Peer Review

LIB 740-Plagiarism Tutorial

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Overview:: An introduction to plagiarism and how to avoid it. This interactive tutorial allows users to take on the identity of four students. Each student is facing a problem related to plagiarism. Following the tutorial will give users experience in avoiding plagiarism using MLA and APA citation formats. Features lots of interactivity and mini-quizzes.
Type of Material:: Tutorial
Recommended Uses:: This tutorial can be used in class or as homework. It can be used as a stand alone assignment.
Technical Requirements:: flash
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Users will learn why research should be started early, the difference between paraphrasing and quoting as well as when and how to use citations. Understand the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, and why) of citing.
Target Student Population:: This tutorial can be used by upper level high school students or by undergraduate students. It could be helpful to anyone who needs to be refreshed on how to avoid plagiarizing.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None

Rating:
Strengths:: This tutorial provides a complete demonstration of what plagarism is and how to avoid it. It provides users with different citation style options to be used with different subject areas. Summarizes content at the end. The information is accurate and up-to-date.
Concerns:: A little bit more explanation--perhaps side-by-side examples--of the difference between quoting and paraphrasing would be nice. A link to a resource on how to integrate quotations into a paper and/or create a paraphrase would be helpful as well.

Rating:
Strengths:: Overall, this is an excellent tutorial. Learning objectives are identified. It scaffolds content so that each section builds on and enforces the previous section. The tutorial is efficient, providing maximum information in a short time frame. This tutorial does everything one could wish: it identifies the learning objectives at the beginning and builds on what's been learned and identifies relationships between concepts throughout. This would be great to assign upon the assignment of a research paper.
Concerns:: This tutorial does not identify information that may be required before beginning a session. The very last slide of this tutorial has information that's specific to the creator's host institution (contact info for a university librarian); this makes it slightly less desirable to instructors outside Arcadia University. If the creator modified the tutorial slightly to remove this information (or to make it possible for instructors to put their own contact information in, with the generation of a unique URL for their students), this would be fixed.

Rating:
Strengths:: In terms of usability, this is an excellent tutorial. It is engaging, offers clear instructions, and is appealing in terms of design. Extremely interactive, with lots of opportunities to test one's knowledge. The ability to choose a student avatar is fun.
Concerns:: It would be nice if the ability to hit 'next' without actually choosing an answer to the many interactive parts were removed, so students couldn't speed through it without reading.

Other Issues and Comments:: A very strong, fun way to introduce students to plagiarism in an academic context and how to avoid it. This tutorial is well prepared and easy to use.
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