Plagiarism!

It is the first time that I submitted one of my assignments to an anti-plagiarism program.  I must say that even though I make every effort to ensure proper referencing, it was still gut-wrenching waiting for the program to come back with a report.

It said 6%.  Is that good or bad?  I spoke to one of the library fundis at the university and apparently that's not too bad, especially if the things that the program picked up on was the URLs in my references.

I must say that using Microsoft's referencing tools is very useful.  You need to type in all your references before you start your assignment.  That's the time-consuming part.  Once you're ready, all you have to do is insert a citation whenever you quote an author or cite something someone else said.  At the end of your work all you do is instruct Word to insert your Bibliography.  What a pleasure!

It is so easy to copy someone else's work, but it is just as easy to reference properly.

Working and studying

We are half-way through the online teaching and learning module.  It feels like we have been doing this for more than six weeks.  It has been tricky making sure that you submit your assignments on time.  This has to be done electronically and there is a cut-off time on the system that allows you to submit.  Having everything online is great in that you don't have to worry about not getting any handouts in class; it is all available online.  You just have to make sure that you read!

That's where the difficult part comes in.  You have to read, but you also have to prepare lessons for the next day, you have to mark any work that comes in, you have to teach and you have to do all the other admin that goes with teaching.  As if that was not enough, heading the Maths department at a big school has all its own admin work as well.  Luckily I was allowed to design the timetable so that I could head off to lectures as soon as the bell went at the end of the school day.

I have been very lucky at home.  My better half prepares meals on the two days that I am at lectures and then I chip in on the other days.  We have headphones for watching television, so that is not a distraction when I am trying to type an assignment.  It does help if everyone at home and work understands what you are going through and they give you plenty of encouragement.

Synchronous Chat Sessions

We had an online session on 7 March where we had to speak about what creating a social presence means when working online.  The chat session only had three participants apart from the instructor.  This was a little disappointing as it meant that not everyone had had a chance to read the sections they were supposed to read.  I enjoyed speaking to the two other students who were in the chat room with me.  I think if everyone is online and they've had a chance to read, everyone will be able to comment on what they have read.  They will also be able to clarify things in the text that someone else may have had a problem with.  The idea of a chat room (especially for studying purposes) is a good one, it helps people get together even though they are not in the same room, on the same campus or even same city.

The problem with chat rooms is that you have to make sure everyone follows the same train of thought at any specific moment.  Too many people in the room, and people start to get confused about what is being spoken about.  Face-to-face conversations tend to be less disjointed.  You wait for a person to stop talking before expressing your view.