Using video vignettes to
enhance discussion of RCR
Jeffrey A. Engler
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Graduate School
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Drs. Harold Kincaid and Sara Vollmer
Dr. Julia Austin, Jennifer Greer, Kellie Carter
UAB has made a long-term commitment to
RCR education for biomedical graduate
students
“Principles of Scientific Integrity” GRD 717
• Started in 1991
• Required of all graduate students in biomedical sciences
and all postdoctoral fellows on training grants.
• Covers all the areas of responsible conduct:
o Mentorship - trainee relationships
○ Misconduct
o Clinical Research - Human subjects
○ Peer Review
o Collaborations - Conflicts of interest
o Intellectual Property - ownership
o Animal Research – protection of animals used in research
o Authorship and Publishing - plagiarism
o Record Keeping - Data management
Expanding RCR activities to Natural
Sciences, Math and Engineering
• Engage faculty and students in the discussion of
RCR issues on a continuing basis.
• Develop short video segments to dramatize case
studies in current use or to be developed by our
faculty
o as resource materials both for an introductory course
in the “Principles of Scientific Integrity” (GRD 717)
o for subsequent continuing education of graduate
students in the Schools of Engineering and of Natural
Science and Mathematics (NSM)
CGS/NSF project: 2006-2008
• Establish faculty and student focus groups
to develop RCR materials
o 9 members in each group
- Promote faculty and student buy-in
o All are volunteers from the Schools of Engineering and of
Natural Science and Mathematics
o Reviewed published articles about plagiarism and
whistleblowing
o Contributed ideas based on incidents of which they were
aware (cultural miscommunication; data manipulation)
“Query-Videoclip-Query” (QVQ)
Approach (Sara Vollmer)
• Engage undergrad and graduate students
• Broad based pre- and post-questions to stimulate
thought
o
Dr. Nancy Matchett at the University of Northern Colorado
• Video
• Facilitated discussion
• Summary of questions and student responses at the end
of the presentation
• Advantages:
o
o
o
o
Video draws student interest
Students are actively engaged in discussion
Learning modality superior to online tutorial
Students realize they may have more to learn
RCR Vignette Web Site:
www.uab.edu/graduate/rcr
Pre-question to engage student
Video Vignette for Question 1
Post-question 1
Response to Post-question 1
Pre-Question 2 for “Amanda’s Dilemma”
Summary page to case study
“Decision-tree” Approach
to Online Videos
Decision tree adapted by Dr. Sara Vollmer from the
earlier work of Dr. Betsy Holmes and Chad Sain
Challenge:
How to engage students to discuss
scholarly integrity on a continuing basis?
• GRD 717: “I know all I need to know, because I
passed the course.”
• Some faculty are resistant to added courses that
“distract” students from their immediate research.
• Our solution: traveling workshop on “Avoiding
Plagiarism” – Julia Austin, Jennifer Greer, Kellie
Carter, Jeff Engler
o Given to small groups of graduate students and
honors undergraduates and faculty (>350 so far)
o Identify student concerns (“free write”), show video,
address scenarios, small group discussions,
writing exercises, summarize (brochure)
o Labor-intensive!
“Avoiding Plagiarism” Workshop
Questions to discern student perceptions:
1. Is plagiarism against the law?
2. Do you worry about “accidentally” committing
plagiarism?
3. Can your professors easily detect plagiarism?
4. Do you believe that you need more training in
order to avoid committing plagiarism?
5. What should you do if you discover that
someone else has plagiarized?
Consider “Amanda’s Dilemma”
Plagiarism Self-Evaluation
Students are given five brief written scenarios
They are asked to decide which of these do, or do
not, represent plagiarism
Correct responses are then provided for
discussion
Students recognize potential deficiencies in their
understanding of plagiarism
Our scenarios were developed by staff at Empire
State College of the State University of New
York and have been used with permission.
Sample self-evaluation question
You find an article that is perfect for your research
paper. You know you should not copy entire
sentences word-for-for word. Instead, you
rearrange the sentences and replace the
descriptive words with your own. You also add a
complete footnote citing the page and the source.
Is this an act of plagiarism?
Answer: YES. Even if you footnoted the source
correctly, your paraphrased text is unacceptable.
To paraphrase correctly, you must restate the
original passage in your own words and in your
own style. Reordering sentences or replacing
adjectives is not enough.
Number of Respondents (286)
Where Do Students Learn about
Avoiding Plagiarism?
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
No
Yes
Perceived Confidence Level after
Workshop
My ability to read and understand
academic texts
4.06
My ability to paraphrase effectively
3.53
My ability to use citations
appropriately
3.71
My ability to use Internet sources
without plagiarizing
3.70
My ability to assess my own writing
for plagiarism
3.53
1 to 5 scale, with 1 being “not confident” and 5 being “very confident
How Serious Do You Think the
Problem of Plagiarism Is?
Extremely Serious
Very Serious
Somewhat Serious
A little Serious
Not Serious
Blown completely out
of proportion
Number of respondents: 286 (213 graduate students and 73
undergraduate engineering students
“Ethics of Paraphrase”
o Brochure designed to
reinforce good habits to
avoid plagiarism
o Given to each student who
completes the “Avoiding
Plagiarism” workshop
o Summarizes the content of
the workshop
o Available at:
http://www.uab.edu/graduate
/publications/plagiarism.pdf
Goals:
•
•
•
•
•
Develop a panel of workshops
Engage faculty, grad students, and postdocs as
facilitators
Expand the approach to other disciplines
Embed RCR education into curricula, not just
one course;
Assess the efficacy of educational approaches
Challenges:
•
•
•
•
•
Video development is labor intensive and
expensive.
Obtaining faculty buy-in and participation
Providing faculty training as needed
Developing tools for continuing education
Adding content into already crowded curricula