As we have seen in Rosanna and Dario’s example, difficulties can arise when working on group assignments. Sometimes this might be because one or more people don’t do all of the work they are expected to do, or if they take shortcuts in their work and plagiarise. Any cheating (also known as academic misconduct), in a group assignment reflects on the whole group.

In this example we also saw that we can’t always trust people to do the right thing. Rosanna was trying to be helping by sharing her assignment, but because Dario ran out of time, he panicked and just used hers. This got them both in trouble.

When you are working with others, whatever you do can reflect on the group. Just as it is important to do the work honestly and not copy other people in your group, you must also make sure that you collaborate as you are expected to do.

We encourage students to work together: it is a great way to learn, share ideas and critically think about what you have learnt, been taught, seen or heard before. Collaboration might involve you being in study groups where you talk about ideas from your course, or you encourage other people to study when they are struggling.
You can talk about assignment ideas as well, but it is really important to make sure that you don’t share your assignment - you don’t know where it will show up and you can be accused of cheating to help someone complete their work dishonestly, without integrity. When people are really stressed and struggling, they can take desperate actions!
Collaboration is great, but make sure that you understand the rules of what is expected of you for the assignment and for any group work!

Extra reading and resources: