(Archive) Results withheld/ deferred

My project has been referred to the Academic Conduct Office. kindly tell me what is the further process and how long will it take?? What can be possible reason of that?

please read this article https://opentuition.com/obu/academic-conduct-office-aco/

My project has been referred to the Academic Conduct Office. kindly tell me what is the further process and how long will it take?? What can be possible reason of that?

hi its now that i just checked on the OBU site and to my surprise my project as been referred to the ACO...as far as my project is concerned i did it on my own..all my research work and my ideas..a friend of mine just passed the project on its 3rd attempt, his 1st attempt they got him on plagiarism and 2nd attempt due to a lack of referencing...now he just told me that once my project has been referred it means I WILL FAIL THERE IS NO WAY I WILL PASS..is there anyone whose project has been referred and at the end he pass??.....please clarify me...really stress right now..

Hi Vinessen, That's actually not true. I've had a student who had her project referred to the ACO. She was cleared 3 weeks later, and was given an A. Basically as long as you have referenced it correctly, and did not copy anything from previous projects, you will be just fine! It's understandably a distressing period of time.

Hello guys, i have submitted project in last session today when i checked i shocked to see that my project reffered to ACO.AS NOTHING was copy paste.i am really dissappointed.dont know what to do.please guide if someone faced same issue.

Hi Faisal, Sorry to hear that. We have noticed that this is getting more common. We have limited experience in dealing with this (we heavily emphasize to all students the importance of referencing and thankfully, it has worked so far) but here is what we can share. Main reason for this referral - A marker, with the aid of TurnItIn, has flagged your report for possible plagiarism. Possible outcomes 1) Academic Office does a check and finds that it is not serious. After communicating with you and hearing your side of the story, it then extends the benefit of the doubt and passes your report. 2) Academic Office does a check and finds it serious. It then asks for a lengthy explanation from you to prove that the work is really yours and that there was no plagiarism. If they accept your explanation, fine and good. If they don't, then be prepared for a failure and potential disciplinary action. Suggestion: Do think back on your report writing and whether there were times when you took certain sentences from sources without referencing. If you did that, be upfront and honest with them. Its no use lying. If you are confident you did not do the above, then just sit back and keep calm. There are quite a number of students who get cleared by the Academic Office and get passed. Wishing you all the best, The Learning Luminarium Team

Same with me, Really stressed out

Dear Saeeem and Sunny45, There really is nothing you can do at the moment until the ACO gets in contact again. If your project is clear, you will have your grades awarded accordingly. If plagiarism has been detected, you may be required to submit your drafts and other documents to prove that the report has been done by you.

thank you so much dear I am really stressed right now..im so confuse...ys all my referencing are ok and do correspond in my project RAP..im 100% sure i will not be penalized on plagiarism because i ddnt copy on any project at all....thank you so much for your reply

@vinessen- That is very good to hear, just be patient and confident. We wish u all the best!

hi Trephena actually mr project has been deferred and i want to know approximately how much time i will get my result because its really stressfull....thanks

All those can join n comment who have concerns regarding thr result withheld n rap referred to ACO

@vinessen - it is impossible to give you an exact time frame. I understand that all cases will be looked at by an ACO officer who will contact you with details of their and the marker's concerns regarding the originality of your work. You will be asked to provide information and answer their questions so that they can reach a decision about how your case should be treated. My advice is to be helpful and truthful -if you used someone else's work to help you, confess at the start as the penalty will be less severe. Lack of cooperation by a student or anyone persistently trying to lie their way out of this will tend to be viewed as evidence of intent to deceive and incur a higher penalty. So the more helpful you are the quicker the process. There will always be some students 'innocently' caught up in these cases e.g. someone gained access to their work or their mentor helped them actually put the work together e.g. did the spreadsheet or provided a template for the Presentation. Students may not have realised that this is against the rules. My advice again is provide the facts of what happened and you stand a better chance of coming out of this well. Yes this is a stressful process so all I can say is if you are completely innocent you will be exonerated and if you know you bent the rules fess up when they write to you so that you can put an end to the stress. PS You may be interested to read the comments made by feiza1 https://opentuition.com/topic/obu-rap-period-30-results/page/7/ as this student went through the ACO and is basically offering the same advice :-)

