Preventing the Use of Unfair Means in the assessment process

It cannot be taken for granted that students enter the University with an understanding of what constitutes unfair means in the assessment process or that they have already acquired the necessary academic skills to avoid intentional or unintentional use of unfair means. Several of the key skills and attributes of 'the Sheffield Graduate´ are relevant to the prevention of the use of unfair means, particularly those relating to information literacy, effective written communication, critical engagement and effective collaborative work. Students should be able to demonstrate their possession of these skills and attributes through their assessed work. This means that, as far as possible, the design of assessments should prevent any doubt arising as to whether the students being assessed have attained these skills. Students new to the University and, in particular, those who have not been previously educated in the British system may need explicit explanations of the importance attached to these characteristics and how to achieve and demonstrate them in assessed work. This will help to avoid the unfortunate situations where students submit work that does not meet the standards expected because they did not understand the university´s expectations or had not been taught how to meet them. By reducing the number of unsatisfactory submissions, this should also make it easier to determine whether unsatisfactory submissions have arisen through deliberate use of unfair means and to deal with such cases fairly and firmly.