ASKe in the press

 

'Students face a steep learning curb'

The Australian, 18 November 2009

Universities are too obsessed with grading and measuring students and need to rethink assessment practices to focus on ensuring students are learning.

'Agenda for change' aims to combat feedback myths

THES, 15 October 2009

Lobby group calls for a 'fundamental rethink' of student assessment. Rebecca Attwood reports

Well, what do you know?

THES, 29 January 2009

As the academy looks beyond the traditional roles played in assessment by essays and timed exams, new techniques are helping to turn students into active partners in their own learning.’

Judgment calls

THES, 18 September 2008

Amid worries about examining practices, Times Higher Education asked ten academics to mark a first-year paper. Verdicts ranged from zero to a 2:1, but the markers identified an inherent consensus, says Rebecca Attwood

Old debate needs new consideration 3

THES, 31 July 2008

We were pleased to see such a complementary series of articles ("MPs have bone to pick with QAA over standards"; "Honesty is not the best policy"; "Beyond classification"; "No points for learning", 24 July) that went some way to addressing...

Flagship for teaching has limited effect on practice

THES, 10 July 2008

Study finds pockets of success for £300m scheme to raise standards. Rebecca Attwood reports

Effective lecture handouts

THES, 19 June 2008

Striking the balance between offering a complete annotated script of your lecture and making students take reams of notes is essential

Group says marking impedes learning

THES, 24 April 2008

Academics' manifesto calls for reform to end obsession with grades. Rebecca Attwood reports

Thirty minutes to evaluate 10,000 words

THES, 10 January 2008

A proposed marking model has angered some academics. Rebecca Attwood writes.

'Inherently frail' - the verdict on marking

THES, 26 October 2007

Call for debate as lack of consistency in assessment attracts warning of student litigation. Rebecca Attwood reports. Lecturers' marking of student work is "inherently frail" and assessment procedures would struggle to stand up to legal...

Degrees of fashion 2

THES, 26 October 2007

The grading of student work is inherently and inevitably rough. In most circumstances it is more a matter of judgment than of measurement. Marks are less precise than the algorithms used for honours degree classifications often imply. If...

Misunderstood? Try a more positive approach

THES, 19 December 2003

If students never read your feedback, it may be because they simply can't interpret it, says Margaret Price.

Are you reaching those at the back?

THES, 10 January 2008

Some academics routinely lecture to hundreds of students, but is this still the best way to teach? Tariq Tahir ponders the future of the lecture in an era of mass higher education.

Invigilating exams

THES, 3 July 2008

After 1998 students didn't need to begin essays with a blank screen

The Guardian, 28 June 2008

Plagiarism is endemic and fighting it is an industry. The plagiarist psychiatrist Raj Persaud, last week suspended from practising for three months by the General Medical Council, is nothing more than its most visible pimple. A few days after the GMC announced its sentence I went to a conference in Newcastle, the third International Plagiarism Conference, and heard Persaud's (...)
(...) owe this thought to one of the conference's guest speakers, Jude Carroll, a teaching fellow at Oxford Brookes University. "After 1998," Carroll (...)

Institutions limit access to anti-cheat software

THES, 26 June 2008

Lecturers fear that students use plagiarism detection software to 'beat the system', says Rebecca Attwood

Originality score to curb copying

THES, 22 May 2008

Lecturer develops a 'more enriching' way of dealing with student plagiarism. Rebecca Attwood explains

Assessment criteria for practical skills

THES, 27 March 2008

Striving to make the marking process reliable, clear and scrupulously fair will help students learn from the exercise, even when they fail

Teaching Matters: Show young scholars a way in

THES, 14 December 2007

One outcome of the neoliberal university has been to recast the student as a consumer of higher education, promoting a judgmental culture among undergraduates on all aspects of the student experience.

On the move...