This is a very stressing phase of my life being referred to an ACO is worst than even failing

@nadia - I am sure it is but try to forget about it for now and co-operate when contacted so that you can get this off your back. I understand that the ACO should be contacting each student affected in the next few weeks seeking further information. As previously stated - the best way to end the stress is to give them all the information they ask for and 'come clean' if you did do anything 'shady'. If you are innocent they can then clear you. If your mentor or someone else wrote the RAP for you, or you used another student's work (including the SLS) it is better to own up sooner rather than later - they will know if you copied anyway as Turnitin will have indicated all the passages copied (and identified who it has been copied from too). Apparently the longer it all goes on and more protracted it becomes the greater the stress and the worse the final outcome. An honest confession and apology avoids the worst penalty - your case being forwarded for a full University Misconduct Committee hearing. I have no personal experience of this but I know from something similar I once attended it must be harrowing for the student as you would in effect be on trial and questioned live by legal professionals (via Skype if necessary). I am reliably told that this is most distressing - someone from the Academic Conduct Office told me that even she found it very upsetting (and she of course was not the person being interrogated) that most students break down in tears and that it is just a horrible experience for everyone. ACCA are always informed of instances of UMC hearings and may also take action. For anyone reading this and contemplating not doing the RAP work for yourself - think again - you could live to regret it - as @nadia says better to fail than become an ACO case. So everyone who is an ACO case - chill if you are innocent and fess up if you are guilty - my final word on the subject to anyone personally involved.

Hi same to me. Being so impatient about any incoming mail hoping i will be contacted ASAP. Please if anyone get contacted i will be glad to know , All the same am hopeful and pray it doesn't take long.

Hello,i got email today from my assigned ACO,saying he will endeavor to settle the issue as soon as he can.Email subject was RAP originality checking,he didn't ask me to submit anything or respond but to just wait.Anyone knows what that means?

@doeen, hi there your ACO should contact you back in a few days n tell you why you are upheld for this. He might say you have 40% plagiarism as per turnitin. And you need to justify that by telling him how you did your research. Please let everyone know about any further emails. Regards

I also recieved the same mail, and my frnd rcvd mail of 40% plagiurism , wt does this mean??

All I know is that there are several ACO Officers and they probably conduct the process slightly differently e.g. some send out a preliminary email just to say they will be looking at the case and will be emailing again when they have done their investigation, whereas others do not make contact until they have done the initial investigation and just email the student the details e.g. the evidence of 40% plagiarism above (which means that Turnitin identified their work as being 40% the same as other students' work and / or sources on the database - this could be books, journals and internet articles) Someone sent me this once from the email they had from their case officer: "Cases vary in complexity and the time required for investigation and evidence gathering and therefore I am unable to give an exact time period for when I shall be able in a position to present you with the results of my preliminary investigations." However it seems that some students are now receiving these type of details.

Any one rcvd futher mails?

Hello All, I received same from ACO, an intro email telling me he was the one doing my investigation.Later another email , Content: .....% plagiarism...and required a couple of clarifications from me on my RAP before a specific date. Waiting! Waiting!! Anxiously!!!. I am patient but still impatiently!!!! waiting!!!!!.

hi Trephena sory for this late reply having problm with my laptop...i do get a mail from ACO he said he is looking into my case because there had been a doubt during the marking about my project's originality..as far as my progect is concerned I did it on my own 200% sure i ddnt used or copied anyone's progects...all my research and informations i used were on my own...anyway will revert back as soon as i got another mail from the ACO..

