Social media and academic
integrity
Social media mess (Kexinco 2011)
Purpose of case study
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Target audience: Tutors, Students, Course Coordinators, Academic
Integrity Decision Makers.
Key issue being addressed: Ethics and academic integrity issues
when using social media
Purpose of the case: To assist teaching staff to consider how they
might handle students’ use of web 2.0 media in their research and
writing practices
Materials and preparation needed to answer case:
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Copy of full case scenario
Copy of university academic integrity policy and procedures
Eliza Anyangwe (2012) ‘Academic integrity 2.0: maintaining values and openness in a digital world’ The
Guardian 6th July. http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jul/05/plagiarism-ip-rightsand-academic-integrity
Waycott, J., Gray, K., Clerehan, R., Hamilton, M., Richardon, J., Sheard, J., Thompson, C. (2010).
‘Implications for academic integrity of using web 2.0 for teaching, learning and assessment in higher
education’ International Journal for Educational Integrity, 6(2), 8 - 18.
http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/viewFile/699/527
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Our research
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Policy analysis
 only 39% of policies identified the institution as being
responsible for academic integrity
Interviews with 28 senior academic integrity stakeholders at 6
Australian universities
No. 1 recommendation for good practice:
 Provide appropriate and on-going professional development for
all staff in relation to academic integrity policy and process.
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Case Study: Lee
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Lee is a tutor in a first year subject that involves teaching and
learning activities across a variety of social media platforms.
The major assessment task involves a project that students
record on their individual blogs, while following, notifying about
updates and giving feedback to their peers and teachers via
Facebook and Twitter.
One of Lee’s students decides to develop a project about media
scandals about celebrities, and the issues surrounding the
public/private circulation of information.
The student circulates a link to her blog post about the ethics of
tabloids publishing pirated mobile phone photos of naked female
celebrities.
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Ethics of circulating images
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The student illustrates this essay/blog post with samples of naked
photos of these celebrities.
Lee calls the student in to discuss the appropriateness of circulating
such pictures, which could be accessed by all students in the
course, as well as tutors and lecturers via the class blog.
The student justifies her actions by pointing out that the photos
illustrate the argument of her blog post, and have been well
referenced.
Lee counters this by saying the student actually didn’t seem to
understand the ethical issues involved when circulating naked
photos taken without permission.
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Collusion or collaboration?
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The student responds by saying that, in any case, she and her
friends had collaborated writing all of their blog posts before
publication in a private wiki, to which the tutor had not been invited.
The student comments that she is not directly responsible for the
text of the majority of the post, although she had called for ideas on
Twitter and coordinated contributions on Facebook.
The student points out that although the final blog post was an
individual assessment task, she and her friends were enacting the
spirit of the subject by using social media to work collaboratively.
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Questions for discussion
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Is this an issue of academic integrity, poor ethical research and
writing practice, or student misconduct?
What does your university policy say about the application of
academic integrity standards to Web 2.0 or social media? ?
It is acceptable for Lee to investigate the matters further given that
she now knows that a group of students worked collaboratively on
their individual assignments? How will she proceed and determine
individual or group authorship?
Brainstorm other academic integrity issues relevant to the use of
social media or web 2.0 technologies in assessment design,
research and writing practices, and academic integrity.
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References and resources
Anyangwe E (2012) ‘Academic integrity 2.0: maintaining values and openness in a digital world,’ The
Guardian, 6th July
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jul/05/plagiarism-ip-rights-andacademic-integrity
Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., East, J., Green, M., James, C., McGowan, U., Partridge, L., Walker, R. &
Wallace, M. (2011). Academic Integrity Standards: A Preliminary Analysis of the Academic
Integrity Policies at Australian Universities, Australian Universities Quality Forum, 29 June-1 July,
Melbourne, Australia.
Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., James, C., Green, M., East, J., McGowan, U. &
Partridge, L. (2011). Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian higher
education, International Journal for Educational Integrity, Vol 7(2), pp. 3-12, available online:
http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/viewFile/759/574
Kexinco (2011), Social media mess, digital image, accessed on 29 August 2012,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kexino/6336663225/ . This image is used with permission under an
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Creative Commons License.
Waycott, J., Gray, K., Clerehan, R., Hamilton, M., Richardon, J., Sheard, J., Thompson, C. (2010).
‘Implications for academic integrity of using web 2.0 for teaching, learning and assessment in
higher education’, International Journal for Educational Integrity, 6(2), 8 - 18.
http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/viewFile/699/527
Academic Integrity Standards Project 2010-2012
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For further resources from the
Academic Integrity Standards Project, please go to:
http://www.aisp.apfei.edu.au
Support for this project/activity has been provided by the
Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The
views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.
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