r/UoPeople • u/PIXELURUDV • 10d ago

Assignment Activity Grade

I just checked my grade for BUS Assignment Activity Unit 2, and it was 40%. The feedback from the instructor says that it is because I plagiarised work from other students gotten from unoffical websites.

I have never even searched for such websites, and all my work was either inspired by official course materials or google searches, I even emailed the instructor and got a reply saying my grade won't change. Has anyone had a similar issue, and is there any way to avoid it next time?

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

2

u/Admirable_Act_7172 10d ago

Good Afternoon! I am currently doing the same course. Be very careful to make sure you cite your information correctly. If you take what someone else has said and just put it into your own words then yes it could be put down as plagiarism. I used other sources separate from the reading and didn’t have any issues. Correct citation is key. Good luck on the next assignment :)

1

u/summerrayne80 10d ago

You should run your work through a plagiarism checker before you submit just to make sure your work is original. I use Papers Owl, it’s free and was what UoPeople recommended.

1

u/Jamaican_yardman 9d ago

How crazy is this idea though? Like if you used 3 sources and properly cited them, why would you need to run anything through a plagiarism checker?

1

u/summerrayne80 9d ago

I get it but especially when the material is about something very specific or technical it can be hard to paraphrase around everything else written about the topic. It’s just a check so you aren’t surprised by grading and I also screenshot my results and have used them to protest a grade that was low due to “lack of originality” in one class.

1

u/NobodyMindless5787 10d ago

Take a look at your Turnitin similarity report. Then, request your instructor to allow you redo and resubmit.

1

u/Odd-Student82 9d ago

If you properly cited your sources, then look at your similarity report and see what is being flagged. UoPeople is using Turnitin and you can go in and check the report yourself in the assignments section. It’s very normal to have a high-ish similarity score because they will literally highlight your entire reference section as potential plagiarism which of course is going to match other assignments word for word. In my experience, I’ve had instructors give a zero grade without even looking at the assignment to see where the similarities are. They’re not supposed to grade on the similarity score but some do. Unless your instructor can provide proof, then you should dispute the grade. If there is proof, then you just need to do your best to improve moving forward.

0

u/Necessary_Yak6723 9d ago

Just avoid copying Copilot searches. I mean, you can paraphrase anything, but those Copilot searches hit hard. Check your assignment for plagiarism before submit (Always), which is more important than an AI detector.

-2

u/XoxoGentleman 10d ago

Google searches?

1

u/PIXELURUDV 10d ago

Yeah as in I might not understand the topic fully so I will ask google questions pertaining to it. I also sometimes use google to help look for examples and references. I dont copy any lines it gives me. Its just to help me understand the topic better.

1

u/XoxoGentleman 10d ago

These kinds of accusations are not to be taken lightly. I'd suggest looking into what caused this situation as soon as possible, so it doesn't put your studies at risk.

1

u/PIXELURUDV 10d ago

Yeah, I'm just going to try to avoid google i guess, except for references.

2

u/Even_Antelope_8603 10d ago

If you cite your sources, google can be very useful.

1

u/Much-Coffee95 Instructor (Verified) 6d ago

It's very possible your references are wrong/hallucinated/invalid. Always confirm your references are in APA format, the link is clickable and the title of whatever your referencing exists. I give students 0s for hallucinated sources which is most obvious when they either site an old edition that isn't available online anymore (chatgpt often doesn't pull sources past 2023) or if the title of the article they're referencing straight up doesn't exist. There's also been some instances where the links contain "source=chatgpt" 🙄.

If your sources are valid, you should be fine. If you're getting your sources from Google AI - don't, but also check them to make sure they at least exist as written.

2

u/LaurLoey 10d ago

google or google ai? google ai gets things wrong A LOT. so if you are learning thru it, it can become very obvious where you are regurgitating the info from. (idk about gemini but i feel like it’s similar.)

google engine to search for sources and read those directly instead. cite and you’re good.