Kirstina,
I would like to add a few additional thoughts on the situation you
wonderfully raised.
I think you have two issues you want to deal with: a short-term and a
long-term concern. The short-term is what to do with this particular team;
the long-term is how to keep it from happening again in the future with
another team.
*Short-Term Situation*: I really like what you have already done for this
part of the problem. What you want for this particular team and the
violating team member, is for them to realize the wrongness of what they
did. By directing them to come up with a proposed resolution is going to
require that they all discuss what they did very seriously.
That is going to put a lot of heat on the person who plagiarized
without telling the others. He/she will not likely do that again. And the
rest of the team will realize that, in the future, they need to carefully
review anything they sign and turn in as a team.
Short-term problem fully resolved, I think.
*Long-Term Situation*: This is where Larry's suggestion applies. Look
carefully at how you set up and worded the application situation you gave
the class. All application exercises should require students to (A) take
the information and ideas from some content source (e.g., text) and (B) do
something new with it.
It isn't clear from what you have shared, but it sounds like you may
have had a somewhat extended writing assignment to be turned in from the
group - rather than "making a specific choice" or "providing an outline of
their response to a complex question" (e.g., the way Larry has students
watch a film about corruption in the NYC police department and then propose
a plan for cleaning up the department).
With these latter two kinds of assignments, there really isn't an
opportunity to plagiarize. So you have taken both the opportunity and need
to plagiarize away from students, i.e., they have to do original work -
which is what you want.
Thanks for raising this question. This is a reminder for all of us to
think through both our assignments and how we respond whenever a problem
like this does occur.
My Best, Dee Fink
On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 1:26 PM, Spaulding, Kristina N <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Larry,
>
> The funny thing is, it was an application question. If we had not
> caught the plagiarism, they would have received a poor score anyway, as the
> answer did not really directly address the question.
>
> Thanks to everyone for the input!
>
>
> _________________________________________
>
> Kristina N. Spaulding
>
> Doctoral candidate
>
> Gallup lab
>
> Department of Psychology
>
> University at Albany
>
> HU B68-E
>
> 442-4786
>
> OH: Tue 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
>
> Fri 1:00 - 2:30
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Larry Michaelsen <[log in to unmask]>
> *Sent:* Friday, October 18, 2013 3:24 PM
> *To:* Spaulding, Kristina N
> *Cc:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: Plagiarism in a team
>
> Kristina,
>
> That's a new one for me as well. I agree with Jim's suggestion for
> dealing with the problem at this point. However, I'm wondering if the
> reason for the plagiarism might be in the nature of the question itself. I
> think the reason I've never had any plagiarism is that my team exams are
> ALL applications--often using a full-lengh feature film as a "case." Thus,
> there is never an answer in the textbook (or anywhere else) for the teams
> to look up. In fact, one of my rules of thumb is that I recommend NEVER
> giving an assignment where it is even possible for students to "look up"
> the answer. When you do, it changes the nature of the assignment from a
> thinking (thus, discussing) assignment to "looking-up" assignment. Thus,
> the sensible way to get it done isn't talking--it is letting the best
> looker(s) complete the assignment on behalf of the team.
>
> Larry
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 1:06 PM, Spaulding, Kristina N <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> A new situation came up this semester that I've never had to deal with.
>> We had an in class assignment earlier this week. One of the teams turned
>> in an answer that was taken verbatim from the textbook (with some
>> rearranging). The TA caught it, talked to me, and we sent out an e-mail to
>> the team members stating that we would be giving them a zero on the
>> assignment. The assignment itself is for a very small portion of their
>> grade, which is why I chose to simply given them a zero instead of
>> something harsher.
>>
>> Today, I had two of the team members come in to say that they wanted to
>> apologize and that they didn't realize what the team member that wrote up
>> the answer was doing. They said he was writing the answer down while they
>> were talking and it was pretty close to what they had been talking about
>> and none of them recognized that it was from the textbook, so they all just
>> signed the page. I do actually believe them (though perhaps they should
>> have read his answer more closely), mostly because it was very hard for me
>> to believe that an entire team would endorse copying the answer from the
>> textbook. They asked what they could do and I wasn't sure how to respond
>> (generally, I do not allow students to resubmit plagiarized work for a
>> grade). I suggested they talk to their entire team and propose a solution
>> as a team. I then said I would consider their proposal, without making any
>> promises. Any suggestions on how to handle this kind of situation?
>>
>> _________________________________________
>>
>> Kristina N. Spaulding
>>
>> Doctoral candidate
>>
>> Gallup lab
>>
>> Department of Psychology
>>
>> University at Albany
>>
>> HU B68-E
>>
>> 442-4786
>>
>> OH: Tue 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
>>
>> Fri 1:00 - 2:30
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> *******************************
> Larry K. Michaelsen, Professor of Management
> Dockery 400G, University of Central Missouri
> Warrensburg, MO 64093
> 660/543-4315 voice, 660/543-8465 fax
> For info on:
> Team-Based Learning (TBL) <www.teambasedlearning.org>
> Integrative Business Experience (IBE) <http://ucmo.edu/IBEl<http://faculty.ucmo.edu/ibe/home.html>
> >
> *******************************
>
--
***********************
L. Dee Fink
234 Foreman Ave.
Norman, OK 73069
Phone/FAX: 405-364-6464
Email: [log in to unmask]
Websites:
www.designlearning.org [multiple resources on course design]
www.deefinkandassociates.com [offer workshops & online courses]
www.finkconsulting.info [Fink's consulting activities &
publications]
**Former President of the POD Network in Higher Education (2004-2005)
**Author of: *Creating Significant Learning Experiences* (2003, Jossey-Bass)
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
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