Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Students must be taught to engage in academic writing, not to fear the Spanish Inquisition of plagiarism detection

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I'm sympathetic with the gist of this article. "Too often our approaches to academic writing promote a sense that the most important thing a student can achieve is not to be accused of plagiarism." But "instilling a fear of being caught plagiarising undermines the centrality of academic work engaging with the minds of others." Sure, you shouldn't take credit for someone else's work. But maybe we should ask why we're evaluating students on the basis of stand-alone individually-written pieces of content. "Redesigning assessment for better learning is most often a win-win move. Students' learning is improved. Deliberate cheating is very difficult." Being integrated and working cooperatively with a community is something that's very difficult to fake, and much more rewarding for the student.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 28, 2024 3:20 p.m.

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