17 September 2008
oh those new university academics...
The THE (The THE?!)...anyway, them. They ran a marking experiment. But who can this mysterious 'Marker 4' be?!
Within the sample, those who taught at new universities gave the lowest average mark, even when the zero is excluded - apparently debunking the popular perception that new universities are less academically rigorous than their older counterparts.
The zero mark came from Marker 4, an academic at a new university, who said the essay contained extensive paraphrasing and insufficient referencing, which meant that it, in the academic's view, fell into the category of "plagiarism and/or poor study skills". Under normal circumstances, the academic would have asked the student to resubmit the work.
Strikingly, Marker 4 was the only one to identify the paraphrasing, from a commonly used textbook, Descartes, by John Cottingham, professor of philosophy at the University of Reading.
Within the sample, those who taught at new universities gave the lowest average mark, even when the zero is excluded - apparently debunking the popular perception that new universities are less academically rigorous than their older counterparts.
The zero mark came from Marker 4, an academic at a new university, who said the essay contained extensive paraphrasing and insufficient referencing, which meant that it, in the academic's view, fell into the category of "plagiarism and/or poor study skills". Under normal circumstances, the academic would have asked the student to resubmit the work.
Strikingly, Marker 4 was the only one to identify the paraphrasing, from a commonly used textbook, Descartes, by John Cottingham, professor of philosophy at the University of Reading.
