Wikiversity:Plagiarism

Plagiarism and Wikiversity

As Wikiversity doesn't provide pupils and students with accreditation, Wikiversity need not worry about plagiarism pulling down the academic standards of Wikiversity. At Wikiversity, anyone passing off other people's work as their own won't benefit from gaining an undeserved qualification. They might temporarily gain some undue status because of their unreferenced contributions. However they would loose all credibility once exposed. Another problem is the negative impact if Wikiversity becomes a source of plagiarised materials for learners at other institutions. This can be overcome by constant vigilance and investigating any materials that appear to be unauthorised essay banks. The nature of a wiki means that all texts tend to be by multiple authors with cooperation being more important than individual contribution. A bigger problem for Wikiversity is that unreferenced material prevents other pupils and students or collaborators from exploring important source materials and forming their own opinions of the subject and adding new content. The importance of providing fully referenced materials is stressed throughout all the Wikimedia projects. This page is intended to emphasise the positive aspects of learning, such as honesty, openness and the importance of providing fully referenced materials because these enhance the learning experience of everyone and provides something positive for people to aspire to.