Background
I have been tutoring the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics program since 2007 - 700 students and counting. Add another 100 in the new graduate-level online analytics class I'm teaching at Laval University (Quebec-city) and my own experience as a student.
Think of students ability to become analysts as a normal distribution. You get a couple of students who are really outstanding - I would hire or recommend them anytime. At the lower end, there are a few students who are struggling - not because they can't do it, but maybe because they lack some experience, rigor and discipline, or their profile is radically distant from the online world. Some are in this program to understand WA but not actually do it i.e. their job requires that they can work with web analytics but it is not part of their job responsibilities – sometimes this is the reason they are on the low potential: that is not what they want or ever will do as a career. Then, in the middle, you get the majority of students who have the potential to become good analysts.
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The "easy now" syndrome
In "Undermining our future as web analysts" I was referring to a study highlighting the neurological changes happening in our brain as a result of quick problem solving abilities. I mentioned the following:"In our search for immediate gratification we are quickly going into the tactical and forgoing the strategic aspect of analytics and longer term business optimization."Some students are pretty efficient at conducting online "research" - finding relevant resources from blogs to support their argument - this is fine and valid. However, the "easy now" syndrome makes it sound like a couple of Google searches and a couple of well selected ctrl-c/ctrl-v can do the trick - this is called "plagiarism". The quick tactic to deliver an assignment is the wrong strategic choice for your career.
What is plagiarism?
UBC's Faculty of Arts has a great article on the topic entitled "Plagiarism avoided: taking responsibility for your work". From this article:
"Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct in which an individual submits or presents the work of another person as his or her own (UBC Calendar, 44). Simply put, plagiarism is taking the words or ideas of another person, and submitting them without the proper acknowledgement of the original author."They distinguish two forms of plagiarism - "complete": entire essay is copied from one or multiple authors, and "reckless plagiarism is often the result of careless research, poor time management and lack of confidence in your own ability to think creatively".
What I see - and the consequences
Academic rigor: Assignment quality varies a lot - a long litany of words without any document structure or formatting is much more susceptible to improper citations and references. I constantly remind students to carefully read the assignment guidelines and start with an empty skeleton with a cover page, an intro, each of the assignment points to be addressed, a conclusion and room for bibliography.In this case, a strong warning is often sufficient and I consider it to be part of the learning process. Plus, if you can't structure your work and clearly communicate, how will you perform as an analyst?
Wait a minute! There are those phrases you read and you think "wait a minute, there's something odd here" - the writing style is too different, or it reminds me of something I've read somewhere else. Picking a couple of phrases at random, a quick Google Search, and bingo! I can very easily find the reference. As Michele Hinojosa mentioned on Twitter, "Does it not occur to them that you've probably read everything they could plagiarize?"
When grading an essay, especially when there is no clear right or wrong answer, I look at the thought process, arguments and supporting references, as well as overall quality.
Is it a single occurrence of a phrase or short paragraph wrongly cited, or is it a blatant and significant appropriation of someone else's work? I have no pity for the second scenario - automatic 0, advise the student so he/she can explain, and refer the situation to a formal review committee within UBC.
The consequences: The obvious consequence is failing the assignment or the whole course. Depending on the circumstances we can give the opportunity to do a make-up project. The extreme case is being suspended from the program and having a note of misconduct put on the student's permanent transcript.
"Plagiarism is a serious issue at the university and will not be taken lightly should it occur."
Winnie Low, Program Leader
Techonology, Media and Professional Programs
UBC Continuing Studies
Plagiarism and the WAA Code of Ethic
While we are pushing for a WAA Code of Ethic, every resurgence of plagiarism is painful - not only as someone involved in academia, but also as an analyst endorsing ethical beliefs of privacy, transparency, consumer control, education and accountability. If, as a student, they play the "easy now" game, what can we expect of liars and cheaters when they become analysts?Plagiarism in the web analytics industry: how many times did I see my work being ripped off my blog - there is a level of acceptance. What about my Excel dashboard sample or the Online Analytics Maturity Model being repurposed by unscrupulous freelancers and agencies removing credit and charging their clients? Plagiarism or fair use?
