Academic Integrity

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Academic Integrity

• A Teachers Guide to Addressing the Issue of
  Plagiarism and Cheating
• Norwich Free Academy

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Academic Integrity Case StudyNorwich Free
Academy

• At NFA, many precautions are taken to address the
  issue of Academic Integrity.
• NFA Academic Honor Code
• NFA Research Guide
• NFA Pilot- student handbook
• Defines Academic Integrity
• Gives examples of academic dishonesty
• Outlines consequences to academic integrity
  offenses.

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Norwich Free Academys Academic Honor Code

• I declare that I am the sole and original author
  of this work. This assignment was completed in
  compliance with the requirements of the ACADEMIC
  INTEGRITY POLICY of Norwich Free Academy as
  published in the Pilot.
• Posted in every classroom

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NFA Pilot

• Students shall avoid any form of academic
  dishonesty on any assessment. Academic
  assessments include, but are not limited to,
  homework and class work (worksheets, written
  work, assigned questions to answer, problems to
  solve, graphs, map, charts, etc.), quizzes,
  tests, projects, oral presentations/reports,
  essays, papers, lab reports, and research
  papers.
• (NFA Pilot, 2007, p.37)

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Forms of Academic Dishonesty, outlined in the NFA
Pilot

• To plagiarize using the intellectual, artistic
  or musical ideas, materials, data, or language of
  another without specific or proper
  acknowledgement
• To Cheat using or giving or attempting to use
  or to give unauthorized assistance, materials or
  study aids in examinations or other academic
  work or preventing or attempting to preventing
  another student or students from using authorized
  assistance, materials, or study aids.
• (NFA Pilot, 2007, p.37)

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• To use or attempting to use or to give
  unauthorized materials or technologies
• To take, buy or receive a paper written by
  someone else and present it as your own (Corder
  Ruszkiewicz 633)
• To participate in collusion working with someone
  else without permission of the instructor.
• (NFA Pilot, 2007, p.38)

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• To turn in the same work two or more times for
  credit without the permission of the teachers
  involved.
• To Fabricate submitting contrived or altered
  information in any academic exercise.
• (NFA Pilot, 2007, p.38)

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NFA Consequences to Academic Integrity offenses

• 1st offense A 0 on the assignment in question,
  teacher notification of parent and guidance,
  discipline referral and a Saturday Detention.
• 2nd offense An F for the marking period,
  teacher notification of parent/guidance,
  discipline referral and Saturday School
• 3rd offense An F for the semester, teacher
  notification of parents/guidance and discipline
  referral.(NFA Pilot, 2007, p.38)

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NFA Research Guide

• The NFA Research Guide is a compilation of
  strategies and procedures for formatting written
  work including
• Proper citations- both bibliographic and
  in-parenthetical

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Problems

• Even with all the precautionary steps NFA faculty
  and staff have made, Academic Integrity is a
  growing issue, especially in the higher level
  classes.
• Contributors
• Abundant access to information online including
  sites created for plagiarism
• Word processors
• Cell phones
• Larger class sizes
• Overall competitiveness of todays education
  systems and work force.

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Faculty Address

• In a recent Professional Development day, faculty
  and staff discussed the issue.
• An anonymous survey was taken of NFA students
  (results to follow)
• In small groups, faculty discussed possible
  solutions to the Academic Integrity issues.

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A Recent Survey at NFA

• 59 of students believe In the real world,
  successful people do what they have to do to win,
  even if others consider it cheating.
• 44 of students agree A person has to lie or
  cheat in order to succeed.
• 62 of students have lied to a teacher abut
  something significant at least once in the past
  year
• (Academic and Personal, n.d.)

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• 26 of students have copied an Internet document
  at least once in the past year.
• 59 of students have cheated during a test at
  least once in the past year.
• 82 have copied anothers homework at least once
  in the past year.
• (Academic and Personal, n.d.)

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Cell Phone Use

• Texting has become a serious issue in classrooms,
  students could be sending each other answers to
  tests
• -the consequences of cell phone use should be
  more strict
• -students should hand in the cell phone when
  they get into class and pick up at the end of
  class
• -install large mirrors in the back of the room
  (the group was half kidding)

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Internet Use and Word Processors

• Students are simply copy and pasting the
  information from websites like wikipedia.com and
  infoplease.com.
• Strategy to combat this issue
• Search the exact wording of the work by putting
  it in quotation marks using google.com, the sites
  that have the same wording will pop up.
• Use www.plagiarism.com to catch offenders
  (Schwartau Ch 21)

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Common Misconceptions

• Many students believe that you only have to cite
  information if you use direct quotes.
• Many students believe that copying homework is
  not an infraction of academic integrity
• Many students believe that group work allows for
  plagiarism (Cooper, 2004, p. 2)

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Other related issues

• Many times, students do not know the boundaries
  for plagiarism.
• For many students, they lose track of their
  sources while researching and then do not
  backtrack to get proper citations.
• I explain it to my students
• If it was not your original thought, tell me
  where you got it from.

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Teacher Tips Research Strategies

• 1. Keep track of information resources as your
  search progresses.
• 2. Note taking- organize quotes and paraphrased
  information separately.
• 3. Organize- put all the relevant notes in an
  outline to plan for writing.
• 4. Writing the Paper- begin in a new document and
  follow the outline, using the supportive
  information found from the research.
• (Willard, 2007, p. 262-263)

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Work Cited

• Cooper, Tuesday L. (2004) Collaboration or
  Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based
  Assignments Clearly. Eastern Connecticut State
  University author.
• Corder, J.W. Ruskiewicz, J.J. (1985) Handbook
  of Current English. Glenview, IL Scott Foresman.
• Schwartau, Winn. (2001). Internet Computer
  Ethics for Kids. Winn Schwartau Interpact, Inc.
  
• The Norwich Free Academy PILOT. 2007-2008.
• Willard, Nancy E. (2007). Cyber-Safe Kids,
  Cyber-Savvy Teens. Wiley (Jossey-Bass division).
• Norwich Free Academy (2008). Academic and
  Personal Integrity. Norwich, CT. Retrieved on
  February 28, 2008.