Blended Learning

text. But what it detects may or may not be plagiarism. For example, certain text will naturally be very
close to that found in other sources, such as definitions of concepts, descriptions of apparatus used in
experiments, reference lists or bibliographies, etc. Therefore you cannot rely solely on the tool and its
report as an indicator of the presence (or absence) of plagiarism, and hence it is unwise to set standards
such as “allowable” percentages as part of the guidelines for an assessment task (e.g., requiring students
to submit their report along with their assignment and setting an upper limit such as 20% which is an
‘acceptable’ amount of detected similarity).
Griffith University uses SafeAssign as its text matching software. For more information
including help guides on submitting work and interpreting reports, visit:
Ü Blended Learning Support site > Using Learning@Griffith > Assessment tools >
Academic integrity student tutorial
Communication
Effective staff-student and student-student communication is paramount for the success of any course.
Nowadays our ability to communicate with individuals and groups is greatly enhanced through the use of
technology.
The impact of communicating regularly with students can be far greater than you can imagine. It can create a
sense of care and community within the course and of belonging to the University.
When choosing the most appropriate communication tool consider both purpose and function, for example:
‣ ¾ Do you and/or the students need to communicate in real time (synchronously)?
‣ ¾ Does the information need to be recorded or archived?
‣ ¾ Will the communication involve one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many?
‣ ¾ Is there a need for urgency or immediacy, privacy?
Netiquette
Communicating online can create a sense of anonymity or facelessness which can lead to inappropriate or
ineffective interaction. Netiquette (online communication etiquette), emoticons (text to represent the face of
a writer’s mood or facial expression) and online lingo (such as the use of acronyms to abbreviate phrases) are
used to help people communicate more effectively in this environment. Make sure the students are aware of
and understand their roles and responsibilities and the expectations that you have of them (and that they can
have of you).
Consider providing students with a netiquette guide or ground rules for
communication. For an example, visit the GIHE Tip Sheet for “Netiquette”
at:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/gihe/teaching-learning-curriculum/blendedlearning
42 Getting Started with Blended Learning