COPYING OR COLLABORATION – What is it to you as an Educator?

Ever wondered what the difference between collaboration and cheating/copying is? A few days ago, I sat through a master class on entrepreneurship education and we made an attempt to assess how the entrepreneurial mindset could be taught!!! You know, it is one thing to teach entrepreneurship but, mindset - that is on a totally different level. Then a discussion ensued amongst the participants on the difference between the environments created in schools and the real world environment. In school you are judged on an individual level but taught with a standardized text, while in the real world you are given individualized job descriptions and assessed on how well you perform as part of the organization (systems perspective). In the case where you deviate from the classroom environment by seeking assistance from a colleague to get an understanding of the concepts it is cheating but in the real world it is collaboration. Then I decided to see what the biggest school in existence (Internet) says and I came up with these two illustrations;

·         The first illustration I read was of two students who collaborated on their research paper which by the way was the same topic but they successfully came up with these two reports that were totally dissimilar but had 1 similar quote and other similar references[1].

Reality: When I was in high school if something similar happened the students would be penalized for copying and changing some things in the work. However, the truth is we are putting the cart before the house, first our educational systems need to address individual needs of students and address each student through personalized teaching methods.

Personal Opinion: We would have less to worry about if we didn’t see the tests, exams as a way to judge individual understanding but focused more on assessments that show each individual’s strength whilst working in a group.

·      Second illustration: On the Harvard university website the fourth paragraph on plagiarism and collaboration stipulates that “The amount of collaboration with others that is permitted in the completion of assignments can vary, depending upon the policy set by the head of the course. Students must assume that collaboration in the completion of assignments is prohibited unless explicitly permitted by the instructor. Students must acknowledge any collaboration and its extent in all submitted work[2]”.

Reality: Are we pitting students against each other and are we fostering healthy competition or just fulfilling some standard.

Personal Opinion: Transforming cheating into collaboration should be the role of every educator. In the real world there are group challenges given during assessments for job interviews, when a student is educated in an environment that is individualized (for assessment), they would not comprehend the output of group works. This enhances the “I” mentality even when in a group. However, most innovative and transformative initiatives such as Facebook, Airbnb were developed by team effort and collaboration.

This article is not aimed at disputing the need for individual strengths but it is an attempt to shed some light on the important factors in the ever changing requirements, learning experiences and to adapt the methods and environment as quickly.

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[1] http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/3644-collaboration-or-cheating-where-is-the-line-

[2] http://static.fas.harvard.edu/registrar/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/plagiarism.html