Student Plagiarism Policy

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES 1. PURPOSE To ensure appropriate measures are in place to safeguard and promote academic honesty, personal integrity and intellectual responsibility. 2. SCOPE This policy and process applies to all students at Unitek College, Eagle Gate College and Provo College. 3. DEFINITIONS Term: Definition: Plagiarism The use of another’s ideas, programs, or words without proper acknowledgment. Term: Definition: Collusion Term: Definition: The improper collaboration with another in, but not limited to preparing assignments, computer programs or in taking examinations. Cheating Giving improper aid to another, receiving such aid from another, or from some other source. Term: Definition: Falsifying The fabrication, misrepresentation or alternation of citations, written products, experimental data, laboratory data or data derived from other empirical methods. Term: Definition: Copyright The exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same. 3. DEFINITIONS, continued Term: Definition: Student Code of Conduct The Student Code of Conduct sets the standards of conduct expected of students. It holds individuals and groups responsible for the consequences of their actions. Failure to fulfill these responsibilities may result in disciplinary actions or withdrawal from the program. 4. RESPONSIBILITIES No. Department Overall Responsibilities 1. Academics/Other departments, as applicable (i.e., Registrar, Student Services) 2. Compliance 1. Faculty will use any resources available to determine if a student has engaged in academic dishonesty. 2. Faculty will counsel student. 3. Faculty will document any student counseling or advising on the Academic Advising Form 3.0 or document this in CVUE. 4. Faculty will escalate the second offense of plagiarism to their direct supervisor – Program Director/Assistant Dean/Vice Dean – if the student has engaged in academic dishonesty for the second time. 5. Program Director/Assistant Dean/Vice Dean will counsel the student or dismiss/withdraw the student. 1. Ensures compliance with regulatory and accreditation requirements. 2. Maintains current and previous versions of the policy and procedures. 3. Announces and distributes new and revised policy and procedures. 5. POLICY STATEMENT Unitek College, Eagle Gate College and Provo College (“the Colleges”) are committed to academic excellence built on honesty, moral integrity, trust, and respect. All academic community members depend upon the integrity of work that is submitted for academic credit. The Colleges support and promote academic honesty, personal integrity and intellectual responsibility. Any form of academic dishonesty is not acceptable. The Colleges do not tolerate dishonest efforts by their students and share a deep commitment (alongside the Academic Community) to academic honesty and integrity. Any student who engages in academic dishonesty, plagiarism, including self-plagiarism; cheating on an examination or assignment; distributing copies of examinations; recording examination information, including taking screenshots of exam questions and answers, assignments, or answer sheets to other students; passing off another’s work as one’s own; and/or aiding one or more other students in committing the same or similar acts of academic dishonesty will be given a grade of zero for the exam or assignment in which the infraction occurred and will be counseled by the course’s faculty member. If a student commits a second act of academic dishonesty, he or she will be given a grade of zero for the exam or assignment in which the infraction occurred. The faculty will escalate the second offense of plagiarism to their direct supervisor (Program Director/Assistant Dean/Vice Dean) and the student will be counseled by the Program Director and/or Assistant Deans/Vice Dean of Online. It is at the discretion of the Program Director and/or Assistant Dean/Vice Dean of Online if this second infraction warrants disciplinary actions, including but not limited to withdrawal from the program. If a student commits a third act of academic dishonesty, he or she will be dismissed/withdrawn from the program and the College. All acts of academic dishonesty will be recorded in the student’s academic record. A student may appeal his/her dismissal/withdrawal from the College for academic dishonesty by following the grievance and appeals policy detailed in the catalog. 1) Deliberate plagiarism centers on the issue of intent. If students deliberately claim another’s language, ideas, or other intellectual or creative work as their own, they have engaged in a form of intellectual theft. This is not tolerated in academic, business, and professional communities, and confirmed instances of plagiarism usually result in serious consequences. Similarly, submitting the work of another person or submitting a paper purchased from another person or agency is a clear case of intentional plagiarism for which students will be subject to the severest penalties including dismissal from the program and the College. 