Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

WHEN YOU SHOULD NOT 
COLLABORATE 
It is all too easy for students to collaborate. Tis is especially the 
case for online students with ready access to systems such as Mic-
rosoft Teams or social media apps. Tis presents a potential prob-
lem. Your degree needs to be assessed on your work. After all, it 
is you that will get those all-important letters after your name. 
Yet, if you have collaborated to obtain those qualifcations, you 
will have cheated. You will have cheated your future employers, 
for instance. Tey will believe you have a level of skills, knowl-
edge, and understanding that may not be true. If you have collabo-
rated with other students, some of the work for which you receive 
marks will have been completed by them, not you. You will also 
be cheating yourself. After all, you will believe you are better than 
is the case because your higher marks will have come about as a 
result of working with others. 
Collaborating with others for individual work is a serious academic 
ofence. Indeed, your university will have an Academic Integrity 

---

Efective online collaboration 145 
Code or a Code of Student Conduct that will indicate penalties for 
collaborating on individual work. Tis can include expulsion from 
the university without a qualifcation. Universities have several 
methods in place for detecting collaboration. Tere is even arti-
fcial intelligence (AI) that can detect diferences in writing styles. 
Tis would mean that if part of your work had been written by 
someone else, these AI systems would spot the diference between 
your words and those from a collaborator. Not only are you cheat-
ing yourself when you collaborate on individual work, but you also 
run the risk of severe penalties that could afect your entire future.