12/04/2015 1 "Heroes & Villains": employing an ‘Academic Integrity’ framework to promote ‘academicness’ and reduce plagiarism and other academic malpractices Robert Walsha Chris O’ Reilly Amrit Kaur Thandi Lazarus Academic Integrity (a quick definition): “A growing body of research and literature in the last 10-15 years, in Australia and UK that explores themes and concepts of academic integrity as a means to investigate the promotion of good academic practices and specifically address the issue of plagiarism.” HEA Academic Integrity Service http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-integrity (HEA to the fore in last 7 or so years in promoting AI models for UK HE)
Transcript
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"Heroes & Villains":
employing an
‘Academic Integrity’
framework to
promote
‘academicness’ and
reduce plagiarism
and other academic
malpractices
Robert Walsha Chris O’ Reilly Amrit Kaur Thandi Lazarus
Academic Integrity (a quick definition):
“A growing body of research and literature in the last 10-15 years, in Australia and UK that explores themes and concepts of academic integrity as a means to investigate the promotion of good academic practices and specifically address the issue of plagiarism.”
HEA Academic Integrity Service
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-integrity
(HEA to the fore in last 7 or so years in promoting AI models for UK HE)
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Academic Integrity:
The ‘International Center for Academic Integrity’, initially just the ‘Center for ...’ was formed by academics from numerous US institutions some 22 years ago; in 1997 published its ‘Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity’, which was most recently updated in 2013.
Much of the above-mentioned body of research and literature connects with the work of the ICAI and its 5 ‘Fundamental Values’, which, as the ICAI puts it, are ‘truly foundational’ ... ‘touchstones for scholarly communities of integrity’ [http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-integrity] and to which it is the duty of all in academe to proclaim and defend.
“What is Academic Integrity? Why Is It Important? Why Identify Fundamental Values?
Many teachers, students, and administrators embrace the principles of academic integrity because they know that the goals of teaching, learning, and research can only be accomplished in environments in which ethical standards are upheld. It is still rare, however, for scholarly institutions to identify and describe their commitment to the principles of integrity in positive conceptual and practical terms. Instead, it is more common to find the subject of academic integrity addressed by identifying and prohibiting behaviors that run counter to the principles of integrity. The Fundamental Values Project is an attempt to frame academic integrity in ways that are both positive and pragmatic.” [Emphasis Added]
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Continued
The ICAI defines AI “as a commitment to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility”, asserting:
“these five values, plus the courage to act on them even in the face of adversity, are truly foundational to the academy. Without them, everything that we do in our capacities as teachers, learners, and researchers loses value and becomes suspect. When the fundamental values are embraced, utilized, and put into practice they become touchstones for scholarly communities of integrity. Rather than thinking of them merely as abstract principles, we advocate using the fundamental values to inform and improve ethical decision-making capacities and behavior. The fundamental values enable academic communities to translate their ideals into action.”
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Continued ...
“Scholarly communities flourish when community members “live” the fundamental values. To do this, community members must invoke them—making them part of frequent dialogues that invite students, faculty, and administrators to consider the potential for ethical values to inform and improve various aspects of life on campus and beyond. Integrity is strengthened within academic communities when community standards are an aligned with the fundamental values and supported by its institutional policies and procedures. When a society’s educational institutions are infused with integrity, they help create a stronger civic culture for society as a whole.”
B. identifying there are often issues of confusing terminology, differences of understanding of what constitutes plagiarism between staff and students; also: differences re: appropriate levels of penalties; also: differences in interpretations among staff;
C. Criticism of the dominance of legal, negative focus on academic misconduct, with insufficient active addressing of academic good conducts institutionally;
D. addresses the diversities and accounts for prior student experiences (including incompleteness of understandings, coming from culturally diverse academic settings, etc.);
E. identifies the need for creating spaces to foster ‘developmental engagement’.
F. Recommending holistic, developmental, clear and consistent approaches to academic malpractice;
G. Thus: identifying the value of Academic Integrity as framework for enhancing student understandings of good/unacceptable practices.
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Common emerging themes:
An academic integrity framework, if meaningfully constructed, and not superficial, can greatly enhance student understandings of academic good practices and thus how to avoid the bad practices.
• Acceptance that academic bad practices, including plagiarism, are not purely a student responsibility, but as much a staff responsibility (and that an academic integrity/student developmental perspective should inform institutional policy).
