advice to a health- promotion campaign to strengthen impact.
YES??: Here’s a case study, evaluate it against xxx criteria.
YES?: Debate, ‘The best way to improve public health is to stop people smoking’. [write the script in class]
1. 3 campaigns, rank them against criteria for funding. Justify the rank.
2. Recent decisions w. impact on smoking. Most / least likely to have a positive impact? Why? Draft advice to a health promotion committee.
3. Here’s a case study, evaluate it against xxx criteria.
4. Debate
5. Take on a role in designing a ‘stop-smoking’ campaign. Prioritise your arguments + support each one with cited evidence from recent reliable studies.
What is the underpinning principle that makes students do the work?
Blocks to this suggestion?Time and timing ( to create, to
mark ….)‘Tried and tested’Spotting one’s own Choosing the wrong method for
checking….
How would you counter or deal with these objections?
Strategies that value the process1. Force students
to start
2. Make the process public
3. Make the process valuable
4. Make the task significant
1. stages, drafts, chunks…..)
2. peer review; on-line posting; observe it
3. assess it; make students reflect
4. authentic, personal, individual
Strategies that check ‘Who did this?’Make students change the final product under
observed conditions…
Meta-writing (writing about their writing under observed conditions)
Triangulation through examination
Random oral examination of a %
Create a corpus via Turnitin to check across the cohort
Summing up: Can assessment design deter students from plagiarism?
Programme level: Designing IN chances to learn and practice
Task level: Designing OUT opportunities for easy copying and taking
Policy level: Designing penalties that shape decisions
You try it: 15 minutesList of strategies + List of
assignments.
Task: redesign them so the students work the learning outcomes are
assessed the burden on teachers is realistic.
Be ready to share what you learned from doing this
Teaching students to use sources correctly…..
Why do this?
When to do this?Who should do this?
on line materials
published materials
lecture notes
other students’ work
publicly available code
data
diagrams
The sub-skills of scholarship1. Finding ‘good stuff’2. Making notes – keeping link
between source and notes3. Weaving in others’ words and
ideas : summary, direct quotes, paraphrasing
4. Structuring an argument, using evidence
5. Signaling use (formal, informal) – when to signal? what to signal? how?
6. Using an agreed referencing system consistently
Design issues for writing skills alerting students – ‘wake up!’
‘New game, new rules’early diagnostics (‘Ah, I have
these weaknesses …)teaching all the skillssafe practice and feedbackprogression – improving skill useachieving exit- level competence
How to design in teaching and practice: Programme-level thinkingMapping for skills developmentSharing the burden….Referring: Using external support
and guidanceEmbedding skills development in
real, discipline-specific tasksPlanning for progression (moving
to exit-level skills)Assessing & recognising skills
Programme mapping
Programme design toolsSharing the burden…. the whole
programme takes some of the teaching tasks
Using external support and guidance
Embedding specific skills development in real, discipline-specific tasksGetting real: Paired discussion 10 minutes
each way. How would these work in your own
programme?
Exit round: ‘…the key message I would take to my colleagues on the programme about design to deter plagiarism….