All students are to complete a mandatory online module on plagiarism as part of a new College initiative to combat the practice.
This initiative will require all incoming and current students, in both graduate and postgraduate studies, to complete a new online tutorial called “Ready, Steady, Write” which gives information on the College policy and advice on academic honesty, as well as situational exercises where the user must guess whether the subject has committed plagiarism. After completion, students must sign a declaration on every piece of submitted work, confirming they have taken the tutorial and are familiar with the College policies.
Students can expect to receive an email once college starts with details about when they are to complete the module, which takes about fifteen minutes to complete.
The initiative was headed by the Undergraduate and Graduate Studies Committee. The group included the Senior Tutor, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Education Officer, Molly Kenny, the Dean of Students, and members from the library and Trinity Teaching.
The group found that the current entry on plagiarism in the College Calendar, the document containing information on College and its rules and policies, was inaccessible and unhelpful to students. Thus, the new initiative will streamline access to information on plagiarism and will help standardise approaches to teaching and dealing with plagiarism.
The library is also to provide an online repository on their website that displays all information and policies relevant to plagiarism, including the mandatory tutorial. The working group found that information was spread across different sites and was not standardised across departments which could lead to confusion. The repository also strictly defines offences and provides a matrix, defining the four levels of plagiarism which differ in severity and consequences. These levels are to be used in all cases of offence and will appear on a student’s online portal if confirmed guilty.
The repository will serve as a reference on different levels of severity and how to act accordingly, such as if an offence is considered serious academic conduct or if advice should be given on rewording.
Commenting on the introduction of the measures in a joint email statement to The University Times, Senior Lecturer, Prof Gillian Martin, and Dean of Graduate Studies, Prof Aideen Long, stated: “We hope that these various measures will contribute positively to support and foster academic integrity across the undergraduate and graduate student body by creating a more coherent approach to informing and educating students about plagiarism”
Molly Kenny, Education Officer of TCDSU, is positive about the incoming changes. Speaking to The University Times, she said that practices on plagiarism “should be standardised” and that the initiative ensures students are not “unfairly treated.” She added: “Currently [plagiarism] can be dealt with in several different ways in different schools”.
The group has also circulated information on the repository and the updated calendar entry to academic and administrative staff, encouraging them to include a slide on plagiarism as part of orientation sessions for incoming students.
