Student Workshop on Plagiarism

To tackle the issue of students' tendency to excessively rely on online mediums and AI tools for generating answers for their course assessments, the Department of English and Humanities (DEH) at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), conducted a workshop on “Plagiarism” on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. The workshop was conducted by Md. Sahedul Islam Hira (MA, Batch 223), Teaching Assistant, DEH, and Peer Tutor, English Zone, who gave students a general idea about the types of plagiarism and how to avoid them.

Mr. Islam initiated the workshop with an anecdote relating to the consequences of borrowing materials without citing the appropriate sources. Grabbing the audience's attention, he moved on to define plagiarism so that the attending students were familiarized with it. Then he proceeded to explain the different types of plagiarism that students normally encounter: Global Plagiarism, Paraphrasing Plagiarism, Verbatim Plagiarism, Mosaic Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism, and Accidental Plagiarism.

Mr. Islam then went on to discuss ways to avoid plagiarism by using checkers such as Turnitin. He advised the students not to use AI tools or copy information from online sources since faculty members can detect them through their years of hands-on experience, even if Turnitin cannot. He further suggested using proper citations, using Turnitin to check for accidental plagiarism, and also to record bibliographic information accurately to avoid plagiarism.

To conclude the workshop, Mr. Islam provided a short multiple-choice questionnaire to the participants. The questions aimed to gauge students' knowledge about different types of plagiarism and their understanding. The workshop was graced by the presence of Ms. Arifa Ghani Rahman, Head and Associate Professor of the Department of English and Humanities, ULAB, and ended with a question-and-answer session to clarify any confusions the students might have.

Report by Khondoker Noor Mohammad (202013030)