How to Deal With Plagiarism

As university students it has been drilled into us since day one of arriving to university that plagiarism is a serious offence. Our syllabi are equipped with the universities Academic Integrity blurb and our professors always end with the punch line, "Come see me if you have any questions." (Which we all know rarely happens.. we'll probably Google it first). We all know not to do it but what about those students who do. What should the university do about it? I found this news article that explores some of the methods that universities are using.

One part of the article that I found interesting was what Simon Fraser University is doing for those student who are plagiarizing. They have created a new grade, "FD", that will show up on students transcripts which stands for Failed for Academic Dishonesty. I actually think that this is an excellent approach to the situation. The threat alone that something will show up on your official academic transcript saying that you plagiarized were deters many student I believe.

Single-Sex Classrooms: Good or Bad?

Hey guys! I found this article that I found pretty interesting and I thought you might enjoy it to. The article discusses the benefits of a single-sex classroom rather than the normative co-ed classroom. Single-sex classrooms aren't anything new and we often see them in private institutions. This aticle argues that single-sex classrooms are better for students in the educational process.

One of the arguments that this article makes that I disagree with is that when the opposite sex is taken out of the classroom there is less of a focus on being 'cool' or 'popular'. I do not believe that this is the case. In both males and females there always seems to be a search for a heirarchy, those who are leaders and those who are followers. I do not think taking the opposite sex out of the classroom is going to change competition between the same sex.