Plagiarism by students is an increasing problem at higher education institutions. However, the development of academic misconduct policies has done little to reduce the incidence of plagiarism as many incidents result from ignorance and poor skill development rather than intentional misconduct. Our purpose in embarking on this research project was twofold: first, to investigate student perceptions of plagiarism and its avoidance, and second, to develop learning materials that would educate students to be better able to avoid plagiarism in their work. The study consisted of two phases. Phase one consisted of four focus groups with undergraduate psychology students in order to determine their understanding of plagiarism, difficulties with avoiding plagiarism, and the process of learning to write without plagiarising. Phase two concerned the development and evaluation of learning materials, which consisted of three tutorials and a "tip sheet". The learning materials are flexible to different disciplines and learning modes, require minimal changes to units and assessment, and need little ongoing staff commitment. Thus, the proposed learning materials have a number of advantages over alternate methods of plagiarism reduction.