Who is responsible for academic integrity?

Originally published in the Learning and Teaching weekly newsletter (internal publication) at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. 

Like so many things, the answer is everyone. Although learners are obviously responsible for integrity in the materials that they submit, along with the assessments that they complete, faculty can support learners by discussing (early and often) the values of integrity and honesty. One of the most effective ways to do this is to model integrity in everything that we do. Here are some examples:

• Using evidence from external sources to complement or support your course materials.
• Textbooks
• Journal articles
• Blogs, newsletters, newspapers, and magazines
• Video content
• Information from vendors or trade associations/organizations
• Codes of conduct from professional organizations or governing bodies
• Reputable online information
• Adding references on all learning materials
• Provides reference examples 

If you are interested in discussing academic integrity, join our group of likeminded individuals. The Academic Integrity Community of Practice (CoP) is predominately a discussion; everyone is given time to speak and share. The goal of a CoP is to generate ideas and collaborate with colleagues to find solutions to issues in their teaching or work. This CoP will focus on academic integrity issues. We'll highlight collaborative ways to find proactive and equitable solutions and offer support for faculty and staff who are seeking assistance to empower their learners and aid in their academic success at Sask Polytech. 

This CoP is led by two ILDC Facilitators, Tasha Maddison (Saskatoon Campus) and Selinda England (Moose Jaw Campus). This CoP will be delivered virtually on the second Tuesday of every month from 3-4 p.m. All are welcome. Click here to register.

At our next CoP, we will be focusing on faculty responsibility. As you start to think about your responsibilities, ponder this quote "Former Vanderbilt Dean of Students Madison Sarratt (1888-1978) once said “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good men in this world who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good men in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty” (Patel, 2016, para. 1). This is such a powerful statement on the roles of integrity, honesty and trust, play in post-secondary institutions.

Reference

Patel, A. (2016, April 15). Honesty - The Vanderbilt community. Vanderbilt University. https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2016/04/honesty-the-vanderbilt-community-creed/#:~:text=I%20hope%20you%20will%20pass,pass%20an%20examination%20in%20honesty.%E2%80%9D

Kahoot!

Kahoot (https://kahoot.com/welcomeback/) is a free online tool that allows individuals to create simple multiple choice quizzes or learning games.  Users can add video, images or diagrams for a wide variety of quiz offerings.  Kahoot can be accessed on any mobile device via a unique game PIN or through an internet connection on a desk or laptop.  Users can easily sign up for an account using a Gmail account or other email address.  The tool requires little to no training and is very intuiative to use.  Users can create a new quiz or access an existing quiz.  Once you are creating a new quiz, you add questions and at least two possible answers for the multiple choice quiz.  You also have the option of creating discussions, surveys or Jumbles (their newest game option).  

Pros: 

• No login or sign up is required for participants
• Kahoots can be assigned as homework to reinforce learning materials
• Students can create flash cards for themselves as a memory aide

Cons:

• Potential copyright concerns when sharing content, such as: images, videos or diagrams.  Instructors need to be cognizant of what they can legally share online and what content would be best avoided.  Caveat - there is a copyright open text field on the opening screen of the quiz for instructors to note which content is protected by copyright.  
• Instructors often assume that all participants will have access to a smartphone or a tablet and want to use it for classroom activity.  This may not be the case.  Instructors need to be aware that they may be putting an unnecessary barrier between learning and the activity, for these students.

Both a pro and a con, there are only two access settings available for the quiz; everyone can see it or only me.  It is a global testing tool and can be played in real time by players from 180 countries.  There may be individuals who do not wish to share their quizzes globally.  And there be students who are hesitant to participate in this type of social activity.

The advantage of using this tool is the simplistic access mechanism to join the game, as opposed to Poll Everywhere which is a bit more involved.  The site itself is colourful and appealing and there is a sense that the quiz will be fun and engaging (as much as that is possible).  The quiz that I set up for demonstration purposes below was easy to do.  I did not have to consult any training materials and the process was not complicated in any way.  I tested it on my daughter and husband.  Despite their lack of APA knowledge they were easily able to join my quiz and had fun testing out the tool.  I can see using this tool in the future as a quick assessment at the end of my library session.

Further reading that might be useful to you: 

Boitshwarelo, B., Reedy, A., & Billany, T. (2017). Envisioning the use of online tests in assessing twenty-first century learning: A literature review. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 12(1), 1-16.

Harter, Cynthia, & Harter, John. (2004). Teaching with technology: Does access to computer technology increase student achievement? Eastern Economic Journal, 30(4), 507-514.

Test your APA knowledge: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/60516291-fea4-45ab-8194-87c264a7d344

Poll Everywhere

I was at a keynote at the Academic Leadership Workshop (SKPolytech) earlier this spring where the speaker used Poll Everywhere to add interactive elements to her presentation.  I was well aware of this project, as several of my colleagues had been working with the speaker to get this all up and running.

Frankly, I was prepared to be underwhelmed.  I have used clickers before and didn't really imagine that I was in for a "wow, that is so cool" moment, but boy was I wrong.

The live display of data is impressive.  To see the totals move as someone inputs their data is incredibly cool. To have immediate feedback from the audience either through a text or through a website is amazing and also simple (for both the presenter and for the participants).  My favourite feature was the word cloud.  The speaker asked us to describe what Saskatchewan Polytechnic means to us?  It was incredible to watch as the word cloud formed and then dynamically changed as more people contribute their ideas.  In a matter of moments you could see what was resonating with the audience.  And words that you may have anticipated but noticed were missing or not as prevalent is also interesting to observe.

