2.4 Reducing Academic Misconduct Through Assessment Strategies

Key Principles

• Make it clear - what academic misconduct is and how it can be avoided - through in-class or directed assessment activities.
• Reduce the imperative - through assessment support, assessment deadline planning and making extensions accessible to those with extenuating circumstances.
• Make it personal - by requiring students to reflect on their assessment development and outcomes as part of the assignment task.
• Make it bespoke – by focusing the assessment on specific areas/topics/case-studies which differ from previous cohorts and/or between students in the same cohort.

Good Practice

Use of pre- assessment activities to support students in producing original and timely assessments including:

• In-class activities to develop ideas and check understanding e.g. Mind mapping, seminar discussions, action learning groups, knowledge organisers.
• Formative assessment for feedback opportunities e.g. progress presentations, drafts, assessment plans and draft reference lists.
• Integrated study skills support e.g. research techniques, note taking, paraphrasing, referencing and planning assessment work.
• Providing timely assessment advice – at least 4 weeks before the submission date.
• Using quizzes and other activities to highlight the differences between academic misconduct, quotations and paraphrasing.
• Evaluating AI generated text and references as an in-class activity.

Use of assessment design and methods to reduce the attractiveness of commissioning or plagiarising other work including:

• As part of the assessment, requiring students to reflect on the outcomes of the assessment – in relation to their personal, academic and/or professional development.
• As part of the assessment, requiring students to apply their learning to their own practice (for students in work or undertaking work-based learning
• As part of the assessment, requiring students to assess their own attributes and behaviours, if relevant
• Requiring students to respond to a “live”/authentic or simulated project brief
• Using a bespoke case-study to assess learning outcomes Requiring students to select a recent/relevant/local case-study to assess learning outcomes
• Using in-class/live activities where validated/approved e.g. Presentations, vivas, vlog’s debates, timed activities e.g. exams, OSCEs, role plays, interviews etc.
• Updating the assessment requirements for each new delivery, and leaving assessment methods broad on validation documents where possible to allow for variety.

Office for Students (OfS): Considerations

The need to tackle this issue has been highlighted by the Office for Students (2022) which states in its B Conditions of Registration that:

B2: The provider must take all reasonable steps to ensure … a. each cohort of students registered on each higher education course receives resources and support (including) iii support relating to understanding, avoiding and reporting academic misconduct.

B4: The provider must take all reasonable steps to ensure … a. students are assessed effectively (which includes) iii. assessments being designed in a way that minimises the opportunities for academic misconduct and facilitates the detection of such misconduct where it does occur.