Good Practice in Australian Physiotherapy Education

The incidence of plagiarism seems to be on the increase in our programs. The proposed explanations of this phenomenon are varied including the increased access to digital information, increased pressure on student time as they struggle to manage work and study, cultural differences, the pressure to get good grades and pure laziness. It may just be that students do not have the understanding of educational integrity that academics suppose they have, or cannot effectively and efficiently apply the rules.
In order to ensure that students were aware of what constitutes plagiarism and collusion a proactive teaching project was designed which would teach the students understanding of these concepts.
An assignment was written using three sources. No attribution was made in the assignment despite quotes, tables, figures and summarizing from all three sources being used. The students were then given the assignment and the three sources. Their task was to identify the plagiarism and to correctly attribute it.
Prior to the students undertaking the assignment instructions were given in a lecture format, as was the advice to complete a number of on-line workshops on plagiarism. As it was an individual assignment students were also warned that they should not share their work with other students. All assignments were electronically submitted with student changes having been done using track changes. This had the extra bonus of being able to compare when changes were made and who made them. Ironically, some collusion was identified this way.
 
The results of the assignment were concerning, in that 30% of undergraduate and of 35% of postgraduate students failed. Further educative sessions for these students followed, and they were then asked to resubmit the assignment. Of the resubmissions 60% of postgraduate students still failed while only 3% of undergraduate students failed. The teaching team hypothesized that this was because the undergraduate assignment carried a mark of 20% and was an essential component to pass the course whereas the postgraduate students had only a pass/fail assignment and there was not penalty for failing. The results also highlighted the types of plagiarism that students had the most trouble identifying, namely embedded quotes, data and summarising of text. The teaching team also reflected on the teaching process and decided it did not have enough depth.
Changes made the following year included the introduction of a formal lecture on plagiairsm and collusion followed by a two hour interactive workshop where students worked on tasks related to plagiarism and collusion. The "assignment" had a greater focus on those areas that student had previously demonstrated difficulties, ie embedded quotes, data and summarising of text.
 
It is hoped that after completion of the assignment that students will have a better understanding of what plagiarism is, and therefore what needs to be attributed in their work. If they have a better understanding then it is hoped that we will see less examples of plagiarism.