Plagiarism and Authentication Policy

Rationale

Norwood Secondary College (NSC), as a government school, aims to provide a dynamic learning culture. We have high expectations about the content that we teach, the way in which we engage students in learning and the means by which we assess their level of understanding. As a college we respect the intellectual property of others and see plagiarism as ethically and morally wrong. Plagiarism is unacceptable in our school community and a student who plagiarises is being dishonest with their teachers, peers and themselves.

Work submitted to teaching staff must be the student’s own and respect the intellectual property of others through appropriate and correct referencing. Details regarding correct referencing can be found on our library’s resource page:  https://library.norwood.vic.edu.au/referencing 

Aims

The aim of this policy is for students and their families to understand what plagiarism is, how it can be avoided and how NSC will manage incidents of plagiarism. 

Definitions

As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, to plagiarise something is to “copy another person’s ideas, words or work and pretend that they are your own.” Plagiarism can include writing or images, be oral or electronic, and it also involves copying and pasting reference material off of the internet.

Examples of Plagiarism

Plagiarism, whether it be deliberate or unintentional, could involve the following:

• The copying of ideas, information and opinions from others without recognising their original source.
• Copying verbatim (exactly) information without using quotation marks and appropriate referencing.
• Handing in work that has previously been submitted for assessment by the student.
• Failing to provide an accurate and detailed bibliography (or footnotes/endnotes) when requested to by the school’s teaching staff.
• Failing to acknowledge an individual you are quoting in both written and oral presentations and reports.
• Copying all or part of another person’s work and submitting it as your own. This can include the work of another student, friend, teacher, tutor or parent.
• Using generative AI tools to produce written or creative work and submitting it as your own without proper acknowledgment or consent. This includes content generated by AI, such as text, images, or code, that has not been properly referenced, attributed, or permitted by the requirements of the task.

How Plagiarism can be Avoided

In order to avoid plagiarism, students should be encouraged to:

• Plan, draft and edit their work carefully. Make sure that they understand the requirements of all tasks and use the criteria and/or assessment rubrics to guide their writing.

• Understand how to reference and cite their work correctly. Visit the ‘referencing’ tab of the Library’s resource page to understand how to write a bibliography and construct footnotes or endnotes: 

  https://library.norwood.vic.edu.au/referencing/bibliography 

• When researching, take notes in their own words and record the bibliographic information so that they can acknowledge the source once the assignment is complete.
• When quoting an individual and their opinions or research, put words in “quotation marks.” *NB: Images, statistics and graphs must also be acknowledged. 
• Use a variety of sources for their information. Not only will this strengthen their writing, but plagiarism is unlikely.

Implementation

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has strict authentication processes at a VCE level and to ensure consistency, similar authentication processes will be introduced at Years 7-10 to prepare students for such expectations in Senior School. Students will be made aware of assessment protocols via sub-school handbooks at the start of each year, and they will be reminded prior to each assessment that they undertake.

Assessment Tasks

Tasks conducted in Test/SAC Conditions

• Classrooms will be organised so that students are seated separately
• As per the Department’s Mobile Phone Policy, mobile phones and smart watches are not permitted.
• Materials that are not permitted in the assessment must be placed face down on the floor (e.g. laptops, textbooks, pencil cases and any reference materials etc.) 
• A transparent plastic water bottle (all labels removed) is permitted. 
• As determined by the VCAA Administrative Handbook, students must not be given undue assistance whilst completing assessment tasks.

Tasks conducted over a period of time

• Teachers will clearly indicate the amount of time that is allowed for, and the conditions of each assessment. At a Senior Level, this will be noted in the SAC notification which is provided to students no less than a week prior to the assessment. 
• Significant class time will be allocated to completing extended tasks, allowing teachers to monitor, authenticate, and discuss the work with each student whilst providing meaningful feedback.
• Students will be required to document or share with their classroom teacher specific developmental stages of their work. This may include, but is not limited to identifying their chosen topic, listing resources or preliminary research and providing a first draft etc.

School Assessed Coursework: SACs

• Most SACs will be undertaken in class time or after school as per the college SAC calendar. However, students may be required to complete practice or preparatory tasks outside of class time. In this instance, the classroom teacher will monitor student progress through regular sightings and ongoing record keeping.
• Students are encouraged to practice and draft responses for teacher feedback prior to assessments. However, teachers cannot give feedback on tasks which will contribute to a student’s SAC score.

School Assessed Tasks: SATs

• Teachers will regularly monitor and authenticate the development of a student’s work. This will involve frequent sightings of a student’s project and record keeping by the classroom teacher.
• To avoid authentication problems, teachers will ensure that tasks are kept secure and a student’s work once complete, is easily identified.

At a VCE Level, assessment tasks should be modified/adjusted so that students are unable to use the work of another student from a previous academic year. In Years 7-10, care must be taken when reusing assessment tasks from a previous academic year and modifications/adjustments are recommended. Assessments should be conducted under test conditions, or alternatively, work should be checked with other teachers to ensure that previous work has not been resubmitted. 

For more information about School Assessed Coursework (SACs), School Assessed Tasks (SATs) and authentication processes, please refer to the current edition of the VCE Administrative Handbook: https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/administration/vce-handbook/Pages/index.aspx 

Protocols for the Completion of Assessment Tasks Years 7-12 

Students must:

• ensure that all work submitted for assessment is genuinely their own.
• acknowledge all resources used – including texts, websites and any other sources. This acknowledgement should come in the form of a bibliography or list of references and should be submitted with the assessment task.
• not receive undue assistance from another person (other students, friends, teachers, parents, tutors) in the preparation and/or submission of work.
  • An acceptable level of assistance may include the use of ideas from other sources which have been incorporated/adapted by the student, or general guidance or feedback from another person, such as the classroom teacher, which leads to further editing and refinement.
  • An unacceptable level of assistance may include copying or the use of another person’s work without acknowledgement. Work that has been created using Generative Artificial Intelligence, such as Chat GPT, falls into this category of submissions.
• respect and follow the conditions of the assessment as determined by the classroom teacher e.g. time limits, permitted materials etc.
• not knowingly assist other students to breach assessment rules.

