Promoting Academic Integrity at Southwest Texas State University

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Promoting Academic Integrity at Southwest Texas
State University

• William L. Kibler, Ph.D.
• Associate Vice President for Student Affairs
• Texas AM University
• April 18 -19, 2002

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• Campus dialogue, national conversation, and
  institutional action are the keys to the process
  of strengthening academic integrity. Our camps
  cultures and our civic culture will be the better
  for these efforts.
• -Dr. Patrick F. Drinan
• Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
• University of San Diego

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THE CHALLENGEHow Extensive is the Problem?
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• A 1999 study conducted by Dr. Don McCabe
  (Rutgers University) found that 75 of students
  admitted to some cheating.

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McCabe has surveyed over 14,000 students on 60
campuses over the past 10 years. His findings

• On most campuses, over 75 of students admit to
  some cheating.
• Academic honor codes effectively reduce cheating.
• Chronic cheating is also prevalent.
• Cheating is higher among fraternity and sorority
  members.
• Longitudinal comparisons show significant
  increases in explicit test/examination cheating
  and unpermitted collaboration.

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CHEATING
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• Being sure children can read is certainly
  essential, but it is no less important that we
  deal with the alarming rate of cheating, lying
  and violence that threatens the very fabric of
  our society.
• -Michael Josepheson of the Josephson Institute
  of Ethics and the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition

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WHY STUDENTS CHEAT

• Individual characteristics and/or beliefs and
  values.
• Work ethic.
• Poor classroom instruction.
• Help or encouragement to cheat from friends.
• Type A behavior and competitive striving

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Why Students Cheat

• Moral judgment and will.
• Alienation and neutralization.
• Commitment to academics.
• Top students under pressure to succeed at any
  cost.
• Desire for better grades.

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WHY STUDENTS SAY THEY CHEAT

• fear of losing their competitive advantage
• Almost everyone does it
• Cheating in high school is for grades.
• Cheating in college is for a career.
• They dont get caught, so they keep doing it.

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From the Horses Mouth

• Ten minutes of cheating is better than two hours
  of studying.
• I feel good that Im going to get a good grade.
• I know Im capable of doing the work. I just
  didnt have the time.
• No one cares anyway so it must be OK to cheat
  maybe even stupid not to.

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Who Cheats?

• Many cheaters are top students who value grades
  more than learning and honesty.
• Cheating is higher among fraternity and sorority
  members.
• Little or no difference exists between the
  numbers of dishonest males and females.
• Business Engineering majors.

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Why Students Choose NOT to Cheat

• Influence of situational and/or institutional
  factors on cheating
• Honor codes
• Faculty responses to cheating
• Sanction threats
• Social learning

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How Do Students Cheat?

• Traditional ways
• Copying someone elses homework.
• Cheat on a quiz or a test.
• More sophisticated ways
• Download ready-made term papers from online
  sources.

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Effects of Cheating

• Cheaters dishonor their families, teachers, and
  schools.
• Destroys credibility and weakens character.
• Undermines integrity and fairness at all levels.
• Prevents learning and masks true accomplishments
  and weaknesses.

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Effects of Cheating

• Cheaters not only cheat themselves. They cheat
  honest students who are put at a competitive
  disadvantage as well as college admission
  officers and employees who think that a students
  grades accurately reflect competence

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Highlights and Recommendations of Research

• SWT
• Presidential Task Force on
• Academic Honesty

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Highlights and Recommendations of Research

• Almost all student who cheat THINK it should not
  be tolerated.
• Students believe punishments are too soft.
• Peer influence is a primary factor in why and how
  students cheat.
• Cheating decreases when students are involved in
  policy and implementation.

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Highlights and Recommendations of Research -
continued

• Cheating decreases dramatically when codes are in
  place.
• Strict traditional honor codes are cumbersome for
  larger, state institutions.
• Modified honor codes work best for larger, state
  institutions.
• Cheating on major written work assignments has
  remained constant.

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Highlights and Recommendations of Research -
continued

• Student often hold different views from faculty
  on what constitutes serious cheating.
• Cheating rates are the same by gender we do not
  know by race and ethnicity.
• Unpermitted collaboration is the fastest growing
  method of cheating.
• Off campus and commuter trends correlate with an
  increase in cheating.

