Plagiarism Policy
Becky Adlington Training (BAT) acknowledges that the effective management of plagiarism to ensure the authenticity of learner evidence is vital to the security and creditability of qualifications. Therefore, all those involved always will strictly adhere to appropriate procedures. The effective implementation will be scrutinised at regular intervals (1A) with appropriate intervention (2) if necessary.
All staff at BAT will receive support and guidance (3) on how to identify and manage effectively any instances of plagiarism.
As a principle, it is recommended that all learner assessment of both theory and practical elements of a course takes place in a controlled environment (1B) to ensure validity and integrity.
BAT will explain the (4) plagiarism policy to all learners at the start of the course during the induction process on Day 1.
Non-compliance
If there is persistent plagiarism either by a learner or group of learners, the learners will be withdrawn from the course with no refund and this will be reported immediately to Swim England Qualifications (SEQ) or IQL (RLSS courses)
Definitions
Plagiarism - taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
Authentic - of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine.
Credibility - the quality of being trusted and believed in.
Procedure
1) A) Internal verification will occur on every SEQ course. The IV will be looking for indications of plagiarism when verifying the learners work. This sample will be a small selection of learners, based on the tutors IV rating.
B) Tutors will monitor the work being presented by each learner throughout the course. The tutor will be vigilantly looking for any signs of plagiarism and must act accordingly.
C) Any known conflict of interest which increases the risk of plagiarism will be raised by the tutor prior to the course starting and at-risk learners will be added to the IV sample.
D) For IQL (RLSS) courses, the agreed IQA process indicated by IQL will apply and B) and C) followed as above.
2) If plagiarism is potentially identified, the tutor will report this to the internal verifier and together an appropriate course of action will be decided. This will be recorded and held by both the tutor and included in the internal verification report. If there is any impact on the security of a qualification SEQ or IQL will be informed.
3) Tutors will receive plagiarism training as required, the tutor must become familiar with this plagiarism policy and be competent at answering questions regarding the procedures.
4) A) The first session of all courses will involve a learner induction that includes explanation of the key policies.
B) The key policies will be made available on the BAT website, so all learners have access to this information.
Training
Tutors will have access to training to include signs of plagiarism, consequences of plagiarism and how to report and respond to plagiarism. This will be scheduled into the annual standardisation meeting or ongoing training opportunities.
Evidence
1) Learner induction power point slides available to all tutors.
2) Policies available on BAT website and sent to all learner in welcome emails.
3) SEQ courses, learners sign for authenticity of own work.
4) Course incident tracker to monitor any situations.
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