Tufts Adopts Stricter Reporting Policy to Combat Plagiarism
Tufts faculty have approved a policy change that now requires professors to report any allegation of student plagiarism or other academic dishonesty to the Dean of Students, the Tufts Daily reports.
The new policy goes into effect at the start of the 2006-2007 academic year.
Previous Tufts policy had given professors more leeway in deciding how to handle cases of suspected dishonesty, encouraging but not requiring them to report violations of academic integrity to University officials. Faculty criticized that policy as creating an environment in which enforcement varied from teacher to teacher and department to department, making it difficult to track repeat offenders or enforce standards.
An English professor welcomed the new policy in an email to the Daily, writing that "a uniform policy serves everyone's interests better. Students know what to expect if they cheat and so may be less likely to violate the policy on academic honesty; faculty aren't put in the position of trying to 'protect' students from the consequences of their actions; and the Dean's office has a better opportunity to come to terms with the problem of academic dishonesty."
In a further move to combat plagiarism, Tufts will start using Turnitin.com software campus-wide this fall. The plagiarism detection software was used in a successful test run in the University's biology department in 2005-2006.
Turnitin.com allows instructors to compare students' writing against a database of millions of student papers and Internet-based content and receive a "originality report" indicating the likelihood that a student lifted part or all of a paper from those sources. The reports are intended to "start a conversation" between teacher and student about suspected plagiarism rather than to serve as evidence of plagiarism, Dean Reitman said.
But Tufts biology professors who had used Turnitin.com noted that they could often sense plagiarism without the help of the program. Professor Michelle Gaudette explained that, "When I grade papers, I look for patterns in writing style and syntax." Suspicions of plagiarism arise when a student submits a paper marked by inconsistent writing quality and style, or one that is written in a style markedly different from the student's other work.
Source: "Tufts Takes Next Steps Toward Academic Integrity," by James Bologna and Chris Brown - the Tufts Daily, May 1, 2006
Technorati tags: Tufts University, Tufts, plagiarism, academic integrity
The new policy goes into effect at the start of the 2006-2007 academic year.
Previous Tufts policy had given professors more leeway in deciding how to handle cases of suspected dishonesty, encouraging but not requiring them to report violations of academic integrity to University officials. Faculty criticized that policy as creating an environment in which enforcement varied from teacher to teacher and department to department, making it difficult to track repeat offenders or enforce standards.
An English professor welcomed the new policy in an email to the Daily, writing that "a uniform policy serves everyone's interests better. Students know what to expect if they cheat and so may be less likely to violate the policy on academic honesty; faculty aren't put in the position of trying to 'protect' students from the consequences of their actions; and the Dean's office has a better opportunity to come to terms with the problem of academic dishonesty."
In a further move to combat plagiarism, Tufts will start using Turnitin.com software campus-wide this fall. The plagiarism detection software was used in a successful test run in the University's biology department in 2005-2006.
Turnitin.com allows instructors to compare students' writing against a database of millions of student papers and Internet-based content and receive a "originality report" indicating the likelihood that a student lifted part or all of a paper from those sources. The reports are intended to "start a conversation" between teacher and student about suspected plagiarism rather than to serve as evidence of plagiarism, Dean Reitman said.
But Tufts biology professors who had used Turnitin.com noted that they could often sense plagiarism without the help of the program. Professor Michelle Gaudette explained that, "When I grade papers, I look for patterns in writing style and syntax." Suspicions of plagiarism arise when a student submits a paper marked by inconsistent writing quality and style, or one that is written in a style markedly different from the student's other work.
Source: "Tufts Takes Next Steps Toward Academic Integrity," by James Bologna and Chris Brown - the Tufts Daily, May 1, 2006
Technorati tags: Tufts University, Tufts, plagiarism, academic integrity
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