An introduction to academic integrity

Cheating or plagiarism, globally known as academic misconduct, is a threat not only to the student who engages in it, but to the integrity and quality of the higher education enterprise. Academic misconduct occurs for a complex set of reasons, not the least of which is the intense focus within the educational system on extrinsic ‘success’ markers such as GPA (grade point average), attrition and retention rates, and graduation rates. Minimising cheating and enhancing academic integrity, which largely falls on the individual faculty member in the individual classroom, is thus a challenge in any classroom environment – whether in-person, hybrid or fully online/remote. Our abrupt move to remote instruction during the COVID 19 pandemic highlighted this challenge for all faculty. However, we also learned a lot during this period – both about what instructors should look for to protect integrity and what they should do to prevent cheating.   

At a basic level, educators want to teach, and students want to learn. Growth in knowledge, personal and professional development is the shared goal. However, within teaching and learning, there is also an instructor’s responsibility for designing honest and fair assessments of student learning and for students to demonstrate their knowledge honestly and fairly. When educators attend to academic integrity and address misconduct when it happens, this fair and honest learning and assessment environment is protected. Students can then trust the academic environment, knowing that if they put their best in, it will be fairly assessed, rather than skewed by dishonest peers. And faculty can trust their students, knowing that they can consider alternative unproctored assessments because their students will complete them with integrity.