Student Conduct

Guidance relating to Misconduct in Online Exams

At A Glance

  • Reproducing, or translating, or lightly paraphrasing from notes, books, websites or course materials will all cause you problems if you do not then use your own student ‘voice’ to demonstrate your own understanding, use your own words.
  • Do not copy notes that are copied from somewhere else.
  • You must not re-use any of your own previously submitted work.
  • Do not use shared or jointly-produced notes. This is inappropriate collusion.
  • Do not communicate with anyone about the exam, once the time has started.
  • You must complete the exam yourself, independently.
  • You must not use any software that is powered by AI to generate or co-produce any aspect of your work. 
  • Using Q&A sites, ‘homework help’ or paraphrasing software is unacceptable.
  • Complete the exam within the time that is allowed.

Please take a moment to re-familiarise yourself with the Code of Student Conduct, particularly during the exam period, and note the following points specific to online exams:

  • The answers you submit must be entirely your own work–markers need to assess your interpretation and understanding of the material.  Even if the exam is open book and you are allowed to consult source material, you must not copy - because that is plagiarism.  
  • Common mistakes include:
    • Misuse of artificial intelligence, where AI tools generate material that you include as your own – either directly or with light edits. You are always responsible for all aspects of your submission, including results from any technology you have used. 
    • You must not translate text from other languages and then submit it as your own work, without showing your understanding, by writing concepts and ideas in your own student ‘voice’. Otherwise, this is regarded as plagiarism.
    • Be sure to understand if AI tools are permitted in the particular exam and fully complete any AI declaration statements
    • Changing a few words from the original, within the same sentence structures, does not make the writing reflect your own interpretation. Expressing ideas in your own words is an important skill and using software makes it impossible for the marker to assess your ability
    • A lack of “quotation marks” for any direct quote. These must be clearly shown – use “…” quotation marks and reference it precisely to source and page number.  
    • Use quotations sparingly to support your own arguments. A series of quotes does not demonstrate your understanding.
  • If you are referring to your own notes (and only if you are permitted to do so), ensure that you can distinguish between your own ideas and what you may have copied from other sources.   Otherwise, you risk plagiarism, which will be identified by Turnitin.
  • Do not re-use work you have already submitted for assessment at Glasgow or any other institution - you will not be given credit twice for submitting the same work.
  • Do not share your notes with other students, as you may submit very similar answers as a result, which will be considered as collusion with others, and will be identified by Turnitin. You should also avoid using jointly produced notes for the same reason.
  • Although you can discuss how to approach exams, and revise with other students, you must not discuss the specific exam questions or answers with other students. This is collusion and will result in conduct action.
  • You must not allow any other person to sit any part of the exam for you. This is a serious breach of the Code of Student Conduct and penalties include permanent expulsion from the University.
  • You must not use any online Q&A or 'homework help' website - either posting the questions yourself, or using solutions posted in response to other students' questions. This is cheating.
  • You need to be very clear about the rules for each specific examination, as rules may vary by course and assessment.
    • Pay particular attention to the time allowed for each exam. If you take more than the maximum allotted time, you are likely to face a penalty, so please consider the time needed to prepare and submit your exam according to the exam-specific guidance.
    • If you are not sure what the rules are for a specific exam, check with your Course Convener in advance. Do not assume, and do not take advice from other students, as they may give you incorrect information.
    • In some cases, you will be expected to sit your online exam without referring to internet sources, books, notes or any other material that would not normally be allowed in examinations. In other cases, the examinations will be taken under ‘Open Book ' conditions. 

Following submission, examination answers can be submitted to specialist software for similarity checking or students could be asked to provide further clarification to their School.