To be annoyed that my university group have plagiarised on our group project?

[notmygroup]

We have a group project deadline at midnight, and I have just uploaded our final document onto our university's plagiarism software only for it to show that one group member has plagiarised their entire section. Her section is lit up like a Christmas tree with sentences and paragraphs directly copy and pasted from textbooks and papers.

I've rewritten her section and reuploaded it, and gently said to the group what the issue was (without naming names) and that they need to resubmit and they're annoyed that they are having to resubmit it so late in the evening.

I had finished my contribution to the project last week, and have been messaging my group all day asking for them to finalise it so it's not my fault that the plagiarism wasn't picked up until it was finally ready to be submitted this evening. If I hadn't noticed it I think we'd of all had our marks docked and probably had to have a meeting as we've been told very clearly what plagiarism is.

AIBU? I've encountered this in so many group projects, and feel so frustrated about it

I’d be livid and chatting to someone on the staff if placed with that person again. We had folks citing wiki for 3 years no matter how often they were told they couldn’t/shouldnt etc. no one did Jack shit. :(

Your group members should be jolly grateful that you checked and rewrote so you wouldn't all end up with plagiarism on your academic records. You're right to be jolly annoyed at the rest of them.

That's a really dreadful thing to do, put everyone at risk of plagerism because they're too lazy/stupid to do it themselves

I don't know why you said it gently without naming names. Or why you rewrote the offending piece. It's cheating and everyone knows it, you are warned repeatedly!

Talk to your tutor - show them the offending work. You were foolish to rewrite it frankly - it would have been better to not submit and flag the whole thing plus the contact info rail. It doesn’t pay to keep your mouth shut on this as you’ll be tarred with the same brush. Might not make you popular but being expelled for cheating is worse.

I have to work with this same group for another project so don't want to make it awkward. I also have anxiety and would rather sort it out myself and submit a corrected version so I don't have it looming over me. I presume this student will plagiarise their future independent assignments and get caught out that way.

Do not work with them on another project

This is why I hate group projects.

But you’ve covered up for that person, done the work they should have done, and taught them that someone else will pick up the tab for their dishonesty. Are you going to mop up after them for every group project you share with them? Turnitin would have shown it was only one individual’s work, you’d all have been viva’d to distinguish your work from one anothers’, and the other person would have been penalised. Now you’ve just got yourself an extra job, and a reputation for being a pushover who silently does extra work for the sake of someone who can’t be bothered.

If you’d been in my department, policy is that Turnitin is set up so that students can’t see the Turnitin report, so you wouldn’t have caught her plagiarism.

If you're an anxious person the last thing you should do is work with this person again! Tell your tutor that one person in the group attempted to plagiarise their part of the last project, you don't want to say who (leave that to them to find out), and you need to be moved into another group.

Why are you being gentle? Name and shame. How else will she learn. She could have jeopardised the whole project.

No she won't if people keep fixing it.

What would have been the consequences for the rest of the group if you'd left it as it was?

By speaking gently to the whole group you are ensuring the culprit will do the same again next time. They've been treated gently too often and this was the result.

I would speak to my tutor about it if I was put in a group with them again.

Will there be any peer assessment of the submission?

Gawd this is why I hate group projects for university. They should be voluntary and you should have the option of working on your own. Uni group projects do not reflect working with people in actual real jobs.

One of my kids did a big project where two of the, worked hard and two slacked completely. He highlighted it to the lecturer running it and handed in a clearly colour coded project. Highlighting who did what. Him and the other good guy gets A's and the useless guys failed. I thought the lecturer was good to do that.

I always get my students to work off one document so that the collaborative software (OneDrive) picks up who did what in a report. The plagiarism is picked up by the software and then the person who plagiarised is picked up via the collaborative document. I think you got well out of your lane sorting out some else’s work. Leave them to it and speak up to your tutor/lecturers.

Tell the responsible academic that you aren't willing to work with that individual on any future projects because of the plagiarism. Show them the evidence and ask for them to be removed from the group.

Group assignments are a pile of pants in my experience. There are always lazy sods who end up getting carried by the rest of the group. Universities really need to put an end up this shit.

I understand the argument that students need to develop teamworking skills, but if that's the point of the group assignments, then Universities need to find a way of assessing the process and practice of teamwork rather the end product, which is so often the work of just one or two individuals.

I really don't know why they have them as part of degrees at all. I had to do one way back in the early 90s as part of my MBA - which was fine as Internet plagiarism wasn't a thing then AND it was a very 'practical' project.

But these days, as the OP demonstrates, it can land entirely innocent colleagues in a sorts of trouble.

EVERYONE knows the university will use plagiarism software - surely?

I understand the argument that students need to develop teamworking skills, but if that's the point of the group assignments, then Universities need to find a way of assessing the process and practice of teamwork rather the end product, which is so often the work of just one or two individuals.

We are required to mark students individually for group projects and there are many ways of doing this. Journaling who did what, a collaborative document which picks up each students contribution. Group work is a core skill in our discipline and evidence of it is sought from outside accreditation bodies. Without that accreditation our students could not get subsequent professional qualifications.

If individual marks are given on the basis of individual contributions, and you have an effective system for monitoring/measuring this, then there is a value in the process. However, that isn't how a lot of group assignments work.

When I did my MBA a few years ago, it was one grade for the group, based on the end product. Invariably, I ended up doing a disproportionate amount of the work, as did some others, while some just didn't produce anything at all. We all got the same grade for the assignment at the end of it.

Pointless.

bite the bullet and call out the plagiarist @notmygroup ! You’ll save yourself a lot of grief in future projects and feel empowered into the bargain! Doesn’t have to be in an aggressive way

“please can we bear in mind plagiarism was an issue on some sections of our previous project (as shown up by the uni software), this meant I had to rewrite a section of another participants work myself before submission; obvs this is unfair on the whole group who could be penalised for it - let’s do our own work!”

you have every right to say your bit 💪

I'm a lecturer. Please do speak with the module lead or tutor about this. You don't have to name any names, but do flag it up as an issue. I handle plagiarism cases for our department and I'd be grateful to know this, firstly, so I could make sure that students are protected from being accused of plagiarism when they were doing their best, but secondly, so that it could be addressed with the student, even if indirectly, if you don't want to identify them. It's so much less stress and hassle to catch these things before they happen than to have to deal with the aftermath.

Group projects are bullshit. I absolutely despise them. And no it does not prepare you for the world of work.

That's a really good way of dealing with this issue.

They could have at least used chatgpt.