Fall 2020 CPA PEP Plagiarism Recap

Fall 2020 Plagiarism Statistics

Plagiarism—submitting someone else’s work as your own—is unacceptable in CPA education and carries serious consequences such as failure of the module and/or expulsion. Following every session, CPAWSB investigates suspected instances, and below we share the results from the 2020 Fall CPA PEP session.

Fall 2020 Plagiarism Occurrences

During the Fall 2020 CPA PEP session, plagiarism instances included the following:

Exam Plagiarism

Exam plagiarism occurs where responses are copied from:

• Assignment materials
  • CPA provided solutions
  • CPA Learning E-Book without citation
  • Other candidates (both the enabler and copier face consequences)

Assignment Plagiarism

Assignment plagiarism occurs where an assignment is submitted with materials copied from:

• Other candidates (both the enabler and copier face consequences)
  • Material directly provided by another candidate
  • Material indirectly provided through sources such as WhatsApp or Course Hero
  • CPA provided solutions
  • CPA Learning E-Book without citation

All individuals found guilty of plagiarism or enabling plagiarism during the Fall 2020 session incurred serious consequences.

WhatsApp Groups (Social Platforms)

Recently there has been an increase in candidates sharing notes, assignments, solutions, and exam information in WhatsApp group chats. Sharing these items in chats and social media platforms is unacceptable.

Enabler Consequences

• When a candidate shares material in a group chat (WhatsApp or similar platform), they become an enabler of plagiarism. Therefore, if another candidate submits information shared by the enabler, the enabler and all individuals involved will face serious consequences.

Copier Consequences

• Candidates who copy material shared in messaging groups or other social platforms will face serious consequences.

While collaboration is encouraged—for example discussing a question—you can avoid a plagiarism investigation and consequences by not sharing or copying notes, assignments, and solutions in WhatsApp chats or any other platforms.

Course Hero (Third-Party Resource Websites)

Uploading or copying material from resource sites such as Course Hero is also unacceptable and several instances of plagiarism during the fall session were due to assignments being copied from these sites. If you have uploaded assignments to Course Hero or another resource site, have the material removed immediately as you are enabling plagiarism and will face serious consequences. You can avoid a plagiarism investigation by not visiting resource sites such as Course Hero.

Submitting CPA Solutions

Under no circumstance are CPA-provided solutions to be shared with others or submitted for an assignment or online assessment. If you submit CPA-provided solutions, you will face serious consequences. All candidate work is reviewed through Turnitin software, which is designed to detect instances of plagiarism by comparing submitted items against information on the internet, CPA Canada solutions, and all previous CPA PEP candidate submissions from across Canada. You can avoid a plagiarism investigation by not submitting CPA-provided solutions or parts of CPA-provided solutions in your assignments or online assessments.