Teaching & Learning

Minimising Plagiarism and Cheating

Designing out plagiarism and cheating

To ensure that your assessments provide a genuine measure of a student's achievement of the learning outcomes, there is a need for the work to have been performed by the student who is being assessed. There are a range of reasons for students to plagiarise or cheat when it comes to assessment, and with the rise in stakes, and in access to people who are willing to complete assessments for money, the decision to do so is becoming more common than ever. We need to be smart about how we design assessment so that instances of plagiarism and cheating are minimised.

The most effective approach to reducing or eliminating cheating and plagiarism in your unit is through a combination of teaching about academic integrity, and designing assessment that minimises opportunities. This page provides an overview of some strategies for both teaching and assessment design strategies. Most of these strategies are appropriate regardless of the mode of delivery of a unit, although some may be easier to implement in units with an on-campus delivery.

Further information and resources about academic integrity for UTAS staff can be found on the UTAS Academic Integrity intranet site, the Academic Integrity MyLO Module. and the Assessment and Results Procedure FAQs.

References

Carroll, J. (2002). A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.

Cluskey Jr., G.R., Ehlen, C., & Raiborn, M. (2011). Thwarting online exam cheating without proctor supervision. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 4. Retrieved from http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/11775.pdf