Hi all,
As various people have touched on, a significant aspect of the problem seems to me to be that we don't deal with collusion in a constructive and 'preventative' way, either in terms of institutional definitions or in terms of engaging students with what is or isn't acceptable in practice. I'd say our own institution's definition of collusion, "an unauthorised and unattributed collaboration of students in a piece of assessed work", (and described as a form of plagiarism) would need to be contextualised with very clear parameters for a given assessment if students are to be sure about what is and isn't authorised.
The line between collaborative working and collusion is, I think, often ill-defined for students and something which I'd like to see proactively addressed in within the context of subject teaching. I did produce an A4 guidance sheet on collusion that was intended to be student-friendly but when it came to talking about in or out of class discussion, for example, all I could think of to say was "if you are unsure about how to relate these activities to your individual work, talk to the person who teaches you or to your Personal Tutor". Have any of you found a better way?
Regards,
Chris
Chris Doye
Head of Study Development, Institute for Academic Development
University of Edinburgh
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