An Institutional Self-Study of Text-Matching Software in a Canadian Graduate-Level Engineering Program
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An Institutional Self-Study of Text-Matching Software in a Canadian Graduate-Level Engineering Program Sarah Elaine Eaton 1 & Katherine Crossman 1 & Laleh Behjat 1 Robin Michael Yates 1 & Elise Fear 1 & Milana Trifkovic 1
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# The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
This institutional self-study investigated the use of text-matching software (TMS) to prevent plagiarism by students in a Canadian university that did not have an institutional license for TMS at the time of the study. Assignments from a graduate-level engineering course were analyzed using iThenticate®. During the initial phase of the study, similarity scores from the first student assignments (N = 132) were collected to determine a baseline level of textual similarity. Students were then offered an educational intervention workshop on academic integrity. Another set of similarity scores from consenting participants’ second assignments (n = 106) were then collected, and a statistically significant assignment effect (p < 0.05) was found between the similarity scores of the two assignments. The results of this study indicate that TMS, when used in conjunction with educational interventions about academic integrity, can be useful to students and educators to prevent and identify academic misconduct. This study adds to the growing body of empirical research about academic integrity in Canadian higher education and, in particular, in engineering fields. Keywords Academic integrity . Text-matching software . Engineering . Canada . Plagiarism . Plagiarism detection . Higher education The purpose of this institutional self-study (Bertram Gallant and Drinan 2008) was to investigate the use of text-matching software (TMS) among engineering graduate students at a university in Western Canada. This project falls within the university’s commitment to upholding the fundamental values of academic integrity: fairness, respect, responsibility, trust, honesty, and courage (International Center for Academic Integrity [ICAI] 2014). The genesis of this project grew out of conversations on campus about the possibility of using commercially available TMS. In order to determine if such software would be useful on our campus, we undertook a small-scale pilot study. To align our study with institutional strategic
* Katherine Crossman [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
S.E. Eaton et al.
commitments to enrich the quality and breadth of learning for our students, and to focus on improving student experience, we purposefully designed our research as an institutional selfstudy. This intentional design sharpened the focus on plagiarism prevention and student learning, rather than plagiarism detection for the purposes of catching students and imposing sanctions. Some studies have focused on the consequences of academic misconduct, noting consequences can be both a deterrent and a response to breaches of integrity (Austin et al. 2005; Christensen Hughes and Bertram Gallant 2016; Genereux and McLeod 1995). Our study focused more intentl
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