Breaches in Assessment Protocols

If NSC staff form the belief that the work submitted by a student is not their own, or if they have received an unfair advantage in any way, then this may be a breach of assessment protocols. When determining if a student’s work is genuinely their own, the staff member should consider if the work:

• is/is not typical of work previously submitted by the student
• includes unacknowledged material and/or resources
• is inconsistent with the student’s level of ability 
• has not been sighted or monitored during its development by the classroom teacher 

An online plagiarism detector may be used if an NSC staff member suspects that a student’s submission of work contains material that has been unacknowledged, plagiarised or generated using AI. A teacher may use online detectors such as: 

https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker OR https://www.grammarly.com/ai-detector 

The following actions constitute a breach in assessment protocols:

• Two (or more) students submit work that is deemed to be very similar.
• A student submits work that does not reflect their usual standard.
• Students are found to be talking or communicating (including eye contact and facial expressions).
• A mobile phone, smart watch or unauthorised materials are found on the student’s person.
• Unauthorised materials are viewed during the assessment.

Reporting a Breach in Assessment Protocols for Senior Students

Teachers need to be able to authenticate that a student’s work is their own. A teacher cannot authenticate any work of which they have further doubts, until evidence is provided. Students must acknowledge all resources that they use. 

At a VCE level, students are required to sign a ‘Declaration of Authenticity’ for coursework that includes tasks completed outside of class. This declaration states that all ‘unacknowledged’ work is the student’s own. Students who use Generative Artificial Intelligence to create their work or knowingly assist other students are breaching the rules and may be penalised. Below is a copy of the SAC/SAT Disclaimer for Norwood Secondary College. This statement can be found on SAC notification documents and on the front cover of every SAC/SAT paper:

SAC/SAT Disclaimer 

Students must not intentionally or unintentionally disclose any details on this SAC/SAT or imply what is or is not included, or in any way gain an unfair advantage over other students. Students must understand that disciplinary action will occur and their result will be downgraded. In fairness to fellow pupils, it is the student’s responsibility to inform the VCE office if they are aware that information about the SAC/SAT is being passed on, or that a student has gained an unfair advantage.

I understand that the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not permitted to generate ideas or manufacture responses for this assessment. I am aware that there are consequences for doing so as per the Plagiarism and Authentication Policy.

Any student work that cannot be authenticated or is deemed to be plagiarised, will be referred to the Senior School Review Panel to investigate a breach of assessment protocols according to VCAA guidelines.

The classroom teacher must:

• Collect evidence to support their belief. This may include copies of student work, or similar student work and any online resources that match student submissions including those created by Generative Artificial Intelligence.
• Show the similarities in student work or online resources by highlighting the most relevant sections of the documented evidence.
• Provide the evidence to the relevant Head of Year Level with further details about the incident.

The Head of Year Level must:

• Investigate the incident. This may include, but is not limited to, discussions with the classroom teacher and examining the evidence that has been provided.
• If there is enough evidence to support the claims then the matter must be referred on to the Senior School Principal who acts as a decision maker on behalf of VCAA.

The Head of Year Level and Senior School Principal will:

• Provide the student with a letter that outlines:
  • The nature of the alleged breach of assessment protocols
  • The date and location of a mandated interview (a minimum of 24 hours’ notice)
  • Details regarding a support person

*NB: The student may choose to bring a support person to their interview. This person may be a parent/carer who is present to offer the student support. They are not there to advocate for the student or speak on their behalf. 

• Organise an interview panel. The interview panel must include at least two people. In most instances this will consist of the Head of Year Level and Senior School Principal, although it may also include the classroom teacher.
• Conduct an interview which may require the student to:
  • give evidence of developmental stages of the work
  • explain the content of the work to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the outcome
  • share other work samples
• Make a final decision based on the investigation and apply consequences. 
• A chronicle entry should be added to the student’s Compass page, and the student should receive a letter highlighting the outcome of the process within 48 hours of the meeting.

Consequences

If the Review Panel makes the determination that a breach has occurred, then penalties will be applied in accordance with VCAA assessment guidelines. The panel may choose to:

• give the student a written warning.
• determine that the original assessment is invalid. In this case, the student will be required to resubmit the work in order to achieve a result.
• reward the student with zero marks for the section of work where assessment protocols were breached. The student can receive marks for other sections of the assessment where the assessment rules were followed.
• give the student a zero for the assessment. In this instance, the student will be required to submit additional work to satisfy requirements of the outcome.
• Award the student an ‘N’ for the outcome and therefore an ‘N’ for the unit.

Communication

This policy will be communicated to our school community in the following ways:

• Included in staff induction processes and staff training
• Referenced in Senior School Handbooks
• Discussed at staff briefings/meetings as required
• Discussed at student forums/through communication tools
• Made available in hard copy from the General Offi upon request

Further Information and Resources

This policy should be read in conjunction with the following Department policies and guidelines:

• VCE Administrative Handbook
• Scored Assessment: School Based Assessment
• VCE School-Based Assessment Breaches of Rules and Investigations
• Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Schools
• Generative Artificial Intelligence Policy (DET)

Policy Review and Approval