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

Sharing is Caring!

I reviewed the YouTube video 'OER Discoverability and Sharing', presented by Erin Fields (CARL).  Erin began this discussion by stating that there is no 'one size fits all' solution as discoverability can be problematic.  There are many systems and many tools, with several aggregators and various repositories.

In order to make an item open to the largest possible audience, you must consider accessibility, inclusivity, file format, as well as the licence assigned to the item.  You can help to make items truly open by: describing visuals, transcribing videos, describing hyperlinks, making text readable, and finally structuring the page using headings and other style conventions.

Other design considerations include making sure that the individual can edit the file, and that they will not require special software (i.e.: Adobe) to work with the item.  Open file formats include: HTML, ODF, RTF, SVG, PNG and CSV.  PDF can be open, if you use that text format that allows for OCR. 

When sharing items, it is important to have a standardized metadata which will allow for discovery on repositories and aggregators, and in turn allows for the creator to collect impact metrics.  Include: source type, author, title, date, URL, subjects, abstract, duration/length, audience, and copyright or licence information.  If you wish to archive your item, WikiMedia is a good choice, for archiving and aggregating, OER Commons, Open Textbook Library is an aggregator of resources and MASON OER Finder is an aggregator of repositories.  So many choices and so many decisions that need to be made before you even begin creating your OER project.

Collecting metrics are useful for grant applications, promotion and merit (universities), and for your personal records.  You can review views/downloads/saves as well as ratings of your project - dependent on what tool you use.

As for marketing and promotion: share news through your institution and professional associations, along with your personal social media channels.  Consider looking for relevant hashtags, and promote on academic social media channels as well.

Further resources:
https://open.ubc.ca/access/toolkits-access/oer-accessibility-toolkit/ - OER accessibility toolkit
http://guides.library.ubc.ca/open-education/sharing - Sharing your repository

My Stand Up Comedy Routine

I recently attended "Using Humor to Engage Students in the Classroom by Dr. M. Cundall through Faculty Focus, a webinar that was made available by Magna Online Courses.  

Some of the key takeaways from this session included: 

• Finding humour in the incongruities and as a method to build relationships with students.
• Acknowledging that there are many different ways to engage with students and using humour can be very effective provided that you do so with caution.  You must know your audience and be thoughtful in which types of humour you try to employ.  Observe the classroom environment and act accordingly. 
• The use of self-deprecating humour can help to humanize you, and make you more authentic to your students (I definitely make fun of myself all the time when I am teaching and play to the many librarian stereotypes).  One such method is to recognize your errors and poke fun at yourself for the error.  
• Classrooms are performative, so end with your best joke!

The webinar provided a different perspective on learning.  It acknowledges that you can be silly or funny and still respected professionally.  If the goal of teaching is to increase engagement and provide meaningful learning activities, then you can (and should) have fun doing so!

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

Retrospective Blogging

It occured to me that I haven't linked to any of the blog posts that I have contributed to the Brain Work blog (C-EBLIP) in a really long time.  Here are the links and the titles:

• Reframing Instruction: Get Messy found at https://words.usask.ca/ceblipblog/2017/07/04/reframing-instruction/ 
• NAP: Assisting Students just in time found at: https://words.usask.ca/ceblipblog/2017/01/10/nap-assisting-students-just-in-time/ 
• Lessons Learned: A Book Editing Collaboration found at https://words.usask.ca/ceblipblog/2016/07/05/a-book-editing-collaboration/
• Lessons Learned: The Peer Review Process found at: https://words.usask.ca/ceblipblog/2016/04/26/lessons-learned-the-peer-review-process/

sound quality in synchronous sessions

although it may seem really awkward, remember to speak slowly and take a significant pause at the completion of each slide.  If the sound is buffering for participants, this will allow the audio transcript a chance to catch up.

also (although I can't believe I am saying this as it breaks my #1 PPT rule) put your key points on your slides.  If participants are not able to hear what you are saying, at least they will be able to read your key points.

Courage

The greatest thing that I have learned from being an instructor, is to be brave.  It can be incredibly daunting to stand in front of a class and try to convey your message in a way that is interesting and engaging.  Especially when the class may not be interested in what you have to say or it might not be at a time in the semester when they recognize the value of the information.

The strength and courage that I have gleaned from the process of teaching has helped me in every other aspect of my life.  It helps me to be brave when faced with a difficult situation.  It also forces me to never give up.  To ameliorate, to strive for 'bigger and better', to truly seek life-long learning.  It compels me to step out on that stage time and time again, even though I am nervous, even though it would be easier not to.

measure your impact

The next quick take session that I attended was on the basics of altmetrics.  The presenter noted that scholarly impact measures are based on activity in online tools and environments such as citations.  Metrics are a proxy for scholarly influence which take a long time to accumulate.  Negative considerations: journals could be hidden in subscription based journals; the metrics don't capture the publications overall impact and the challenge of variability in the measure tools themselves.

Altmetrics indicators:

• journal article use
• social media use - blogs, Twitter (# of Tweets about conference presentation), copy of article saved in Mendeley (# of saves)
• data and software use and re-use
• educational resource use and re-use - i.e.: slide share or Prezi 
• broader impacts for research (readership)

Caveat: how do weight each of these indicators, are they equal or are some weighted more heavily than others.

Altmetrics measures diverse impacts by various tools to track readership and impact, such as: academia.edu, CiteULike, F1000, Google Scholar, Mendeley and Zotero.  Items that add value to traditionally published content include: crowdsourced peer review, and the exposure of questions and comments via social media.

Altmetrics tools include Altmetrics.com, Plum Analytics, Mendeley, Impact Story (which considers citation patterns in a particular field) and ORCID (which is aiming to unify author profiles).