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Peer Review

Writing and Plagiarism: Infoskills Tutorial

Reviewed:

Dec 3, 2011 by Library and Information Services
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Quality: 4.5 stars
Effectiveness: 4.8 stars
Ease of Use: 4.0 stars
Overview:

This brief tutorial explains what academic integrity is and how to avoid plagiarism. It provides information on effective notetaking, paraphrasing, summarizing, using quotations, using common knowledge, and organizing and referencing resources.
Type of Material:

Tutorial.
Recommended Uses:

This tutorial would be appropriate for university students prior to beginning work on an academic research paper.
Technical Requirements:

Java, works with IE and Firefox
Identify Major Learning Goals:

* Explain the values underpinning academic integrity * Define academic fraud, plagiarism and research misconduct * Identify University of Newcastle policies on Student Academic Integrity * Describe the use of plagiarism detection and prevention software * Explain the consequences for students of academic fraud, plagiarism and research misconduct at the University of Newcastle * Identify strategies for good academic practice in your writing, eg. notetaking, acknowledging your sources * Describe techniques for managing and compiling reference lists and bibliographies.
Target Student Population:

College students in all areas, especially first-year students
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

familiar with the process of writing a research paper.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

This tutorial provides concise information about plagiarism and tips for avoiding it. A good treatment of its subject matter, including examples and resources for more information.
Concerns:

The first half of the tutorial is geared toward the University of Newcastle’s Academic Integrity Policy, making it difficult for students at other schools to use. The page is text heavy with few graphics and interactive elements.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

Learning objects are clearly identified and the tutorial and exercises can be done quickly. The flow of the tutorial is good, establishing why this is an important issue, defining the consequences for plagiarism and then showing the student how it can be avoided.
Concerns:

More interactive elements and graphics would hold the students attention.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

This tutorial is clear and easy to navigate. It has a clear flow, simple design and indicates clearly how the student is progressing.
Concerns:

There is only one question for students to answer. Other than that, there is no interactivity. It is not easy to jump between sections, even though an index of the tutorial often displays - it has no clickable links. Some tutorial answers are contained in textual images that do not contain any title, or content information, for screen readers.
Other Issues and Comments:

Some aspects of the tutorial, especial in the introduction, are geared specifically to Newcastle University, or Australian students. While the issues addressed are universal, this removes some of the utility from non-Australian institutions looking to use the tutorial.
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