I think Penny has hit the nail on the head. Rather than always focusing on how to deter and detect plagiarism (I'm generalising - I know many aren't) perhaps we should look to how we can best ascertain what students are learning, how well and where there are important gaps in their knowledge and skills.
Oral assessment/vivas allow us to ask the most irritating question children can ask us - 'why?'. When reading an essay or marking exam scripts we cannot ask 'why', what do you mean by that', where is you evidence', 'could you explain that point in more depth', etc. In a viva the focus should be on learning and not trying to trip the students up. In fact, I would go further had suggest that this approach is what good teaching is all about ...
Gordon Joughin has written some interesting stuff on oral assessment and there's plenty around in the various Higher Education Academy Subject Centres.
Regards
Ranald
Ranald Macdonald FSEDA, FHEA, NTF
Emeritus Professor of Academic Development, Sheffield Hallam University
Higher Education Consultant
Senior Associate: Professional Development, C-SAP Subject Network
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> and: www.ranald.pbworks.com<http://www.ranald.pbworks.com/>
________________________________
From: Plagiarism [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of PENELOPE BOOTH [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 02 June 2010 09:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Checking an Essay for Plagiarism
What a pity we don't have time to do more vivas.
They are far more commonly in use as an assessment method in other European countries (I am arguing neither in favour nor against, before I receive lots of responses!).
I wonder what the rate of plagiarism is in countries where vivas for end of course assessments are common.
Just thinking......
Best wishes,
Penny
________________________________
From: Toby Grainger <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, 2 June, 2010 9:39:36
Subject: Re: Checking an Essay for Plagiarism
We're not looking for a good viva, or a well written piece of text. We're
not re-examining, simply seeing if the student is familiar with work s/he
claims to have written. It works for us.
Best,
Toby
-----Original Message-----
From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Ken Masters
Sent: 02 June 2010 08:25
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Checking an Essay for Plagiarism
Hi All
Isn't that a little tricky? Some students are really bad exam candidates
(_especially_ oral exams), whereas, if they are given lots of time and space,
they can construct a wonderful assignment. (And then there are those, that,
given an assignment and a full library, don't know where to start and become
easily overwhelmed - but set them a single essay under exam conditions, and
they flourish). I've seen that all the way from 1st year to PhD.
This, after all, is one of the strong motivations to have mixed-mode
assessments, and why some Masters' candidates take only course-based Masters,
while other others take only thesis-based Masters.
So I think one should be very careful about deciding that an assignment was
plagiarized just because the student gives a really bad viva and couldn't
write a good paragraph about it.
Regards
Ken
----
Dr. Ken Masters
Asst. Professor: Medical Informatics
Medical Education Unit
College of Medicine & Health Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University
Sultanate of Oman
E-i-C: The Internet Journal of Medical Education ____/\/********\/\____
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: Checking an Essay for Plagiarism
> From: "Catherine Ogilvie (cls)" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
> Date: Wed, June 02, 2010 11:01 am
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> Hi Tony
>
> Thanks for this.
>
> All the best
> Catherine
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Toby
> Grainger
> Sent: 01 June 2010 10:33
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Checking an Essay for Plagiarism
>
> Our procedures allow for a viva in such circumstances (and the
> possibility that the student will be asked to write a paragraph). If
> the student, in the view of the assessors, does not demonstrate
> familiarity with the work, the matter will be referred to a Panel. So
> far, those cases that have been so referred have always resulted in
> upheld allegations.
>
> Best,
>
> Toby Grainger
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of
> Catherine Ogilvie
> Sent: 31 May 2010 14:22
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Checking an Essay for Plagiarism
>
>
> Dear All
>
> One of our lecturers has an essay which is suspected of being
> plagiarised. The essay has been submitted via TurnitinUK and the
> report was okay, with no obvious duplication being highlighted. The
> suspicion is that the essay is a 'purchased' essay, with the request
> to ensure it exhibits no duplication when submitted via TurnitinUK.
> Unfortunately a claim of plagiarism cannot be made unless there is
> specfic evidence, such as grammatical changes, collusion with another
> student, a high percentage level of duplication on the originality
> report using TurnitinUK, etc. I had a look at the original Word
> document, but this does not provide much insight (via the File,
> Properties menu; Tools, View, Hidden text and Track Changes options)
>
> Has anyone any other suggestions for trying to find out any other
> sources of evidence prior to initiating a meeting with the student?
>
> Thanks
>
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