ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
From: http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/images/poster_byu_04.gif
AGENDA
1.
Define academic integrity
2.
Consider relevance for students
3.
Discuss case studies
4.
Reflection
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
O Define academic integrity
O Understand its importance for the academy and
society at large
O Understand different institutional policies and
procedures for addressing academic integrity
issues
O Anticipate issues with prospective international
students and guide them accordingly
Defining academic integrity
“Academic Integrity can be defined by honest
academic work where (1) the ideas and the
writing of others are properly cited; (2) students
submit their own work for tests and assignments
without unauthorized assistance; (3) students do
not provide unauthorized assistance to others;
and (4) students report their research or
accomplishments accurately.”
http://www.ethicsed.org/programs/integrityworks/ai_definitions.htm
Georgetown College Policy:
The Honor System
Georgetown College is “an innovative community of scholars
developing ethical scholars committed to our heritage of
Christian discernment.” In a truly academic community, honor
must be expected. Honor is an ideal that is evident in the lives
of ethical scholars. Primarily, the function of the Georgetown
College Honor System is to educate and instill a common
purpose within the campus student community. The Honor
System is an educational tool to assist the process of teaching
morality and ethics. The Honor System helps create an
environment that will assist in the development of the whole
person by insisting upon honorable traits and behavior.
Further, the process assists in the establishment of precedent,
consistency and fairness with regard to questions of academic
integrity. An effective honor system requires students and
faculty to understand and abide by the system’s expectations.
From: http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/catalog/academicpolicies/
Georgetown College Policy:
The Honor System
The strength of the Honor System is in the creation of an
atmosphere in which students can act with individual
responsibility. This includes the personal decision to act
honorably and not to tolerate others who choose to violate the
conditions of the Honor System. Therefore, an important
aspect of the College’s Honor System is that all students must
report violations of the Honor System by their peers. Faculty
and Staff must also understand the spirit of the system and do
everything possible to abide by the guidelines.
From: http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/catalog/academicpolicies/
Georgetown College Policy:
The Honor System
All students must sign an understanding of the Honor
System. Record of this understanding is kept on file in
the Office of the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of
Students. For a full discussion of the Honor System—
including infractions, procedures, sanctions, and the
role of the Honors Council—see the current edition of
the Georgetown College Student Handbook available at
http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/studentlife/studenthandbook/.
From:
http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/catalog/academicpolicies/
Why does academic integrity
matter?
For students:
For colleges:
For professionals:
Case Studies
For each situation, ask yourselves these
questions and be prepared to justify your
responses:
O What could or should the student(s) do?
O What parties might be involved in the cases,
and what actions might they take?
O What are some short- and long-term
consequences for the student(s)?
O How might different institutional policies affect
the outcomes for all parties involved?
Case Study #1
One evening after eating dinner in the
cafeteria, Julia returns to her dorm room to
find that her roommate has been copying
her answers to a homework assignment for
their Japanese language class.
Case Study #2
Hasim must write a paper about some
aspect of his culture that is different from
American culture. He remembers a paper
that he wrote for a different class last
semester and decides to submit the same
paper for the current assignment also.
Case Study #3
During her first few weeks as an undergraduate student,
Serafina has difficulty adjusting to the time differences,
workload and many social activities offered. As such,
she accidentally oversleeps the morning of her first
Sociology exam. She explains the situation to her
professor, who schedules a time for her to make up the
exam. In the meantime, a student who lives across the
hall has already taken the exam and received her
graded paper. The busy professor does not have time
to alter the exam, so he gives Serafina the exact same
test that her friend took. While she was studying,
Serafina memorized the exam and her friend’s
responses. For the short answer test items for which
her friend received full credit, Serafina decides to write
down the same responses as those of her friend.
Case Study #4
Professor Gomes teaches at a small institution
with a low international student population.
There are few resources for those students with
lower levels of English proficiency (but who
meet the school’s TOEFL requirements for
admission), so he allows students to use
dictionaries and smartphone apps to help them
formulate answers. On one recent quiz, he
notices that Marcelina appears to be doing an
internet search rather than using assistive
translation.
Case Study #5
Priscilla is a very engaged student who decides
to write her capstone research paper about
violence against women on college campuses.
The project requires her to interview three
subjects to obtain personal stories. Priscilla
does two interviews and is satisfied that the
women’s stories support her argument;
however, some information given by the third
subject seems to contradict her thesis. Priscilla
includes the third informant in her project but
alters and omits some words to fit her own
thesis.
Case Study #6
Max buys a computer from Alice, who did
not completely delete her old files saved to
the hard drive. Max finds notes for a paper
that Alice wrote 2 years ago when she took
the same Art History class, although it was
with a different professor. He doesn’t see
the harm in using her notes and research for
his own project, and he ultimately decides to
include the information in the text of his
paper.
Case Study #7
Mae Ling is an exceptionally bright Teaching
Assistant whose insights into Computational
Physics are innovative and worthy of serious
further study and eventual publication. She
shares some of her ideas with her mentor, the
Physics Department Chair. About three months
later, she discovers that her mentor has
published an article using her ideas, and that
this professor has been nominated for a major
award as a result of the publication.
Works Cited
“Definitions for Academic Integrity.” The
School for Ethical Education. Web. 18 April
2013.http://www.ethicsed.org/programs/inte
grity-works/ai_definitions.htm.
“Academic Policies and Regulations.”
Georgetown College Catalog 2012-2013.
Web. 19 April 2013.
http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/catalog/a
cademic-policies/