Module 1.2 Class Discussion: Beat the Cheat- The Ethics of Academic Integrity
Initial Post Part 1:
Chosen Scenario:
“You are in this Capstone class with Jane, who is nervous about the rigor of this course, especially the research and writing components. Jane has a cousin who took this course last year. Jane “borrows” her cousin’s final research project and uses it to shortcut her own research process: she borrows sources, ideas, and some of the wording from her cousin and submits it as her own. Jane mentioned this to you while you were working on the team project. Jane is a nice person who is overwhelmed by work and family issues and struggles to finish her degree. This is her last university course, and she can graduate. So why should you care? How does her decision to cheat make you feel, as a student who has completed their work honestly? How does Jane’s action impact your course experience and the value of your own bachelor’s degree?”
Module 1.2 Class Discussion: Beat the Cheat- The Ethics of Academic Integrity
Reflection:
1. Why I should care.
Abiding by the rules, ethics, and morals of education is one of the main factors defining the lesson learner’s success. Maintaining academic integrity reflects on the student’s performance (Gamage et al. 2020). While recognizing and appreciating the contributions of others, academic integrity gives faculty and staff the flexibility to develop original concepts, information, and creative works.
Unless I follow academic integrity, there is no point in taking a number of courses. The fact that Jane is my friend and she is copying her cousin’s research project is very concerning. This will not only lead to stagnant growth in the spring of new ideas but also breach academic integrity. I should be concerned about plagiarism as this is a group project, and anyone plagiarising his or her part of the work will make the entire project less trustworthy.
2. How I, as a student who has completed my work honestly, feel about her decision to cheat.
As a student, I have taken all the pressure and the responsibility to complete my work as honestly as possible. Throughout the entire span of my research, I have meticulously taken down all the notes and data to organize them in a proper method so as to make the study as enjoyable as possible. So when I see someone plagiarising his or her work to complete his part and get done with it, I feel bad and start questioning my efforts. Though I always have reasons to justify myself and correct my demotivation on the fact that I have maintained high academic integrity, the sight of someone completing the entire task in a few hours is really demotivating and draining my energy.
Though I understand that Jane has a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders- her family and other work struggles, Jane’s copying and plagiarising her work from her cousin is very disturbing as it makes me question my efforts and look like they do not matter at all. Moreover, as a team member and a research fellow working with her on the same project, breaking academic integrity also means breaking academic integrity.
3. How Jane’s action impacted my course experience and the value of my own bachelor’s degree.
Jane’s action had a very negative impact on my course experience and the value of my own bachelor’s degree. It makes me feel as if my efforts are wasted. I had invested my blood, sweat, and tears in my course. On the other hand, Jane stole her cousin’s project last year. Jane did it in just a few moments when I needed hours and days to complete my project. This is very demotivating and draining at the same time. This makes me question the value of my own degree, which I have received through hard work and effort. I started thinking there was no point investing so much effort in any project where I could steal the same from someone from the previous year.
Initial Post Part 2:
“What tactics can (or should) colleges take to decrease plagiarism and cheating?”
Maintaining academic integrity is one of the quintessential elements of maintaining the authenticity of the work. Plagiarising or cheating can result in major consequences in the future (Gamage et al. 2020). Some of the consequences are:
- There will be no new ideas or concepts which is very detrimental to society.
- The student can get expelled from the university.
- There will be no creativity or uniqueness in the coursework.
Though it is entirely on the ethics and the morals of the student to maintain academic integrity, there are still a number lots of cases where students break the rules and take heed to unfair means (Muhammad et al. 2020). Though there are no strict methods to avoid or curb this unfair means, there are still a few processes and methods that can be used to stop plagiarism. Colleges can use a few strategies to decrease plagiarism and cheating. Some of them are as follows:
- All online students should take a test on the curriculum’s standards for academic honesty during the course’s start. This test is referred to as the course preparation quiz. Questions about assignment deadlines and other course material may be decreased along with educating students on these guidelines.
- Exams and online quizzes that need a click to access them should have disclaimers at the top. Declaratory remarks are permissible and may take the form of “I affirm that all work on this evaluation is totally my own and does not violate Penn State’s Academic Integrity policy.”
- If you want to stop students from sharing answers, use quiz banks and assign the questions and answers at random.
- Give pupils enough time to complete an online test, so they are not compelled to look up the answers.
- Use the reports provided by websites like Canvas to go into questionable test results.
References
Gamage, K. A., Silva, E. K. D., & Gunawardhana, N. (2020). Online delivery and assessment during COVID-19: Safeguarding academic integrity. Education Sciences, 10(11), 301.
Muhammad, A., Shaikh, A., Naveed, Q. N., & Qureshi, M. R. N. (2020). Factors affecting academic integrity in E-learning of Saudi Arabian Universities. An investigation using Delphi and AHP. Ieee Access, 8, 16259-16268.