Don't hesitate to share your thoughts - have you played the "easy now" game? Do you think plagiarism is a serious issue?
Other resources:
UBC Regulation on Plagiarism
Plagiarism.org
7 comments:
Stéphane:
When Twitter was first getting up and running several years ago it was much more common to see the "via @TWITTERID" as users shared who had put out some content. I would encourage everyone to continue using the "via" and "RT" tags for at least Twitter.
To cast the sharing of content on the internent in a more positive light, I propose that the #measure community is largely an open source business project. Just as in the FOSS projects around the world, there are people who contribute a great deal driving development.
There are also people who repackage what is freely available into their commercial product; there are two companies right now packaging the free Blender program as commercial software.
Michael
http://michaeldhealy.com/
http://twitter.com/michaeldhealy
I really can't understand why anyone would do that with Google retrieving content in fractions of a second. The course content is hardly even demanding but I suppose if English/French comprehension was an issue it might be understandable. However, those people can't expect to do well in a job if they don't have the skills to write properly. The one thing I'd like to see as part of the course curriculum is the certification at the end of the course. I think this would definitely weed out a lot. I'm continually frustrated in the industry by people who call themselves professionals with no education or experience. It would be nice to have more standards in the industry at various levels like the PMP, and other ISO accredited certifications.
I used to be very annoyed by plagiarism in the commercial sphere.
And then I became less annoyed.
I've seen my own slides (literally) and concepts recycled in decks that have come back to me, but with another companies logo on it. And then, when I start to ask questions about it, the analyst can't respond.
They copied the idea. They couldn't understand or articulate the theory or meaning of the idea. Worse - they were arriving at conclusions that were not supported by what was on the slide, and were all out wrong.
And that's the real danger in plagiarism. In the end, it ends up doing more damage to them than it ever could to me.
That said, I am able to see farther because I stand on the shoulders of giants. I make liberal use of academic journals, and on every slide I reference them - a citation. For his original contributions, Novo gets citations. Stephane...you get citations.
When you share credit for the ideas that you're referencing, you're encoding who you are into that.
I think there's real long term gain in being a good person. Nice guys finish last. But good people behaving well are more likely to consistently outperform and get ahead.
Michael: indeed, our small #measure community can grow by helping each other. After all, the whole Web concept stems from the basic idea that content can be shared and linked to - not that it can be ripped off...
I see a clear difference between a student who uses references to make a point vs blatent copy. Or when someone reference my work in a blog post, quote me, use my conference slides or even the OAMM work with proper reference - that is respectful and honnest. Ripping off one's name and copyright notice - and charging clients for it - is shameful and clearly unethical (and illegal!)
Edmonton SEO: The WAA Certification is part of the answer. Althought the UBC courses are not directly tied to WAA Certification, there is a clear path toward it.
Christopher: totally agree, in the long run, those who are only skilled at copying eventually makes fool of themselves...
Thank you all for your great comments!
There are some leaders, and there are many followers. The leaders innovate, the followers ...follow. Since our world is evolving so fast, especially in the web industry, I wouldn't worry too much about those copying the old stuff. In our industry, if you don't constantly have new ideas, you're dead anyways, and plagiarism has probably nothing to do with it!
I'm currently enrolled in the WA UBC program and think it's a little disingenuous to talk about academic rigor when the modules are full of typos, truncated sentences, links that go nowhere, and just plain bad writing. Academic rigor works both ways.
(I do believe the content is valuable and of high caliber. It's a shame UBC doesn't exercise more care in their presentation of the material.)
Anomymous: here, I have to agree with you: academic rigor works both ways. I have raised the issue of some outdated content, bad links or missing topics but I have no authority to make any changes - the WAA is responsible for the course content and UBC is responsible for academic quality. I can raise flags - as I did on numerous occasions - but that's the extent of my intervention. You should raise it to info@webanalyticsassociation.org
As for typos or bad grammar, it can honestly be a little more difficult for me as English isn't my primary language.
The ULaval course I'm teaching gives me much more flexibility as I have full control over its content and the department professor overview the changes - an easy process that allows me to apply continuous improvement and optimization to the course itself!
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