Plagiarism is the presentation, whether intentional or unintentional, of another's work as if it were one's original work. Proper and complete citation and reference, in accordance with the APA style guidelines is required of all student work. Specific examples of plagiarism include:
Students may inadvertently plagiarize by not paraphrasing effectively, by assuming that information or terms are common knowledge when they are not, by not realizing that all words and works on the internet are copyrighted (whether or not a copyright symbol appears), by taking poor notes and forgetting that a line was copied verbatim, or by other oversights. Occasionally, plagiarism is simply the lazy way out or a student may be completely ignorant of what constitutes plagiarism.
Turning in previously prepared work -- in part or in whole -- is considered self-plagiarism and is unacceptable. In instances where it may be appropriate to include prior work, a student must obtain permission from the instructor to include the prior work.
Please see the CGHS Plagiarism Policy and the CGHS Statement on the Use of AI Tools.
Procedure for review
Warning
First Offense
Second Offense
Third Offense
Any of the sanctions listed above are appealable by the student. If the student wishes to appeal, instruct him or her to follow the appeals process located in the ATSU University Catalog.
What you can do
The instructor's role is to be alert to issues of academic dishonesty. If an instructor confirms a plagiarism offense, he or she will assign a grade of "0" for the assignment and notify the Program Chair. The Program Chair will contact the student with information regarding the offense and information regarding if and how the assignment may be rewritten and re-evaluated. At this point, the grade may be changed. Instructors will work closely with the Program Chairs during this process.
Instructors may choose to use the Welcome announcement to remind students of the seriousness of academic dishonesty and refer them to the policy contained in the CGHS Student Resources (which is linked from every course).
Instructors should remain vigilant for changes in writing style, tone, vocabulary, and so forth. Again, notify your Program Chair in these instances and share the suspicious paper (and possibly other examples of the student's work). The instructor and Program Chair can then develop a collaborative plan of action. It is important to keep the Program Chair informed, as they may discern a broader pattern of behavior that a single instructor cannot. Whether you believe an instance of plagiarism is inadvertent or intentional, you should address all instances of plagiarism immediately.
Remember that the Turnitin service cannot detect plagiarism -- it only reports matches of student text to text found within the Turnitin databases. Once Turnitin has checked the submitted document against the databases, a report of the findings will be available with that assignment. Turnitin is not able to check for proper citation. If material matches, Turnitin alerts you to this matching text and you can then check for proper citation, common phrasing, and other matches that may not be significant.
Assessments
Assessments are the graded aspects of the course. They allow students to demonstrate achievement of course competencies.
Course Objectives
Course objectives are the objectives students are expected to achieve by the end of the course.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives are the objectives students are expected to achieve through successful completion of an assessment.
Core Professional Attributes (CPAs)
The CPAs are five competencies that A.T. Still University has designated as requirements for all students. Please see the Core Professional Attributes page for more information.
Learning Activities
Learning activities are course activities that assist students in learning course material. Many courses have a variety of activities to help students with varying learning styles. CGHS does try to ensure all materials are ADA compliant.
Introductions
Module introductions are intended to help students understand why they are learning the content in the module and in the course. Introductions should show students how this module's content ties into prior learning and future learning.
Formative Feedback
Feedback given to students prior to grading, used to assist students with improving their performance and learning. An example is providing guidance in the discussion forums to help students achieve the learning objectives.
Summative Feedback
Feedback given to students as part of the grading process, used to assist students with understanding their achievement of the learning objectives and course competencies. An example is providing feedback to students on a paper on areas of improvement in content and writing mechanics.
Substantive Feedback
Feedback given to students that is relevant to the content of the assessment, points out where students have mastered the content of the assessment, and gives assistance when students have not mastered the content of the assessment.