Case study discussion
To assist students in understanding what sort of behaviour constitutes plagiarism consider discussing the following case with your students.
The tutor is reading through a group work assignment when she realizes that she has read this material before. In searching through earlier assignments she finds an identical essay. Later, she comes across two more copies of the same work. When the four students are confronted they admit that they collaborated on the essay. They said that working together saves them time and helps them to understand the material better. They don’t see why the tutor is so upset.
After reading this case, form into a group of three and determine what would be the appropriate course of action for the tutor. The penalties available to the group are:
(i) Explain the rules to the students
(ii) Explain the rules along with a caution or reprimand
(iii) A zero grade for the assignment
(iv) A requirement that the students re-submit a specific assessment task, with a reduction in marks to no more than a specified percentage of the maximum possible mark in the assessment task
(v) A requirement that the students must undertake alternative assessment for the whole subject, for which the maximum possible mark can be no greater than a specified percentage of the total value of the assessment
(vi) A zero grade for the results of the total assessment in the subject
(vii) Exclusion from the course
(viii) Exclusion from the University