I recently attended the Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity and I will share here some of the ideas that continue to resonate.
When an instructor can go to a homework site or textbook vendor and buy all of their course materials, why do we expect students to do their own work? Similarly if you have not cited any of your sources throughout the entire semester (especially pictures on PPT slides), how do you justify docking marks for incorrect or lacking references?
Ask yourself who is harmed by the educational systems? Are we continuing to erode the trust that our students have in these systems by also investing in eproctoring?
Instead of beginning the semester with an assumption of guilt, where the student needs to prove their innocence, begin with dialogue about academic integrity, hold the students responsible, ensure they understand the expectations so that they have an authentic sense of accountability for their behaviours.
Eproctoring highlights the many inequalities between students, such as connectivity, availability of a device, home (on camera - invasion of privacy, socioeconomic status). These services also quite simply increase test anxiety.
We need to amplify student voices on all of these issues.
Ensure that we are collecting the right data in the right way so that it will highlight ethics and integrity. Academic Integrity applies to everyone at the institution, it is about ethical conduct and how we conduct the business of education and educational systems.
Remember that no one single action should indicate the individual's character or values - we are not deciding if the student is honest or dishonest for example. The one behaviour can be honest or dishonest, but that does not implicate their entire being.
Encourage the positive - students need to be considered in everything that we undertake
If we think of preventative practices, the primary intervention is education; secondary is incidence and prevalence, understand the action and behaviours, and the design of assessments; tertiary involves implementing restorative practices
For more information: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/encourageacademicintegrity/
Clarity of purpose and use of language are critical on an academic policy. Penalties should be appropriate to the offense. Operationalize the policy by employing an individual responsible for the policy. Students should know where to find the policy and how to apply it. Create a culture of academic integrity, focusing on educational opportunities.
How can the conversation be focused on the student's future career? Is there a code of ethics in that industry? If so, start here and then talk about academic integrity. I.e.: Code of Ethics for Professional Engineers. Showcasing the responsibilities that they will have in the future and how it is related to integrity
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