2) Unintentional plagiarism often results from misunderstanding conventional documentation, oversight, or inattentive scholarship. Unintentional plagiarism can include forgetting to give authors credit for their ideas, transcribing from poor notes, and even omitting relevant punctuation marks. 3) Self-plagiarism is the use of one's own previous work in another context without citing that it was used previously. This occurs when a student submits papers, assignments, etc. presented for another course where he or she was the original creator, whether for another department or school. All forms of selfplagiarism (regardless if the student was the original creator) is subject to the plagiarism policy and procedures. 80/20 Rule The Colleges use the 80/20 rule for the determination of plagiarism. At least 80% of any assignment, discussion post, or other work must be in a student’s own words. Direct quotes should account for no more than 20% of the assignment, discussion post, or other work. This 80/20 rule also applies to all work previously submitted by the student in which the student was the original creator. This is considered selfplagiarism. To clarify, students are not permitted to resubmit any previous work in another context without citing that it was used previously, and any previous work that the student includes and properly cites falls under the 80/20 rule. When determining plagiarism violations regarding the 80/20 rule, the violations can be separated into two parts. These two violations of the 80/20 rule will have different ramifications: 1) Violating the 80/20 rule by exceeding the 20% threshold using correctly cited or referenced material: Students should use good judgment when deciding when to quote. Students should quote only when an author/source material has expressed an idea better than the student could express in his or her own words. The purpose of the 80/20 rule is for the students to demonstrate a clear understanding of the subject matter, as faculty want to read the students’ work in their own words. A quote should be no more than 20% of the students’ work. For example: If a student has 100 words in his or her post, then only 20 words or less can be a direct quote. Violations of the 80/20 rule for correctly cited and referenced sourced materials will follow the grading rubric of that course or faculty. 2) Violating the 80/20 rule by exceeding the 20% threshold by not using the correct citations or references: This is considered straight plagiarism as it is passing off another’s work as one’s own, or similar acts of academic dishonesty. This violation will be given a grade of zero for the exam, assignment, discussion thread, or paper, in which the infraction occurred, and the student will be counseled by the course’s faculty member. If the student continues to violate the 80/20 rule by not using proper citation and references, the Plagiarism Policy will take effect. END OF POLICY 6. PROCEDURES a) Papers and other work may be turned in for review using Plagiarism Detection Software. Due to the complexity of certain types of academic material turned in by the students, discussion posts and presenter notes are not input into the Plagiarism Detection Software. b) Faculty determines if there appears to be plagiarism on an assignment and will substantiate the plagiarism claim (for example, faculty will reach out to Academic Admin for IP address look-ups, IT support and guidance, as necessary). c) Once the faculty has determined that the student has engaged in academic dishonesty (adhering to the plagiarism policy), the student will be given a grade of zero for the exam or assignment for which the infraction occurred and will be counseled by the applicable faculty member. An academic counseling/advising will be documented on the Academic Advising Form 3.0. d) If a student commits a second act of academic dishonesty, he or she will be given a grade of zero for the exam or assignment for which the infraction occurred and will be counseled by the Program Director and/or Assistant Deans/Vice Dean of Online. It will be at the discretion of the Program Director and/or Assistant Deans/Vice Dean of Online if this second infraction warrants disciplinary actions including but not limited to withdrawal from the program. An academic counseling/advising will be documented on the Academic Advising Form 3.0. e) If a student commits a third act of academic dishonesty, he or she will be dismissed/withdrawn from the program and the College. END OF PROCEDURES Campus management is responsible for the training of campus staff and monitoring continued compliance with the policy and procedures. POLICY KEY ACA – Academics ADM – Admissions BOM – Business Office CSR – Career Services COM – Compliance FAC – Facilities HRS – Human Resources LGL – Legal MIS – Management Information Systems/ Information Technology SFS – Student Financial Services SS – Student Services FIN – Finance/Accounting