Exam ’spy’ traps school cheats

By Tony Halpin

A new computer program can see if students’ coursework is all their own.

IT IS the lazy teenager’s worst nightmare: a computer program that checks examination coursework for cheating.

Students who surfed the internet to complete their GCSE and A-level assignments face exposure as plagiarists in an experiment introduced by an exam board this summer.

The Edexcel board is using a detection program that scans coursework against material in more than 4.5 billion web pages as well as a database of books and journals. The Turnitin software compiles an “originality report” showing what percentage of a paper matches archive material.

Edexcel, one of the three main examination boards in England, said that coursework submitted last month for moderation by examiners would be checked to see if students had cheated.

A spokesman said that students guilty of blatant plagiarism could be stripped of their grades either for that module or for the whole exam. Where minor infringements were uncovered, schools would be reminded of the need for students to learn to acknowledge sources used in their work.

The exam board will use the software’s reports to present evidence of cheating to candidates’ schools and colleges.

John Black, Edexcel’s head of compliance and quality management, said: “We are keen to investigate how Turnitin can assist the detection of plagiarism, thereby underpinning the integrity of the exam system.

“This software will also benefit head teachers by providing detailed information and evidence, which they can use when discussing plagiarism with colleagues and candidates. We are determined that those who cheat are caught.”

The experiment will be unveiled at an international conference in Gateshead next week on combating plagiar- ism in schools and higher education.

Turnitin, which was developed in America, is already used by more than 60 per cent of British universities.

Other exam boards are expected to adopt similar procedures if the initiative is successful. The Joint Council for Qualifications, the umbrella body representing exam boards, is working with Northumbria Learning, the company that provides the service, on effective plagiarism detection strategies.

Concern about plagiarism in coursework for public examinations has risen in recent years, fuelled by surveys showing that a high proportion of parents and teachers admitted helping students to complete assignments that should have been done alone.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) gave warning in March that teachers would be guilty of professional misconduct if they allowed students to pass off plagiarised material as their own.

It set up a task force last year to develop coursework guidelines for teachers after an inquiry into more than a dozen subjects found evidence of widespread cheating.

Ruth Kelly, then the Education Secretary, responded by ordering a fundamental review of the role of coursework, which accounts for between 20 and 60 per cent of marks awarded for GCSEs and A levels.

The QCA’s two-year review revealed a virtual free-for-all among students, teachers and parents in carrying out assignments. The discovery cast doubt on the continual increase in grades and pass rates for both sets of exams.

The inquiry into subjects including English, history, mathematics and religious studies uncovered plagiarism via the internet, collusion and “coursework cloning”, where teachers gave students excessive help. At GCSE level, one in twenty parents admitted to doing their children’s coursework.

Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.