Dr Maria Turri reveals using the Cadmus pilot has resulted in no referrals for academic offenses on the ‘Critical Mental Health Sciences’ module compared to the previous two years. The DES team caught up with Maria to hear more about her participation in the Cadmus pilot and its impact on the ‘Critical Mental Health Sciences’ module.
The Cadmus pilot focused on the module ‘Critical Mental Health Sciences’ which is part of the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health programme. This year’s cohort was comprised of 23 students. The cohort was varied, with some students coming directly from undergraduate study, and some with an established professional practice; some are artists and there are also mature students. It varies how familiar students may be with academic writing. The final assessment in the module is a 4,000-word critical essay for which students must choose a research question and develop their own critical argument.
The goals of using Cadmus were to scaffold the assessment through the introduction of formative tasks and an effort to promote original, ethical use of referenced sources and AI.
I introduced two formative assessments to be submitted through Cadmus in week 6 and 11. They consisted of the submission of shorter pieces of critical writing that helped students prepare for the final essay. Tasks towards the assessment were facilitated during weekly tutorials. The formative assessments were used for peer review and peer feedback during dedicated teaching time in week 7 and 12.
Most students engaged with the formative assessment: 20 for week 6 and 21 for week 11.
Although I did not review the actual content of the formative assessments, I used Cadmus analytics in both tasks and noticed the Turnitin and non-authentic scores were very high for three students. I emailed those students where I noticed this and gave them advice and made them aware of the guidelines and to ensure they engaged and developed their argument authentically. Consequently, no student has this year submitted an assessment that requires a referral for an academic offense. This is an improvement compared to the previous two years, when there were 2 academic misconduct referrals per year.
It has been good to have regular support from the Cadmus team. There was an E-learning Technologist from the Centre for Psychiatry and Mental Health teaching team who supported me setting up the assessment in the first place. Although the platform is very user-friendly, support is necessary unless you are tech-savvy. In terms of the software there were a couple of glitches that were easily resolved.
Students did not report many difficulties. Some of the mature students who were not tech-savvy needed a one-to-one session to show them how to use the platform. The analytics given, despite being useful, led some students to be concerned they were being monitored and would be falsely accused of not writing their assessment. I needed to reassure these students that this would not happen.
Cadmus is excellent to scaffold assessments and provide authenticity. However, I have not seen it influence student attainment. Overall, I have seen an improvement in authentic assessment and a reduction in plagiarism.