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Student-facing website:
Initial site – ready for October 2014.
More substantial development during 2014-15, including capturing student input. Contributions from various professional service areas and – crucially, faculties/subject areas.
Aim for site to be fully fleshed-out for start of 2015-16
Grass roots initiative / pedagogical and developmental ... BUT : CAN ONLY WORK EFFECTIVELY AS ONE ASPECT OF A WIDER AI FRAMEWORK
Example of visual and diagrammatic approaches key to the site, in this case commencing an exploration into complex grey areas between cheating, academic poor practices and (in the case of Collaboration) good practices
(Modified from Johnston (2003) & London Met University Assessment Framework (2009))
Visuals for section in progress exploring legitimate forms of collaboration versus collusion. This is intended to highlight the grey areas which may lead to allegations of collusion, regardless of actual intent to deceive. It’s an example of interactivities that are important to the site.
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Visuals for section in progress exploring legitimate forms of collaboration versus collusion. This is intended to highlight the grey areas which may lead to allegations of collusion, regardless of actual intent to deceive. It’s an example of interactivities that are important to the site.
Visuals for section in progress exploring legitimate forms of collaboration versus collusion. This is intended to highlight the grey areas which may lead to allegations of collusion, regardless of actual intent to deceive. It’s an example of interactivities that are important to the site.
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... which leads to a discussion on The Reader Versus The Writer (drawing upon Sutherland-Smith (2008) to emphasise the power of the Teacher Reader (and, if comes to it, Misconduct panel Reader) over the Learner Writer ... if the writing exhibits aspects of poor academic practice (PAP!).
... E.g., in matters of interpretation of whether there was deliberate cheating (collusion or plagiarism), or malpractices were unintended ...
Visual for section in progress exploring effective academic practice; this particular example explores in detail core benefits of Cornell note-making for independent research, from a Writing to Learn perspective. Note the interactions of the Heroes!
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Visual for section in progress exploring effective academic practice; this particular example explores in detail core benefits of Cornell note-making for independent research, from a Writing to Learn perspective. Note the interactions of the Heroes!
Sample visual from section exploring benefits of visual-mapping, again here as an example of interactive and visual aspects of the site.
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Sample visual from section exploring benefits of visual-mapping, again here as an example of interactive and visual aspects of the site.
Heading the Building YOUR Argument section, this opening ‘splash page’ emphasises the concept-driven framework in which key aspects of ‘being academic’ are addressed, centred around B.Y.A.; the addressing of the above themes is holistic, eschewing atomistic approaches to student learning development.
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Example of use of Heroes to highlight, reinforce (or provide examples of) key points ...
... or just provide some light relief, in this case moving from one key section to another in the Building YOUR Argument section.
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We’re careful to avoid using Villain characters to offer any advice, but they have a part to play in embodying bad practices, or, here: looking to exploit underdeveloped forms of student engagement ...
‘The Amazing Student’ strips head-up every section of the site (inspired by old Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strips from the ’70s and ’80s).
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GOICPo (the Garden of Infinite Collaborative Possibilities). Work-in-progress intro image for section on Collaboration & Collusion. Hovering on the image will reveal the Kollusion character ascending from the sinkhole at the bottom right (the Dark Pit Of Collusive Despair??).
GOICPo (the Garden of Infinite Collaborative Possibilities). Work-in-progress intro image for section on Collaboration & Collusion. Hovering on the image will reveal the Kollusion character ascending from the sinkhole at the bottom right (the Dark Pit Of Collusive Despair??).
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Holistic Academic Integrity
1 Institutional Policies & Processes, regulations, etc.
2 Student learning development / staff educational dev.
1. Framing of values of institution [several UK institutions explicitly connect with the five fundamental values of the ICAI], and what constitutes good academic conduct, as starting point for University ‘academic conduct’ / ‘academic honesty and integrity policy’ (e.g., not ‘Academic Misconduct’) rules and regulations, e.g., prior to addressing misconduct & malpractices.
1. Recognising good conducts need to learned, with lesser penalties / avoiding formal academic misconduct charges early on in the course (handled by faculty and/or referrals to academic good conduct training sessions/learning development support).
1. Pro-actively (pre-entry / early first semester) may require students formally to engage with academic integrity/honesty resources, regulations, etc..
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1. Clear communication between faculty/schools/ courses and the centre, with records kept of all cases and outcomes of any malpractice /poor practice falling below formal academic misconduct level.