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Highlights and Recommendations of Research -
continued

• Impersonal feel of bigger campuses contributes to
  cynicism about cheating.
• Students are finding more and more ways to
  justify cheating.

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Is Cheating on the Rise?

• YES But there is
• Good News
• Effective strategies are being increasingly
  implemented to reduce high rates of cheating
  even on large campuses.
• Strategies emphasize student leadership and
  involvement and intensive programming about
  academic integrity.

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The Future Is Bright!

• Research and real campus-based experiences
  suggest that faculty, administrators and peers
  CAN influence student behavior and enhance the
  ethical development of students.

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What Can We Do About Cheating?

• Tradition of moral philosophy (Aristotle)
• Moral character is formed by habitual action.
• The longer students spend in an environment that
  supports or condones cheating, the more prone
  they will be to develop long-term habits of
  cheating .
• Environment Habit Character

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How to Change Cheating Cultures

• Cole Kiss offer two alternatives
• 1. Prevention/Detection Approach
• 2. Values Approach

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How to Change Cheating Cultures

• Prevention Detection Strategies
• Vigilant proctoring
• Creative seating arrangements
• Multiple test versions
• Check photo IDs
• Leave books and bags outside the room
• Plagiarism detection websites
• All premised on MISTRUST!

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How to Change Cheating Cultures

• Values Approach
• Why do Students Cheat?
• Most likely to cheat when they think the
  assignments are pointless.
• Least likely to cheat when they admire and
  respect their teacher and are excited about what
  they are learning.

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How to Change Cheating Cultures

• Two approaches different focus
• Narrowly focused on acts of cheating and how to
  foil them, or
• Broadly focused on good teaching and learning
  the values of a vibrant educational community
  students ethical and intellectual development

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How to Develop a Strong Program for Academic
Integrity

• At the Institutional Level

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How to Develop a Strong Program for Academic
Integrity

• Have clear academic integrity statements,
  academic integrity policies, and procedures that
  are consistently implemented.
• Inform and educate the entire community regarding
  academic integrity policies and procedures.
• Provide senior-level administrative support for
  all academic integrity measures, as well as
  recognition for those who uphold them.

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How to Develop a Strong Program for Academic
Integrity (continued)

• Have a clear, accessible, and equitable system to
  adjudicate suspected policy violations.
• Develop a program to promote academic integrity
  among all segments of the campus community.
• Be alert to trends in higher education and
  technology affecting academic integrity on
  campus.
• Regularly assess the effectiveness of policies
  and procedures and take step to improve and
  rejuvenate them.

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Recommendations from SWT Presidential Task Force
on Academic Honesty

• Involve students fully in developing and
  enforcing policies.
• Build awareness, especially during orientation
  periods.
• Deliver faculty training on deterrent-based
  teaching methods.
• Develop educational approaches (and tough)
  consequences), not punitive approaches.

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Recommendations from SWT Presidential Task Force
on Academic Honesty

• Encourage student leaders to educate their peers.
• Develop fair, prompt, and effective due process
  policies.
• Develop methods for regular reporting of data to
  faculty and administrators.
• Conduct thorough and regular evaluation and
  benchmarking.

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Ten Principles of Academic IntegrityMcCabe
Pavela (1997)

• Faculty at the Classroom Level

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Ten Principles of Academic Integrity

• Affirm the importance of academic integrity.
• Foster a love of learning.
• Treats students as ends in themselves..
• Promote an environment of trust in the classroom.
• Encourage student responsibility for academic
  integrity.

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Ten Principles of Academic Integritycontinued

• Clarify expectations for students.
• Develop fair and relevant forms of assessment.
• Reduce opportunities to engage in academic
  dishonesty.
• Challenge academic dishonesty when it occurs.
• Help define and support campus-wide academic
  integrity standards..

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A students comment

• The single most effective method of cheating
  prevention is the clear presentation by the
  professor in each and every course of the
  integrity standards expected for the work to be
  done. These standards should be clear and
  simple. The attitude and beliefs of the
  professor will be clearly reflected and determine
  a large part of the motivation for each students
  behavior.