THES, 7 December 2007

The Higher Education Academy has announced the names of its first senior fellows. Fourteen academics have been recognised as providing outstanding leadership in teaching. They are: Michael Bramhall ...

Research must fight status quo 3

THES, 9 November 2007

You are trying too hard to pump up the issue of research assessment exercise exclusion. Of course some people are having a bad experience and some universities are being silly, but the statistics you are shouting about are not remarkable.

When plagiarism is academic

The Guardian, 30 October 2007

This week at Durham University, professors are investigating whether a former dean of the business school is guilty of plagiarism. Professor Tony Antoniou resigned this month over allegations he copied the work of his peers for his DPhil thesis and a later journal article. He remains a professor of finance at the university. Meanwhile, at Wolverhampton University, lawyers (...)
(...) hear about are probably just the tip of the iceberg," say Jude Carroll, a plagiarism expert at Oxford Brookes University, and Mike Reddy, (...)

Comfort zone

The Guardian, 10 July 2007

With its low-slung, lime-green and lipstick-pink interlocking sofas, luminous seats, nursery-style plastic coffee tables and plasma screen, you might think you had just stepped into the Big Brother house. But this is the latest space for undergraduates at Oxford Brookes University. Academics from the business school have been looking at how best to help first years settle (...)
(...) lies in a space that "brings together work and home". Professor Margaret Price, director of undergraduate study in business and management, and lecturer (...)

Pick a number... any number

THES, 15 June 2007

Well, no, actually that won't do. Practical assessment of skills requires scrupulous fairness and clarity. Not only that, says Harriet Swain, students must be able to learn from the exercise, even when they fail.

Tread softly but keep eyes open

THES, 8 June 2007

Invigilation is frequently seen as a chore, but to be done well it requires empathy, tact, eyes at the back of the head and a good pair of non-squeaky shoes, as Harriet Swain explains

Behind the web of lies

THES, 1 June 2007

Blaming the internet and IT for the rise in plagiarism does not address the root cause for students' disregard of scholarly endeavour, says Hannah Devlin

To speak volumes don't deliver them

THES, 4 May 2007

Striking the balance between offering a complete annotated script of your lecture and making students take reams of notes is essential if you are to make handouts work for you, says Harriet Swain

Vague policies derail effort to rein in student cheats

THES, 13 April 2007

Many staff are unsure of plagiarism policy and what punishment should be invoked, writes Chloe Stothart

Foreign recruits no threat to quality

THES, 6 April 2007

Rammell denies spiralling workloads linked to internationalisation, says Rebecca Attwood.

Class is allowed to set exam

THES, 30 June 2006

Lecturer lets candidates write questions to engender 'trust'. Phil Baty reports on the alternative assessment methods dividing opinion

Staff not software will trap cheats

THES, 19 May 2006

Academics must lead multi-pronged war on plagiarism, universities are told.
 

Fluency can be all yours... for a small fee

THES, 7 April 2006

Accusations of "spoon-feeding gone mad" were levelled at Bradford University this week when it emerged that it provides students with a list of professional proofreaders to help them correct poor English and improve their marks.

Bradford in student proofreading row

The Guardian, 6 April 2006

Bradford University has been accused of "spoon-feeding" students after it was revealed that lists of professional proofreaders are issued to undergraduates so they can have their poor English corrected to improve their marks. The Times Higher Education Supplement today reported that staff at Bradford's school of management had admitted in an online discussion between (...)
(...) corrected by proofreaders reflected "ability to pay" rather than academic ability. Jude Carroll, from Oxford Brookes University, told the paper that if the (...)

Poll finds elite top cheats list

THES, 17 March 2006

Students at the most academically selective universities are most likely to admit to cheating, a Times Higher poll on plagiarism has revealed.

Complacent staff could lose foreign enrolments

THES, 10 February 2006

Academics need more training to help them avoid cultural clashes and misunderstandings with the rising number of overseas students they must teach and supervise, according to international students' representatives.

