Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Coping with online assessment 189 
something you will need to live with for the rest of your life. Can 
you imagine telling your children you cheated to get a degree? 
For online students, essay mills are just a click away. Sometimes, 
it is a good idea not to click. 
Understand the rules about academic integrity 
For the majority of Academic Misconduct investigations that 
I have conducted, a student will say to me at some point, “but 
I provided a reference”. Tere is a mistaken belief among many 
students that it is perfectly acceptable to copy material as long as 
the source is referenced. Tat is simply not true. Te words within 
your text, though cited from somewhere else, are not your words. 
You are being marked on your knowledge and understanding, not 
that of the textbook’s authors, for instance. 
Another common misconception is that if the material is in 
quotation marks, it isn’t plagiarism. Technically, as long as there 
is a reference for quoted material, you are indicating that the 
text is not your own. So, it is not actually a case of cheating. 
However, students tend to use large chunks of quoted material. 
Indeed, in one instance I investigated, 75 per cent of the es-
say was quoted material. Tat meant only a quarter of the essay 
was written by the student themself. I asked if he only wanted a 
quarter of the marks. Quoting extensive amounts of material is 
poor academic practice, plus it doesn’t avoid an Academic Mis-
conduct investigation. So, it is better to ensure that everything 
is in your own words. 
QUICK TIP: Don’t make assumptions about what is or is not 
allowed in terms of copying material or using items from your 
sources. Instead, just put everything in your assignment entirely 
in your own words. 

---