Assessment and plagiarism

This chapter consolidates findings on student assessment, plagiarism and academic misconduct of interest to computing researchers and instructors. This builds on the literature recommendation that savvy assessment design can reduce the opportunities for student plagiarism. Despite this recommendation, it is uncommon for assessment research and plagiarism research to be considered on an equal footing. Computing courses are unusual in that they include both technical situations, such as computer programming classes, alongside more general activity, such as writing reports. This requires instructors to use of a diverse range of assessments. Many traditional assessment practices are susceptible to plagiarism and cheating, including contract cheating, the behaviour where students engage a third party to complete their assessments for them. The chapter provides practical suggestions for designing robust assessments and promoting academic integrity. It also identifies technical solutions that can be deployed to reduce the threat of academic misconduct. The chapter concludes by exploring opportunities for future computing research in the assessment and plagiarism areas