@vinessen - if you did the work yourself then you should have nothing to worry about. There are various things that can flag a referral to the ACO. Even if a student has done the work themselves if they have copied and pasted direct citations from online sources and another student has used the same source and done the same then the electronic checking system would spot the similarities and indicate that their work is copied. This is why referencing is so important and also why you should try to paraphrase rather than copy and paste as I point out in my article on Referencing. The other thing that can trigger a referral is the student thinks they did the work themselves but the mentor helped them. Never let the mentor edit your work - I have heard that some mentors are suspected of writing bits of students work and if you use one of those mentors your chances of referral increase... The ACO usually ask in depth questions about how you went about your work and expect to see drafts. These are crucial to show that you did the work yourself (and anyone saying that they have lost their USB stick and don't have any drafts and notes anymore won't wash - these guys have been marking for years and have heard all the excuses in the book by now !)

26% overall nd 20 % relting to SLS look like other, what does dis mean

Means most of your SLS is not original. I thought they sent you a copy of the Turnitin report and if so the coloured passages show the sentences and passages that the system has recognised from previous submitted SLSs. Did your mentor lend you and others examples of SLSs?

Dear trephena, I've received an email from my ACO, it states that my SLS has matched with another student as turnitin report has identified it as 3% plagiarism. Except that all that research was my own work. I know some how i ended up copying it form some online forum. I am also aware that other then accepting it i don't have a choice. I would like to ask what could be the possible outcomes after accepting.

@sunny45 - ok let's first look at the facts. 3% plagiarism score would have been calculated on the total number of words in your submission (report + SLS) so roughly 3% equates to 285 words (assuming you used the maximum number of words but in terms of the SLS is about 14% if this was 2,000 words. (Did they send you a copy of the Turnitin report by the way? ) Although it was serious enough to refer to the ACO if this was the only reason for referral then it is more hopeful for you in terms of potential outcome. Next what are you up against? Some of the ACO officers are 'tough cookies' - they have seen it all before and heard every excuse going so personally I think anyone who thinks they can lie their way out and take on an ACO Officer is likely to come off worse. Also these guys and dolls don't take kindly to students playing them for the fool! Also lying if you are found out incurs a penalty in addition to the charge of plagiarism. So what would I advise: make a confession along the lines of the one you made above. If you got the Turnitin report it should be obvious that your statement about the research is true and your report I trust is proof of it (the T. Report should only be showing minor matches to referenced sources which you can ignore - or the odd one or two you forgot to reference and maybe some very minor matches to other students) So the penalties: essentially they have to issue some penalty but this tends to be based on a combination of how 'hard' a student makes it for them e.g. holding out and protesting innocence in the light of mounting evidence that they are guilty, the severity of the initial offence and any mitigating factors e.g. an honest confession. The worst I think you would get IF your only offence is 14% plagiarised SLS and you own up straight off and plead you were negligent in using the internet source is probably a zero grade. This effectively means they fail you and you get no feedback and it counts as a submission. They could insist you change topic and company for you next submission or it might be slightly lighter and they allow you to resubmit on the same topic & company. At the other end of the scale if they are convinced a student is guilty and persists in lying it is both reported to ACCA and referred upwards to the University's Misconduct Committee. The UMC is a quasi-legal process and the student is cross-examined like in a court (over Skype if living overseas) I understand that the chances of coming out of the UMC unscathed are slim as the evidence of guilt is usually insurmountable I am told students end up distraught and there are financial penalties and they could also face an ACCA disciplinary hearing. If anyone finds the referral to the ACO harrowing it seems they ain't seen nothing yet in terms of stress compared with what will be in store if it goes to the UMC - hence my advice is always fess up, accept the consequences and put an end to the misery.

Dear trephena, just received a mail from the ACO...stating that my RAP has ...% including my SLS..moreover he said that " I am attaching a copy of your Turnitin report so that you can see the scale of the apparent plagiarism (sections highlighted in different colours)".. but i got only the letter outlining the concern about the originality of my RAP. i had not received any TURNITIN REPORT showing me the sclae of the apparent plagiarism meaning the sections highlighted in different colours. what should i do?..should i send the ACO a mail and ask for the turnitin report? kindly advice thanks