Fostering Academic Integrity in Online Courses

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Fostering Academic Integrityin Online Courses
Advice for Faculty

• Larry MacPhee, CTEL
• Joyce Kincannon, CTEL
• Wally Nolan, CTEL

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3 General Questions

• Is cheating inevitable?
• Why do students cheat?
• Why is it my problem?

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Why do they do it?

• Easy to get away with
• Insufficient time
• A friend needed help
• Passing grade is vital
• Everyone else is doing it
• Nobody cares if I cheat
• Course is too hard
• Teacher is unfair
• Course is useless.

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Is this my problem?

• Credibility is at stake
• of the Instructor
• of the Course
• of the Program
• of the Institution
• Student morale is at stake.

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5 Course Design Elements

• Syllabus Design
• Content Delivery
• Student-Instructor Relationship
• Assessment Design
• Monitoring Tools

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1. Syllabus Design

• Clearly define course objectives
• Define inappropriate behavior
• Specify consequences
• Link to institutional policies
• Warn students of monitoring tools
• Discuss relevance of course
• Establish deadlines
• Clearly define course policies.

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2. Content Delivery

• Change assignments each semester
• Know your audience
• Required vs. supplemental info
• Tell students what is important
• Design assignments for the web.

• Link to resource pages
• Keep audio video clips short
• Avoid PowerPoint
• Use student prompts
• Lean and rich, not flashy and fluffy
• Offline learning is ok.

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3. Good Communication

• Offer frequent reminders
• Respond promptly to questions
• Build a respectful relationship
• Encourage student collaboration
• Monitor student communication
• Moderate discussions.

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4. Assessment Design

• Randomize questions and answers
• Use large question banks, multiple versions
• Set short time windows for objective tests
• Proctor objective tests in labs
• Thwart paper mills like SchoolSucks.com
• Spread points across many assignments
• Consider use of honor statements
• Assume student access to all resources
• Investigate suspicious activity.

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5. Monitoring Tools

• Enroll a mole in your class discussions
• Look for same wrong answer patterns
• Check test start and end times
• Check test takers IP addresses
• Interview suspects sequentially
• Track student scores during the course
• Look at grade distributions over semesters
• Use comparison tools like TurnItIn.com

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New Technologies

• Google, Encarta, WiFi, IM, cell phones, OCR

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Additional Resources

• Software Secure
• Duke Universitys Center for Academic Integrity
• Designing Online Courses to Discourage Dishonesty
  by Barbara Christe
• 30 seconds to a Darwin Biography (courtesy
  Encarta.com)