Print
Send to friend
RSS feedsAlmost all students more than 90% have a clear understanding of what constitutes plagiarism, according to research carried out by online coursework library Coursework and student networking site TheStudentRoom.
The aim of the research, said Peter Taylor, operations director of Acumen PI, which runs both Coursework and TheStudentRoom, was to look at how students were carrying out their research, how that varied through different levels of education from GCSE to postgraduate, and how good an understanding students had of what constituted plagiarism.
The survey found that students spent between two and four hours a day online on average, with 98.4% saying they used the internet for research. Wikipedia was the most frequently used site.
“The internet is transforming the way students learn and gather information and research for their studies,” said Taylor. “There seems to be a massive increase in the use of Web 2.0 sites sites where collaboration and the use of sharing of information is growing.”
Asked whether they understood the meaning of plagiarism, more than 93% of respondents answered yes, although the figure was slightly lower for GCSE students. Only 31% said they had received any education on the topic of plagiarism.
“This highlights the need to educate on plagiarism from a young age,” said Taylor. “There seems to be a trend of students arriving at university being expected to understand what plagiarism is and how it impacts on their study.”
But while most students said they understood what was meant by plagiarism, only just over 50% said they had a clear view of what constituted legitimate use of other people’s work.
Asked whether it was fair that different institutions had different rules and penalties for plagiarism, the majority thought not.
Invited to comment freely, many students said they wanted a universal definition and set of rules about what constituted plagiarism.
“There was a real feeling of confusion around the fact that the rules weren’t uniform,” said Taylor.
