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Students who present the work of others as their own are guilty of plagiarism and will receive consequences and will have the details of the plagiarism noted in their student file.

Goldenlink Academy - PLAGIARISM POLICY

Growing Success Policy

Students must understand that the tests/exams they complete and the assignments they submit for evaluation must be their own work and that cheating and plagiarism will not be condoned.

The school will develop strategies for helping students understand the gravity of such behaviour and the importance of acknowledging the work of others. The school will also develop policies that address, at a minimum, the following:

• prevention of cheating and plagiarizing

• detection of incidents of cheating and plagiarizing

• consequences for students who cheat or plagiarize

Policies will reflect a continuum of behavioural and academic responses and consequences, based on at least the following four factors: (1) the grade level of the student, (2) the maturity of the student, (3) the number and frequency of incidents, and (4) the individual circumstances of the student.

Policy

Academic honesty is critical in any learning environment and educational institution; however, it is rightly perceived to be a fundamental issue especially for an online environment, where communication between student and teacher is less intimate and more reliant on the written word of the student.

Unlike a classroom setting, where the teacher can observe students write their submissions, an online environment does not share this characteristic. For a teacher to evaluate a student’s work properly and objectively, the teacher must be sure that it is the student’s own. Therefore, the School has set up well-defined, articulated policies and a culture of prevention to avoid such scenarios.

As per 7.5 of the School Calendar, Cheating is the act of using unauthorized materials and/or resources during tests, exams or other Assessment of Learning tasks. Examples of cheating include:

• giving your own work to others
• using the work of others
• using unauthorized study aids
• copying the work of others on tests or exams
• Particularly important for online: paying for services, using tutor’s work as your own work, or having tutors extensively edit work rendering it a collaborative effort.
• Particularly important for online: using unauthorized materials during Unit Tests.

o   Note: Cheating on unit tests is not only identifiable, but it also impedes successful completion of a course as the Final Exam will be monitored.

 

Plagiarism can be defined as using someone else's words, ideas, or thoughts as if they were your own. Plagiarized material may be an entire paper, a paragraph, or even a single sentence. Teachers expect, without exception, that all students will use their own words and do their own work when submitting online assignments. Where you have used ideas or information from another source, you should name the source of that information in a bibliography.

Especially for the online context, students should not copy & paste someone else’s words, ideas, or thoughts as if they were their own from sites such as SparkNotes, Enotes, and other reliable/unreliable sources.

The use reliable and informative sources are encouraged; but students should be aware that these sources do not constitute an exhaustion of knowledge or activity, these sources serve merely as starting points for your own research or development of ideas. Teachers and the assignments provided will specify the expectations with respect to the number of sources used and the proportion of their incorporation into assignments.

Students should be especially aware that teachers are experienced and can often easily identify when writing is not the student’s own. The student should be aware that their work will be reviewed with a reliable plagiarism detectors if any suspicions arise, and regularly if there has been antecedent plagiarism and cheating.

 

Consequences, for both Online and On-site incidents

Depending on the severity of the incident, the consequences for plagiarism or cheating will reflect a continuum of behavioural and academic responses, based on at least the following four factors:

• grade level of the student
• maturity of the student
• number and frequency of incidents
• individual circumstances of the student 

 

Procedure

Plagiarized assignments will be given a mark of zero and parents will be notified.

●       1^st offense: Informing the principal, possible zero as a placeholder (at teacher's discretion after consulting with the principal), home contact, if necessary.

●       2^nd offense or more: Informing the principal, zero as a placeholder, meeting with principal and the details of the plagiarism will be recorded by the guidance counselor.

Students who are guilty of cheating on tests or examinations will receive a mark of zero on the test or examination. In order to prevent cheating and Plagiarism, teachers talk about them at the beginning of the semester and familiarize the students with the importance of acknowledging the work of others as well as the consequences of plagiarism and cheating.

*It is important to understand that cases of plagiarism and/or cheating are cumulative. If a student is officially caught cheating in one course and then is caught plagiarizing in another course, the plagiarizing offense will be considered as the second offense overall.

Responsibilities of the Student

When the teacher asks you to use your own words and ideas, it means that you should use your own words and your own ideas. You must demonstrate to the teacher that you are capable of submitting work that is your own. When a teacher asks to put your ideas into your own words, it does not mean that there is a correct answer for the assignment. It means that you have to come up with your own ideas to give to the teacher.

Plagiarism means submitting work to the teacher that is not your own. Cheating and plagiarism will not be condoned. When you take ideas and words that are someone else's and pass them off as yours, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism can involve some of these:

• Using work done by another student.
• Copying someone else's work or homework.
• Taking another student's work and changing some words.
• Cutting and pasting material from the Internet and submitting it as yours.
• Copying information from a book, magazine, website, movie, etc. and not naming the source.
• Leaving out quotation marks for direct quotes.

Responsibilities of the Teacher

Help students avoid plagiarising by:

• Defining the term and reminding them of it when setting out an assignment.
• Giving them examples of what constitutes plagiarism.
• Emphasizing the importance of using process skills to arrive at a product.
• Teaching them research skills so they can avoid plagiarising: note-taking, paraphrasing, summarizing.
• Teaching them organizational skills: finding and organizing information to build an understanding of a topic.
• Teaching them how to make an outline for a report or research essay.
• Having them keep a learning log to reflect on what they learned through the process: how to research and organizational skills helped with the project, how could the product be improved, how can the research and organizational skills be improved.
• Assessing the process steps: notes, outline, summary, bibliography, drafts, etc.
• Informing students of the consequences of plagiarism.

Appeal

A student may appeal to the teacher's decision to the principal after a discussion with the teacher.

Based on Fresh Air: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Secondary Schools

Toronto District School Board, 2006