Lesson 6 of 7
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Applying academic integrity to your context

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Working with students in terms of academic integrity can sometimes be challenging. And so even with proactive and preventative measures, some students throughout time will still be academically dishonest. And the first challenge is that sometimes it’s very hard for an educator to understand why that might occur. Especially at the college or university level, the student has chosen to come to school, and they’ve chosen to be in the class. So it’s hard to understand why they would not want to do the best they can to learn the most they can in their class. We do have to be consistent about attempting to deter academic misconduct.

Again, talk to your students about academic integrity. Help them understand why it is important to you and why what the material that you’re teaching them is going to be important for them, as well. Building connections in your classroom also helps to deter violations. Now, building connections is different whether you’re in an online environment or a face-to-face environment, but it can still be done. Just as most educators and instructors want to be respected by their students, the students also want to be respected.

The same ideas that you use to create a community for diversity, equity, and inclusion in your classroom are going to be the same ideas that could help to deter violations. Some examples of this are creating class norms, getting to know your students, accommodating various learning styles, and using the community as the classroom as part of the learning experience.

I know that some people will use creating class norms as one of the first projects of the classroom, where actually the class will come up with the rules and regulations and the expectations. And they’re able to bring in academic integrity into that conversation, so all the students know that everybody is on the same page. Everybody is holding each other accountable, yet you’re creating still that community to understand that we’re in it together, and everybody’s in the classroom for the same reason.

Another challenge that is difficult for some is holding students accountable. You might not be 100% sure of what you saw or what you think might have occurred. And many professors and instructors don’t want to allege that something occurred when it might not have. But that’s one of the benefits of knowing your policies and procedures at your university, because for many, the institution allows the student who has an alleged violation to be able to tell his or her side of the story. And it’s a learning environment for everybody.

So even if that student actually did not do anything wrong, there’s still an opportunity for learning. And you’re learning as an instructor, knowing maybe that you need to adjust some of your assignment guidelines. Maybe you need to be clearer. Maybe you need to have other conversations with students. So even if you’re not 100% sure that something occurred, in most cases, you can still have those conversations with those students.

Those conversations can be difficult, but focusing again on that actual alleged violation and not focusing on the student as a bad person is definitely key. So you would not say to the student who you are alleging copied off of another student, “You are a cheater, I saw you do it.” You would come into the conversation more with, “I think I saw this during an exam. Can you explain what was going on?” Or “Can you explain how you got this answer? Because it appears to match maybe another answer on another test,” and give them the opportunity to explain themselves rather than just labeling them as a bad person or a cheater.

Some students will always be academically dishonest; however, you can deter students. Talk about academic integrity with your students. Help them understand why it is important to you. Building connections in your classroom also helps deter violations.

Holding students accountable can also be difficult for some. Your knowledge of the policy and procedures at your institution will help assist with this. The conversations with the students can be difficult but focusing on the actual allegation and not making it personal to the student is beneficial. For example, you might explain that you are concerned that student A’s answers on a short answer question match almost exactly to Student B’s paper. When you are talking with Student A you would not say that you think he or she is a cheater, but rather there was a bad decision made in this one situation and it does not define the student.

Discussions

What single action will you take to deter academic dishonesty? Why have you chosen this action?

Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.