Students Turned Off by Turnitin? Perception of Plagiarism and Collusion by Undergraduate Bioscience Students

Figures & data

Table 1 Results of research questionnaire administered to investigate the students perception of plagiarism, assessment and Turnitin.

Scale items	Percentage Response					Score
Section A	1	2	3	4	5	Mean	SD
A. Plagiarism is defined as cheating	0	12	12	53	24	3.88	0.93
B. Plagiarism is ethically and morally wrong	0	6	6	65	24	4.06	0.75
C. I understand what plagiarism is	0	0	12	71	18	4.06	0.56
D. Plagiarism helps me to learn and understand the content for the written examinations	6	41	47	6	0	2.53	0.72
E. Plagiarism does not help me to learn	0	29	35	12	24	3.29	1.16
F. I am not provided with enough information to avoid plagiarism in my assessments	0	29	12	47	12	3.41	1.06
G. It would be useful to have a tutorial session in the beginning of the course to explain what plagiarism is and how to avoid it	0	0	0	53	47	4.47	0.51
H. I am confused in the understanding between plagiarism and collusion	0	18	18	47	18	3.65	1.00
I. I have knowingly plagiarised or colluded on an assessment	12	29	41	18	0	2.65	0.93
J. I may have unknowingly plagiarised or colluded on an assessment	0	0	47	47	6	3.59	0.62
K. Other students on my course have plagiarised or colluded on an assessment	0	0	76	12	12	3.35	0.70
Section B	1	2	3	4	5	Mean	SD
A. The assessments that I am given encourages plagiarism	6	35	35	18	6	2.82	1.01
B. I might plagiarise work if I didn’t understand the assessment	12	24	29	35	0	2.88	1.05
C. The amount of work given for assessment encourages plagiarism	12	24	24	29	12	3.06	1.25
D. Plagiarism helps me to remember formulae for examinations	6	53	24	18	0	2.53	0.87
E. Does the statement ‘Undergraduate pharmacology is great and opens up many avenues for a wide range of careers’ require a citation?	12	41	18	29	0	2.65	1.06
F. Does the statement ‘Undergraduate Bioscience departments have a problem with students plagiarising work’ require a citation?	0	47	12	41	0	2.94	0.97
Section C	1	2	3	4	5	Mean	SD
A. Turnitin (UK) is easy to use	18	41	24	18	0	2.41	1.00
B. Turnitin (UK) helps me to understand and avoid plagiarism in submitted work	24	29	12	29	6	2.65	1.32
C. Turnitin (UK) deters plagiarism by the risk of being caught	6	18	24	47	6	3.29	1.05
D. Turnitin (UK) is a useful learning tool	24	29	29	12	6	2.47	1.18
E. Turnitin (UK) does not tell students how to avoid plagiarism	0	0	24	65	12	3.88	0.60
F. There should be some other way to check for plagiarism as too much emphasis is placed on a high Turnitin (UK) return score.	0	0	0	65	35	4.35	0.49

Figure 1 Correlation between student demographic data and the perception of plagiarism and collusion in final year undergraduate Biosciences. Average responses (mean rank scores) are represented for section A, grouped for ethnicity (A), gender (B) and age (C). Results are presented as ± SEM (n=17).

Figure 2 Correlation between type of assessment given to final year undergraduate Bioscience students and the likelihood of plagiarism and collusion. Average responses (mean rank scores) are shown for section B of the research questionnaire. Results are presented as ± SEM (n=17).

Figure 3 Perceptions of Turnitin (UK) as a plagiarism deterrent amongst final year undergraduate Bioscience students. Average responses (mean rank scores) are shown for section C of the research questionnaire. Results are presented as ± SEM (n=17).