Srinagar/June, 24: Department of Bioresources, University of Kashmir ( KU) organized one-day online workshop on “Plagiarism – An Opportunity to Learn, Teach & Excel” in collaboration with Turnitin for faculty, researchers, scientists and scholars of various higher education institutions and Universities.
Inaugurating the workshop Vice Chancellor, KU Prof Talat Ahmad stressed upon research ethics and integrity especially in the present era of technology and knowledge explosion. He emphasized the need to revise priorities by all stakeholders, including Government, National agencies, Universities and teacher’s in these difficult times and said that all should work together to create a national strategy for education and professional learning that reflects the principles of ‘research-informed clinical practice’. “We need to pool and share our resources, using latest technologies for the collective growth of all,” added Prof Talat.
Prof. Akbar Masood, Dean Academic Affairs, KU welcomed the participants and highlighted the teaching activities carried out at the University. He emphasized about the problems faced by teaching and student community in upholding the academic integrity and ethics and efforts put in by the university administration to resolve those.
Prof. (Dr.) Shakil A Romshoo, Dean Research, KU highlighted the research activity and various projects going in the University of Kashmir and also stressed upon the quality research during his key note address. Prof. Romshoo also discussed the University Code of Ethics in Research and Publications.
Earlier Dr. Manzoor Ahmad Mir, Coordinator, Department of Bioresources KU and organizing secretary of the workshop in his welcome speech said “we are going through tough times and COVID-19 lockdown has put a lot of strain on academic activities and teaching learning process. So, in order to maintain the academic activities, it is imperative to look out for ways to effectively contribute to educational society and to reach out to scholars, faculty and heads of the Departments and Institutions to provide a helping hand and a support through these kinds of workshops”.
He informed the participants that Department of Bioresources KU, under the leadership and guidance of Vice-Chancellor Prof. Talat Ahmad, has started online webinar series and today’s workshop is 2nd in that direction.
He added that the purpose of the workshop was to enhance research and academic integrity besides providing exposure to various kinds of plagiarism and the role of Turnitin’s to fight against Plagiarism.
The workshop provided hands on training sessions regarding use of Turnitin Feedback Studio and newly launch tool Grade Scope.
The workshop benefited participants to understand the research workflow, academic and research integrity, publishing process and covered the basic features and functionalities of Turnitin software.
The workshop ended with vote of thanks by Dr. Manzoor Ahmad Mir with a satisfaction gained by looking at 965 people working together with total social distancing and without any anxiety of COVID-19.
According to the organisers of the workshop the basic agenda of the workshop was to spread awareness among the teaching community about different forms of research misconduct; Challenges in Publishing of Research; Predatory or Fake Journals; Plagiarism — its various forms and examples; Difference between similarity and plagiarism; Paraphrasing, Detailed Discussion on UGC Regulations, 2018; Use of Turnitin, Evaluating Similarity Reports etc. Dr. Manzoor Ahmad Mir added.
Around 965 participants including Heads of Departments, faculty members and research scholars from various institutions from Kashmir and other parts of the country including: University of Kashmir, Central University of Kashmir, SKUAST(K), IUST, Aligarh Muslim University, Cluster University Srinagar, SKIMS, GMC Srinagar, BGSBU, NIT, and ICSSR, New Delhi, attended the online workshop.
The technical sessions were led by Mr. Ashim Sachdeva, Regional Vice President, Turnitin who discussed about “Plagiarism: An opportunity to learn, teach and grow” Mr. Saurav Mitra Senior Regional Manager, Turnitin and Mr. Varun Piplani senior Professional Specialist Turnitin who spoke about the live demo of turnitin feedback studio and gradescope. The sessions were highly interactive and the participants were informed and facilitated through different social media platforms about the workshop. There was also practice and Q/A sessions in the workshop.
