Slides on the difference between collusion and collaboration

1. Collaboration or collusion?
Knowing the difference

2. What is collusion?
Discussing a project with your classmates may be helpful, but you must be aware of the risk of collusion.
Collusion happens when multiple people contribute to a piece of work that is meant to be assessed
individually.
Collusion can also happen in the context of groupwork; this form of collusion is harder to identify because it
can easily be mistaken for collaboration.
In the following slides you will find examples of the most common types of collusion in both individual and
group assignments.
REMEMBER: Collusion is a serious offence that will result in an allegation of academic misconduct for all the
students involved!

3. Collusion in
individual
assignments
The most common forms or collusion in individual
assignments are:
• Working with somebody else on a task that you were
instructed to complete by yourself.
• Copying someone else’s assignment, research, code,
etc…
• Allowing someone else to copy your work.
• Sharing the answers to a test with a classmate.
• Copying and pasting content from somebody else’s
notes.

4. Collaboration
Vs Collusion in
groupwork
When you are working in a group you may run the risk of
confusing collusion for collaboration. While collaboration is
strongly encouraged, collusion should be avoided at all costs!
Examples of collaboration in a group project:
• Approaching the assessment question together as a group
and agreeing on the division of work.
• Deciding which role every member of the group will play and
dividing the tasks equally. Each student should concentrate
on their assigned task.
Examples of collusion in a group project:
• Working collaboratively on an individual part of the
assignment (e.g. reflective learning journal).
• Relying on other group members to do the work and taking
credit for it. If students are unclear about what the
distribution of tasks should be, they should raise the issue
with their group and/or the lecturer.

5. Please evaluate the following scenarios and decide if
they are examples of collaboration or collusion
1: You join a group chat to ask
questions, share class notes
and discuss the content of
the lecture.
2: You use a group chat to
share the answers to an
online test.
3: Your group is given the task
to work together on a
project. Two of the group
members hardly contribute
to the project.
4:A student is having
problems understanding an
assignment brief and asks
you for help.
5: You are asked to work on an individual assignment. To save time, you and two friends
decide to divide the workload among yourselves and each one of you researches only
one aspect of the assignment brief. You then share the research notes with each other
and each one of you writes their assignment alone.

6. Answers
1: Collaboration
This is a great example of
collaboration, and this kind of
behaviour is encouraged.
2: Collusion
Sharing the answers to a test with your
classmates constitutes academic
misconduct.
3: Collusion
Each member of the team is expected
to complete their assigned task. This
kind of behaviour should be addressed
immediately.
4: Collaboration
Helping a classmate understand the
brief is fine, as long as they don’t ask
to see your work.
5: Collusion
In an individual assignment you are expected to conduct all the research by yourself and draw your
own conclusion. Additionally, since you and your friends are relying on the same research notes,
there is a risk that your essays will be too similar.

7. What to do if
you suspect
collusion in
your group
You should be vigilant about collusion in
your group.
If you suspect that members of your
group are colluding you should first raise
the issue with them privately.
If this approach does not work, you
should discuss your concerns with the
other group members and your lecturer.

8. What to do if
somebody
does not
contribute to
a group
assignment
Notify your lecturer that somebody in your
group is not contributing to the project.
Your lecturer will contact the student and
take the necessary steps to address the
issue.
Failure to contribute to a group project and/or missing
meetings without prior notification triggers the ‘traffic
light system’.
The ‘traffic light system’ or ‘three strike’ involves the
group member getting three written warnings from the
assessor. After three strikes, offenders are removed
from the group project.

9. Avoid
unintentional
collusion
Always review carefully the assessment
brief and, if needed, ask your lecturer to
clarify their expectations.
To learn more about collusion, please
refer to the CCT Academic Misconduct
Policy and the Group Assessment Policy.