Don’t be a copycat! Welcome to part 2 of our series on fake news and plagiarism. In part one we looked at the world of smoke and mirrors that is fake news. In this part, we will go over the many forms of plagiarism, how to avoid accidental plagiarism, and ways you can combat deliberate acts of plagiarism.
What is plagiarism? Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work as if it were your own without giving credit to the original author(s) of the work. In other words, plagiarism is a form of theft but instead of physical property it is the idea of someone else, or intellectual property. There are several ways of committing plagiarism, many accidental and others intentional. Fortunately, virtually every course at Aberystwyth University goes over the basics of academic integrity as well as the proper referencing scheme to use for your course. More information on plagiarism can be found through the LibGuides page on plagiarism.
Blog post by Laurie Stevenson (Student Digital Champion)
LinkedIn Learning is a free online learning platform with over 16,000 courses on everything from personal development, design, creative activities, study skills, technical support and so much more! Take a look at this content from our Information Service Instagram @ISAberUni account for some tips and tricks to get you started.
Activate your account by 6 January 2023 to be entered into a raffle where you will have the opportunity of winning one of three £20 vouchers!
Click Read More below for the text version of these visuals.
Blog post by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)
Separating the wheat from the chaff With millions of websites available to Internet users, it can be hard to tell which ones are legitimate. For every article on a topic that comes from a legitimate news source, there are many more articles on that same topic that are illegitimate. Sharing fake news too often can damage your online reputation, credibility, and negatively affect your academic standing. While studying at Aberystwyth University, it is important to be aware of fake news articles and how to use legitimate articles and sources correctly. This blog post will give you some useful tips on how to achieve both goals which will make your academic journey just that little bit easier. We will go over the basics of fake news, learn how to spot it, and what to do if we encounter it.
What is ‘fake news?’ There are many definitions of fake news but the most widely accepted definition is any news story that is factually incorrect or deliberately misleading. The main purposes of fake news are generating a reaction, pushing a political narrative, or for humorous purposes. It is easy to produce this kind of news on the Internet as anyone can publish anything they want regardless of its truthfulness or their individual qualifications. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to detect as it is easy to disguise a website as a legitimate news source and the rise in technology is making it easier to make other forms of news, such as live reports, appear legitimate.
Blog post by Urvashi Verma (Student Digital Champion)
As Welcome Week came to an end recently, I hope that you have all settled in comfortably and are getting to grips with your new schedules. This means changing some of your habits and lifestyle to accommodate your university schedule. For a student living independently for the first time, these changes can be even more difficult. From managing money to living with new people, it isn’t always plain sailing. For example, when I started living independently for the first time, I managed to turn all my white clothes into a bright shade of pink!
Through this blog post, I’m going to share with you some useful tips from my own experiences, and especially different apps and technologies that have helped me to feel more comfortable living independently.
Get enough Sleep
Trying to get enough sleep whilst also juggling your life between lectures, assignments and work can be very stressful, and it can take a long time to get used to it. Try maintaining a proper sleep cycle by going to sleep at the same time every night.
Technology: I would recommend a free app called Sleep Cycle: Sleep Recorded.This app will help you record your sleeping pattern, and you can use it to wake you up at just the right time by using an intelligent alarm clock.
Blog post by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)
The perils of the Internet
It’s no secret that the Internet is a part of our everyday lives. From work to social media, many of us find ourselves connected to the Internet in some form or another. Because it’s so commonplace, it’s all too easy to forget that our interactions with the Internet can damage our safety both online and offline. This blog post will go over some ways that you can stay safe while you are online at home or at Aberystwyth University.
Your Digital Footprint
Using social media is a terrific way of connecting with your friends and family. However, it is also important to remember that social media plays a key role in shaping your digital footprint. Your digital footprint refers to activities on the internet that can identify you. There are two main forms of digital footprint, the first being your active footprint, which is identifying data that you deliberately leave online. Actions like uploading a selfie are posting something using your real name all contribute to your active digital footprint. It is important to remember that even if you delete a post you’ve made to social media, it’s never truly gone. One of the best ways to stay safe online is to avoid ‘oversharing.’ Think of it this way, would you tell a stranger your debit card number? Your address? Definitely not! An effective way to remember not to overshare is to ask yourself ‘would I be comfortable giving this information to a stranger?’
On the other hand, you have your active digital footprint, which is data that you unintentionally leave behind. The most common form of this data are cookies, which are small blocks of data that identify your browsing habits. These blocks of data allow for companies to place tailor-made ads on the websites that you visit. While this data is normally harmless, they can reveal private information about you if you share your computer with anyone. Many websites now ask if you want to enable cookies, it is recommended that you disable them if you are using a shared computer or broadcasting your browser contents to an audience (such as in a Microsoft Teams meeting or a livestream.)
Blog post by Urvashi Verma (Student Digital Champion)
Digital wellbeing, in layman’s terms is the impact of technology on the overall human wellbeing. In more sophisticated terms, it is the capacity to look after personal safety, relationships, health and work-life balance in digital settings. In today’s world, we have become dependant on technology for our every need. While it is a good thing to utilise technology and its efficient utilisation does solve many problems, any kind of misuse or overuse will have consequences. According to some research, our overall wellbeing is impacted with issues of stress, comparison with others and time management. It leads to worsening of mental wellbeing, mainly in the youth aged 15-24. There are higher chances of mental health issues surfacing in the form of, ranging from but not limited to, loneliness, anxiety and depression.
Blog post by Laurie Stevenson (Student Digital Champion)
LinkedIn Learning, which is a free online learning platform, is available to all students. Our stand has information about the platform and shows examples of the sort of short videos, courses and skills you can find on it.
What’s more, if you sign up to LinkedIn Learning by the end of Welcome Week, either online or by using the QR code on our stand, you will be entered into a raffle where you will have the opportunity to win one of three £20 vouchers!
You will find the stand on the ground floor of the Hugh Owen Library (Level D) at the back near the stairs.
A warm welcome to our new Student Digital Champions who joined the Digital Capabilities Team at the start of September! They will be working with us this semester to encourage students across the university to develop their digital capabilities and to provide valuable insights into what support students want.
Laurie Stevenson (Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences)
“Hello, I am Laurie Stevenson and I study Wildlife Conservation. I am currently undertaking a yearlong research placement focusing on the growth of duckweed as future sustainable protein source and agent for cleaning agriculture wastewaters. My specific interests lie within sustainable and environmental food production and solutions to feed a growing global population under the challenges of global poverty and climate change.
I chose to be a Student Digital Champion because I was looking for something creative to do outside of the lab and I really enjoy creating online content and communicating with other students. I really engaged with and appreciated a lot of the digital content and communication put out by the university in my second year and so I would love to pay that back and make a positive difference to student experiences through this role. I really love Aberystwyth University and I am passionate about helping others to feel the same! In my spare time I enjoy cold-water swimming all year round, I am learning Welsh and I also enjoy road tripping and visiting new places in my car that I have converted into a mini campervan.”
