Championing Academic Integrity in Large Dissertation Cohorts
Geethanjali Selvaretnam
University degrees invariably require students to undertake a substantial piece of independent work. Our postgraduate students achieve this through the dissertation, which involves independent research and is worth a third of the required credits for the programme. By design, the dissertation is a take-home assessment written over an extended period. A concern we share with the rest of the higher education sector is how to preserve academic integrity, which can be compromised through inappropriate use of generative AI, essay mills, ghostwriters, or excessive outside help. While requiring a presentation and viva would be feasible in a small class, it is nearly impossible in a class as large as ours. The Economics subject at the Adam Smith Business School currently has more than 700 postgraduate students. This blog shares some of the steps we have taken to safeguard academic integrity, and we continue to explore more effective measures.
Leading up to the dissertation, these students take a course called Research Methods and Dissertation, which provides comprehensive training over two semesters, including academic writing, advanced statistical methods, and research methodologies. Two hours of this course are dedicated to discussing academic integrity, along with lecture notes explaining what is expected when writing the dissertation, how to avoid plagiarism, common pitfalls, and the heavy penalties for academic misconduct. A dedicated session serves as an induction to the dissertation, explaining the process, expectations, and the available support. It is worth noting that clear explanations are given about the proper use of generative AI tools and issues related to plagiarism. In addition, we have three Peer-Assisted Learning sessions of one hour each on research proposal writing, plagiarism, and related subjects, which are led by trained students. More than just a warning, the training sessions aim to educate students on maintaining academic integrity in their writing. Students are reminded of the importance of academic integrity and the severe consequences that can arise from violations. This is essential to safeguard the value of our degrees.
Once the research proposal for the dissertation is submitted, each student is allocated a supervisor, and meetings can commence in June until the dissertation is submitted at the end of August. With no other coursework during this period, students can focus fully on the dissertation. Students are required to have four meetings with their respective supervisors following the submission of their work-in-progress. These meetings are mandatory. The main objectives are to discuss feedback from the supervisor, explain how the dissertation can answer the research questions, and discuss any challenges and ways to overcome obstacles.
To facilitate a record of the meetings, students must complete a supervisor form that includes the date of the meeting, a brief account of what was discussed, and any suggestions for future consideration. Completing this form also has a learning benefit, as it enables students to critically reflect on the discussions and the actions to be taken. The follow-up meetings and submissions will indicate whether there is an authentic flow according to the meeting discussions. Supervisors can monitor for inconsistencies, possible plagiarism, or deviations from their guidance in student drafts. They can discuss these concerns with the student, allowing them to explain and make necessary revisions.
At the point of submission on the Moodle page, we include a statement reminding students that their work should be original, that they should not plagiarise, and that they should not jeopardise their degree due to academic misconduct. To submit the dissertation, students must acknowledge that they have followed the regulations and that there is no plagiarism. If plagiarism or misconduct is suspected in the final submission, this must be reported along with documented reasons and evidence.
An important step we have taken is the possibility of a viva. Although conducting a viva for all students is not feasible in this large class, we have introduced the potential for one. As part of the assessment information for students, we clearly convey that “as part of the overall assessment process, students may be asked to present their dissertation in a viva.” The idea is that this can serve as a deterrent for students and a source of confidence for supervisors. Without this mechanism, even when supervisors have good reason to doubt the integrity of a submission, they are often helpless at the stage of written submission, aside from identifying anything copied from published sources. After marking the dissertation, if the supervisor wishes, a viva can be requested, attended by the dissertation coordinator and a subject-level integrity officer. The reasons for requesting a viva can vary, but usually, the supervisor is aware of the student’s progress in meetings, and a significant deviation in the written work can prompt this request. It is important to emphasise that these sessions are conducted as discussions, making an effort not to ‘interrogate’ the student, and recognising that many students may write better than they speak fluently. The student is invited to explain how the dissertation was carried out and how information was gathered, along with any specific questions to clarify doubts about integrity. If there is sufficient reason to believe that academic integrity has been compromised, the student would be referred to the university’s academic conduct team, which may impose penalties.
