Day: 10 October 2017

Essay mills and contract cheating

mstowell1

QAA has published this week guidance setting out best practice around promoting academic integrity in higher education, through tackling students’ use of third parties’ services in order to cheat. It covers the use of essay mills and other forms of contract cheating. It describes the issues, and sets out the steps providers can take to deal with these. The new guidance recommends: clear information for students on the risks of cheating, including academic misconduct being reported to relevant professional bodies support for students to develop independent study skills, including academic writing using a range of assessment methods to limit opportunities for cheating blocking essay mill sites and taking action against essay mill advertising on campus smarter detection, including new software and greater familiarity with students’ personal styles… Read moreEssay mills and contract cheating

Bronze, Silver or Gold – how’s your Blackboard site looking?

admin

Baseline standards for VLE use were introduced in September 2015 and an audit of modules from the 2016/17 academic year has found that 94% of modules now have a tutor enrolled indicating a minimum level of engagement with the VLE. An increase of 2% from last year. A further spot check of 50 random courses found that the vast majority were complying with baseline standard requirements with many exceeding the minimum and providing online learning resources and activities which were engaging and attractive and clearly enhanced the students’ learning experience. With this high level of engagement, we wanted to encourage teaching staff to think about their Blackboard sites and  consider ways that they might provide a better learning experience for their students. With this in… Read moreBronze, Silver or Gold – how’s your Blackboard site looking?