Issues of Teaching and Learning, 9(2)

Plagiarism

Many of us belong to one or more listserves that often are an active source of dialogue and healthy debate about issues relating our discipline. Each morning we get a swag of messages that advertise conferences, seek ideas for speakers for seminars, offer resources and generate debate. In fact, a whole host of things. It's impossible to find the time to read all these threads but on a fairly regular basis a topic comes up and even the lurkers get stirred into action. On one particular listserve dealing with teaching and learning, a recent topic was plagiarism! Wow, what energy and enthusiasm that topic generated. In this issue we get in on the act. Plagiarism is a topic that has come around once again, interest being generated by the increasing use of the World Wide Web as a resource for writing papers.

Included in this month's edition is a guest article from a visitor to UWA (see Understanding plagiarism). Lynn Taylor is a faculty development specialist and Director of University Teaching Services at the University of Manitoba. Her primary responsibilities are for faculty development across the career span, graduate teaching and supervision in the Post-secondary Division of the Faculty of Education, and research. Her areas of interest include: teaching and learning in higher education, faculty development, academic integrity, and academic leadership.

What's Inside ITL

• Common knowledge and/or common sense
• Understanding plagiarism
• Excellence in teaching
• Assessing learning in Australian universities