Assessment for Learning: How Plagiarism can be used as an Efficient Learning Tool

Abstract

There is no doubt that plagiarism is a major source of concern
among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Academic honesty and
integrity practices need to be carefully cultivated to ensure that students
understand the seriousness and implications of failing to properly
acknowledge the information and resources that they use in their college
assignments. This paper explores the importance of complying with
ethical standards through a review of the literature in the field, from
which a case study was developed using observation techniques to
gather the data. A research sample of seventy students registered in
their final year of study was considered acceptable to support the
analysis. Face-to-face feedback sessions were arranged with students
after their work had been reviewed and assessed. The feedback sessions
were scheduled individually where there was evidence of poor
referencing and writing standards that led to cases of plagiarism, which
were then discussed with student concerned. The main research
findings indicate that students did not have an understanding of what
plagiarism involved and in some instances they failed to acknowledge
the existence of a problem in the work presented for assessment.
Furthermore, the role of the educator became central to ensure that
formative feedback was properly developed to motivate and help
students to understand the importance of complying with their
institution’s ethical guidelines. The study highlights the need to consider
cases of plagiarism as another learning tool that contributes to the
students’ formation. By developing assessments for learning, the
punitive aspect of the assessment process should be kept to a minimum
and educators should focus their attention on how plagiarism cases can
be used as an efficient learning tool.