Copycats paper over their faults

The Guardian, 10 January 2006

An old educational joke says that if a student consults one book for an assignment, that's plagiarism, but if it's two books, that's research. Plagiarism, however, is no laughing matter for schools, higher education institutions or examination boards, and there is compelling evidence that the problem is getting worse and increasingly harder to detect. At its simplest, it (...)

Q: What runs just like clockwork?

THES, 2 December 2005

A: The exam you devised - if you've ensured that students haven't been able to predict the questions, you've given them time to complete the paper and you haven't tried to catch them out, says Harriet Swain

Ofsted outsourcing

The Guardian, 3 May 2005

'Private' is not a term of abuse Ofsted is not withdrawing from the "operational side" of inspections (Inspector calls time, April 26). It has not "subcontracted the inspection of further education colleges to a private company". All Ofsted has done is engage a company with a long track record in the provision of education services to recruit, train and support curriculum (...)
(...) crime stories. Yet still one student was failed for plagiarism. Reading Jude Carroll's interview, I could not help but feel she put (...)

Is trouble all that they can spell?

THES, 29 April 2005

There may be many reasons why students are difficult and disruptive.

Jude Carroll: Original thinker

The Guardian, 26 April 2005

As an American who has lived in England for the best part of 30 years, Jude Carroll is used to being an outsider. "Africans say that no matter how long a log remains in the river, it never becomes a crocodile," she says. "From time to time I make the mistake of imagining I've become a crocodile. But it's just not true. I'll always be a log." This feel for difference has (...)
(...) has lived in England for the best part of 30 years, Jude Carroll is used to being an outsider. "Africans say that no (...)
Jude Carroll, leading authority on plagiarism, talks to John Crace about ethics (...)

Encountering and countering the counterfeiters

THES, 8 April 2005

Prevention is the key to nipping plagiarism in the bud, as Michael North finds out

Students face grilling by cheat detectives

THES, 11 February 2005

Universities are being urged to establish an army of "academic conduct officers" to combat student cheats under new guidelines published this week.

Nip double trouble in the bud

THES, 28 January 2005

Plagiarism can be hard to prove, so why waste time on punishment when better assessment methods can stop copycats in their tracks? Harriet Swain investigates

A new leaf for the new year?

The Guardian, 8 January 2005

Admit it. Plagiarism is attractive. Under pressure to get a good degree and with a deadline looming, there can't be many students who aren't tempted to purloin a particularly apposite piece of analysis and pass it off as their own. It's also very easy these days to do almost by accident. With notes for essays usually made up of a hotchpotch of cut-and-paste fragments, it is (...)
(...) not the legal consequences of plagiarism that students need fear," warns Jude Carroll, a course leader at Oxford Brookes University and one of (...)

Roll up, roll up for star attractions

THES, 3 December 2004

Designing a new course module is no mean feat, but it will all seem worthwhile once you've got it right and the students start rolling in, Harriet Swain argues.

It's as easy as a, b or c

THES, 9 July 2004

Is multiple choice key in an age of mass participation? asks Harriet Swain.

'Wimpy' bosses cause staff to duck showdown

THES, 2 July 2004

Conference reveals full extent of plagiarism and how the UK system is partly to blame. reports Phil Baty

I could not have put it better - so I won't

THES, 25 June 2004

More foreign than home students are caught plagiarising. This may be due to language, stress and different cultural traditions, Harriet Swain finds.

Plagiarism is just a mouseclick away

THES, 13 December 2002

Students are using text messaging to cheat in exams and copying from the internet for coursework. Chris Bunting reports on how institutions are dealing with the issue.

High-tech alone will not catch out cheats

THES, 10 August 2001

Electronic methods of detecting plagiarism are not a magic solution, a new report warns. A good-practice guide prepared for the Joint Information Systems Committee says that electronic communication has made plagiarism and collusion easier...

Agony aunt

THES, 13 October 2000