This blog serves as an introduction to a more comprehensive case study on academic integrity within large dissertation cohorts that is being developed. As the landscape of academic integrity evolves rapidly, it is crucial that we remain vigilant in our efforts to uphold these standards without hindering the beneficial effects of knowledge spillovers and technological advancements. We must continue to express our concerns, share good practice, and engage in further research to find more effective ways to safeguard academic integrity in dissertations.
Knowledge encapsulation in pedagogy- an economical approach to learning and teaching
Vladimir Maltsev
As a teacher of microeconomics, I often discuss with my students how we make optimum choices subject to constraints. But are we consistently applying these principles to education, which stresses the accumulation of knowledge and human capital? This blog post invokes some ideas of Harold Demsetz (1988) to create a theory of teaching based around the concept of knowledge encapsulation in learning and teaching practices.
Throughout the course of their academic journey, students have to acquire relevant knowledge and eventually apply it appropriately as and when required. Yet, acquiring such a vast intellectual arsenal is costly, as the relevant knowledge must be acquired and maintained. Additionally, thinking and active application of knowledge is a task which consumes time and requires vast intellectual resources, which may exhaust the student both mentally and physically.
Harold Demsetz (1988) offered a solution to the problem of costly knowledge through encapsulation – a process where agents compress knowledge into forms that require less information to use than is required to produce them. In other words, users of knowledge encapsulation mechanisms incur lower costs compared to handling full knowledge. This idea was given a more detailed definition in the medical profession in 2007, where, according to Schmidt and Rikers (2007: 1134-1135), “knowledge encapsulation is a learning mechanism that can be defined as the subsuming or “packaging” of lower-level, detailed concepts and their inter-relations, under a smaller number of higher-level concepts with the same explanatory power.” Schmidt and Rikers applied this idea to contrast knowledge use by medical students and doctors, finding that the latter often rely on single-word concepts or short sentences to produce medical diagnoses, compared to the former’s large texts and multi-paragraph elaborations.
Following the logic of knowledge encapsulation, students must also go through a process where large volumes of knowledge are compressed into cognitive entities which can be easily utilized to explain complex phenomena without incurring significant knowledge costs. This process can be illustrated by the following diagram:
To give an economics-related example, assume you hear the following news: “Oil producers think the price of oil will increase in 6 months.” To explain what will happen as the result of such news, the following lengthy explanation is required:
“If oil providers think they can charge a higher price for oil in the near future, they will keep oil in the ground, speculating on the future changes. The production of oil will thus decrease, and the reduced availability of oil will lead to higher prices.”
On the other hand, a trained economist will contain his explanation within a simple sentence:
The concept of supply and its shifts is sufficient to explain everything that will happen in the oil market, since it encapsulates the more detailed explanation.
Lecturers must devote sufficient focus toward knowledge compression within the students’ minds, which will then allow students to utilize the more efficient and cognitive cost-minimizing knowledge encapsulation tools in the future. To that end, there are a number of ways to facilitate the knowledge compression into an encapsulated form and further supplement its retrieval. It is crucial to repeat the studied concepts, and practice their application through in-class exercises and experiments to imprint them in students’ minds. Providing frequent check-your-progress sections, practice questions, summaries and takeaways further facilitate this process. The role of the lecturer in this process cannot be understated, as effective presentation and discussion of the material can help anchor a particular concept in the students’ minds effectively.
Finally, it is important to allow students some room to develop and use their own knowledge compression and encapsulation tools. This can be done through group work, collective problem solving, think-pair-share approaches, reflective writing and sharing opportunities. Some students might draw images, make short notes or even develop their own “bird language” which will help them compress the relevant information.
Overall, the knowledge encapsulation framework provides a potent approach for learning and teaching with its own principles compressed succinctly. I am now exploring knowledge encapsulation as an effective tool in pedagogy, and this blog is just a foretaste of more work to be done in the future.
References
Demsetz, H. (1988). The Theory of the Firm Revisited. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, 4(1): 141–163.
Schmidt H.G., Rikers, R.M.J.P. (2007). How expertise develops in medicine: knowledge encapsulation and illness script formation. Medical Education, 41: 1133–1139.
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