1. Ensuring consistencies of application, plus record-keeping, with designated faculty Academic Integrity officers / senior staff as channel/means to ensure consistent application of routes / decisions / referrals / penalties.
1. Annual / ongoing review of academic conduct policy (e.g., Academic Integrity Committee), with high-level chairing, plus stakeholder representation: faculty, learning developers, staff educational development, SU, students, policymakers, library, etc.. (e.g. HEA Policy Works, 2011)
2. Development of quality student-facing resources exploring good academic practices and the complexities/grey areas of poor academic practices / misconduct.
2. Building in a concerted AI presence in all relevant formal staff educational development modules (PG Cert, MA in L&T, etc.), rather than glossing over AI, plus active promotion of AI frameworks in other engagement activities and collaborations with faculty staff.
2. Active engagement with faculty staff to help them facilitate the developmental engagement of their students.
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3. Strong (required?) emphasis on developmental engagement of students inbuilt into the curriculum; lots of in-class, subject-relevant activities and tasks compelling students to address head-on issues of poor academic practices and academic good practices.
3. Clear, consistent and fair faculty processes for dealing with cases of academic poor practice and misconduct, with full communication with the centre.
Above all, successful AI is achieved through the interlinking of these three areas.
London Met plans for: parallel staff-facing website, with suggestions for enhancing student understandings of academic good practices, customisable resources/exercises, etc..
But still primarily (at present) operating in category 2, above.
Important to continue to liaise with institutional policy-makers. But is it enough?
FURTHER READING: AI principles, values, in practice
Exemplary Academic Integrity Project (2012-13) ‘Embedding and extending exemplary academic integrity policy and support frameworks across the higher education sector’ (2013), Plain English definition of Academic Integrity (Australia: Office for Learning and Teaching Strategic Commissioned Project 2012-13) <http//:www/unisa/edu.au/EAIP>
Fishman, Teresa (ed.) (2014 [2nd edn.]) ‘The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity’ The International Center for Academic Integrity (South Carolina: Clemson University) < http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/assets/Revised_FV_2014.pdf>
Robertson, Clive (ed.) (2007), ‘Academic Integrity’, Link 18 (Link Newsletter 18), (The Higher Education Academy: Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Network)
Student-focused
Bretag, T., et al (2013) ‘ “Teach us how to do it properly!” An Australian academic integrity student survey’, Studies in Higher Education
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Glendinning, I (2013) Plagiarism Policies in the United Kingdom: Full Report (Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education Across Europe (IPPHEAE)) <http://ippheae.eu>
Plagiarism & Academic Integrity, complexities of plagiarism
Blum, Susan D. (2009) My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture (London: Cornell University Press)
Carroll, Jude (2007 [2nd edn.]) A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education (Oxford: Centre for Staff and Learning Development)
Glendinning, I (2013) Plagiarism Policies in the United Kingdom: Full Report [as above]
Introna, Lucas & Niall Hayes, ‘Plagiarism, Detection and Intentionality: On the (un)construction of plagiarists’, PlagiarismAdvice.org <http://archive.plagiarismadvice.org/documents/papers/2004Papers11.pdf>
Johnston, Bill (2003) ‘The Concept of plagiarism’ The Higher Education Academy [website]
London Metropolitan University (revised Dec 2012) ‘Plagiarism: Key Issues and Strategies’ (section C : 9) University Academic Framework
Macdonald, Ranald & Jude Carroll (2006) ‘Plagiarism – a complex issue requiring a holistic institutional approach’, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (31:2, 233-245)
Sutherland-Smith, Wendy (2008) Plagiarism, The Internet and Student Learning: Improving Academic Integrity (London: Routledge)
On institutional policy development:
Morris, Erica, et al (2010) Supporting academic integrity: Approaches and Resources for higher education (The Higher Education Academy: JISC Academic Integrity Service)
Morris, Erica & Carroll, Jude (2011): Policy works: recommendations for reviewing policy to manage unacceptable academic practice in higher education (The Higher Education Academy: JISC Academic Integrity Service)
Bretag, T., et al (2013): ‘ “Teach us how to do it properly!” [see above]
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On graduate employability and professional integrity:
Morris, Erica (2011) ‘Graduate Impact, student employability and academic integrity: exploring the links’, in R Atfiel & P. Kemp (eds), Enhancing Graduate Impact in Business, Management, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism. Newbury: Threshold Press