So... I took a huge risk.  Normally copyright librarians are risk adverse, but I definitely do not embrace that sentiment in my teaching.  I had a presentation the very next day and I thought that the word cloud would be the perfect way to determine the temperature of the audience on the issue of copyright compliance.  So I taught myself how to use it!!!!  In about 30 minutes.  The software is highly intuitive and easy to use.  It was also fun.  And I received a lot of very positive, very enthusiastic feedback.  I highly recommend it!

Post-Assignment Assessment

If you are so lucky to have a library information literacy session that is directly related to an assignment, why not have students fill out a post-assignment assessment.  The purpose of this form of assessment is to note the affect of instruction on the student's ability to complete the assignment.

The assessment would ideally be handed out to students when they hand the assignment into their professor.

Think about how much you could learn from this form of assessment!!!

Hello, my name is....

Last week I taught 7 RCM 300 information literacy classes.  In the last session, a colleague of mine performed a peer evaluation of my instruction. 

One of the techniques that I use continuously in my courses is group work, of which there was no shortage in this particular class. 

Immediately following the class, my colleague offered me a brilliant suggestion stating that she uses  similar active learning techniques in her instruction.  She recommended that I start each class, that has a group work component in the instruction, with a brief meet-n-greet ice breaker.  Having students briefly introduce themselves to the people sitting next to them and offer one tidbit of previously unknown information benefits the class discussion in two ways: first, it avoids awkwardness at being forced to answer questions in a group situation and second, it sets up the expectation that students will be expected to contribute throughout the class.

I love this idea!  This ice breaker will be an excellent addition this activity will make to future instructional sessions.

Assessment

I had the great fortune yesterday of seeing one of my ideas improved upon.  Alexis McKenzie, English and Drama Liaison Librarian at the University of Saskatchewan, adapted the assessment tool that I have been using this year for her own classes.  Here is what I love about what she did:

• She added lines.  Seems like a little thing, but I think participants are more likely to comment when you set up the space for them to write.
• She added an email address template, so that the participant only needed to fill in their NSID.  It is almost like a reminder at the end of the form that if the student wants a response to their question from the librarian, they need to enter their contact information.  The email address provides a visible reminder.
• She exchanges the comment cards for chocolates - excellent incentive!
• She uses much less paper and the overall comment card is much smaller. 
• Perhaps having the effect of being less daunting for students. 
• Sets up the expectation that they only have to briefly comment!

Bingo dabbers anyone?

In the conscious and consistent effort to incorporate active learning into classroom activities, I decided to try bingo in my BLE 495 class.  I knew the class size would be fairly small and that my portion of the instruction would merely be demonstration as students would not have access to computer workstations. 

I ran a search for bingo templates in Google and found one in Microsoft Office online templates.  The template was called buzzword bingo and came complete with many inspiring business type terms like collaboration and team work. 

I created 10 unique sheets using words that I knew I would use sometime in my presentation; either because I say them all the time like research, concepts, topics, effective and efficient OR because they were part of my presentation, like the search examples that I was planning on using.  For prizes, I went to the bookstore and purchased $20 worth of school supplies (pens, highlighters, binder clips, etc.).  I planned on having only one winner from this session, but wanted the winner to be able to select their prize from the grab bag.

On the back of each bingo sheet, I added a 1-minute memo that contained two short questions.  First, list one thing that you learned today that will be useful to your future work as an engineer and second, list one thing that you would like to learn more about.

The response to the bingo cards was immediate and positive.  I had laid them out on the tables ahead of time and most students remarked as they entered the room.  I begun my time, by instructing students that it was a blackout bingo game and that a prize would be given to the winning student.

I thought for sure that I would state all the terms before the end of the session, but alas, no student completed the entire sheet.  I immediately modified the rules, and gave it to the student who had completed the majority of the sheet.  The professor (who was also participating) had less left, but I decided he was not eligible to win a prize. 

Lesson learned:

• one line would be plenty for the first winner, but offer a secondary prize for a blackout towards the end of class if there is one. 
• students were paying attention because most of them missed things that I surely had said at some point.
• the 1-minute memo was a fabulous way to gather feedback about the session.  I followed up with a list of answers to the questions that they had posed.

Biology 301

Well this was an interesting project.  As I posted earlier, I wanted students to compare and contrast two articles in my instructional session, but I am not able to distribute copies of these articles to the class due to copyright restrictions.  Because of this I started a LibGuide for the class in which I could embed links to the articles that would only be available to authenticated users. 

Today, I wanted to finalize my LibGuide and prepare for tomorrow's instruction session, but as luck would have it, the LibGuide's site was down for most of the day.  Consequently I spent the day creating back up materials preparing for the worst (which is a good idea anyways, just not how I thought I would spend my day).

Thankfully tonight, it is back up and running so I was able to complete the LibGuide.  Here is it: http://libguides.usask.ca/biology301.  The LibGuide includes a link to my presentation that I shared through Prezi, as well as a link to an evaluation tool that I created through a tool provided in-house.

Now, let's just cross our fingers that it all works tomorrow!

Student Assessment Ideas

Potential Assessment Tools:

• Stop, Start, Continue: to determine what components should be kept within the instructions, as well as identifying aspects that were not as successful
• 2 minute memo: to determine if the learning objectives have been met
• Survey with a mixture of multiple choice and open ended questions: to gather feedback on instruction, instructor and classroom activities
• Immediate feedback instrument: can be purchased and used in class.  The choices are covered with a removable material.  You get 3 points for picking the right answer with the first scratch, 2 points for the second try, 1 point for the third try and no points for the last square remaining.  You can use this instrument as a competition within the class - students working in teams try to get the most points in the shortest amount of time.  In the faculty orientation that I attended, one of the instructors used this instrument.  It was a lot of fun, even though my team lost!