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• HONOR CODES

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Traditional Honor CodesAdapted from Melendez
(1985)

• Honor statement / code
• Written pledge
• Unproctored examinations
• Non-toleration provision / obligation to report
• Student Governance

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Are Honor Codes Effective?

• Honor code schools have lower rates of cheating.
• McCabes 1995 study
• Students admitting to serious cheating
• Honor Code schools 54
• Non-code schools 71
• Students admitting to repeated test cheating
• Honor code schools 7
• Non-code schools 17
• The climate/culture of academic integrity found
  on a campus may be the most important determinant
  of the level of cheating on that campus.

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Modified Honor Codes

• Most significant aspect that honor code schools
  and modified honor code schools have in common is
  the extent to which the promotion of academic
  integrity is a part of the campus culture/ethos.
• Examples
• University of Maryland College Park
• Kansas State University
• University of California Davis
• University of Tennessee
• University of Georgia
• University of Colorado - Boulder

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What Is A Modified Honor Code?

• McCabes 1999 surveys at 21 college and
  universities (2,243 undergraduate responses) also
  found that a modified honor code policy can
  reduce student cheating.
• Schools in this category have a pledge of
  integrity and student involvement in enforcing
  the rules, but allow proctored examinations and
  do not require that students report observed
  cheating by their peers.

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Do Modified Codes Work?Pavela/McCabe 2000
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Modified Honor Codes

• Honor Code schools are unique actively
  communicate to students the importance of
  academic integrity as a core institutional value.
• Institution must target all members of the
  academic community students, faculty and
  administrators.
• Unique challenge for large campuses many
  students are part-time or commuters. Anonymity
  disassociation is more common.

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Modified Honor Codes

• Significant student involvement
• Honor pledges
• Penalties need to be strict
• Assumption students are capable of ethical
  development
• Proctor exams
• Students are typically encouraged to challenge
  but not required to report offenders.

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Modified Honor Codes

• Implementation
• Get insights from students re. Campus culture.
• Give students/faculty a voice in policy setting.
• Allow students a major role in governance
• Enforce sanctions keyed to seminar approach.
• Help students educate their peers.
• Develop fair, prompt and efficient procedures.
• Give student leaders support and guidance.
• Keep faculty and administration informed.
• Encourage Presidential leadership.
• Evaluate and benchmark

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• There is no single path to academic integrity
  and the Center respects and values campus
  differences in traditions, values, and student
  and faculty characteristics.

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Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity

• In 1997, with support from the William and
  Flora Hewlett Foundation, the CAI launched a
  project to define the fundamental values of
  academic integrity.

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THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUES OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
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HONESTY

• An academic community of integrity advances the
  quest for truth and knowledge by requiring
  intellectual and personal honesty in learning,
  teaching, research, and service.

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TRUST

• An academic community of integrity fosters a
  climate of mutual trust, encourages the free
  exchange of ideas, and enables all to reach their
  highest potential.

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FAIRNESS

• An academic community of integrity establishes
  clear standards, practices, and procedures and
  expects fairness in the interactions of students,
  faculty, and administrators.

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RESPECT

• An academic community of integrity recognizes
  the participatory nature of the learning process
  and honors and respects a wide range of opinions
  and ideas.

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RESPONSIBILITY

• An academic community of integrity upholds
  personal accountability and depends upon action
  in the face of wrongdoing.

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Developmental Intervention Strategy

• Disciplinary Intervention
• Grade penalty (XF grade)
• Probation requires participation in the other
  three components
• Evaluation/Counseling Intervention
• Evaluation to identify the source of dishonesty
• Counseling to address the source
• Referral to the seminar

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Developmental Intervention Strategy - continued

• Academic Skills Enhancement Seminar
• Academic Dishonesty Component
• Academic Skills Training Component
• Time Management
• Study Skills
• Test Taking Skills
• Writing Skills
• Anxiety Management
• Goal Setting
• Assessment Component

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Developmental Intervention Strategy - continued

• Ethics Seminar
• Case studies and discussion on ethics, values and
  moral development.
• University of Maryland website has excellent
  example
• www.umd.edu/ethics

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• Raising the level of student academic integrity
  should be among our highest priorities on college
  and university campuses.
• Nannerl O. Keohane
• President, Duke University