Academic Integrity Issues Research Articles

IMPLEMENTATION OF REGULATORY AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN PSACEA: ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROSPECTS

In the modern development of society the need to improve the quality of training of highly qualified and competitive personnel with not only broad fundamental knowledge, but also able to independently and creatively solve professional problems, realize the personal and social significance of professional activity, can be responsible for its results. and be honest in their actions becomes more urgent. The demand of the Ukrainian society for a responsible and virtuous specialist, who is trained (educated) in educational institutions of Ukraine, has led to changes in Ukrainian educational legislation. In accordance with Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine ”On Education”, adopted in 2017, for the first time in the legal circulation of the state introduced the concept of “academic integrity”. The relevance of the research topic is that the integration changes in the public life of Ukraine, which are caused by the signing of the Agreement with the EU, have led to significant changes in Ukrainian legislation relating to education. The new Law of Ukraine “On Education”, which contains new requirements for educational standards, in particular, within the framework of Article 42 of this Law. In our opinion, the analysis of the concept of “academic integrity” and regulatory documents on the implementation of this article in the Free Economic Zone seem interesting. The purpose of the article. Analyze the legal documents for the implementation of issues of academic integrity in higher education institutions, in particular in the Dnieper Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Conclusions. The Free Economic Zone, in particular the Dnieper State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, has successfully adopted legal documents on academic integrity in accordance with Ukrainian legislation and is moving forward to implement the basic principles of academic integrity by developing implementation mechanisms.

Physiology educators’ attitudes, experiences and recommendations after an abrupt transition to remote laboratories

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with university lockdowns, forcing physiology educators to pivot laboratories into a remote delivery format. This study documents the experiences of ten physiology educators from Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. as they rapidly transitioned to remote laboratories in March-July, 2020. They wrote reflective narratives that explored their experiences and attitudes about virtual laboratories before, during and after the transition to remote delivery. Thematic analysis of the reflections found that before COVID-19, few of the educators had utilized virtual laboratories, with most believing that virtual laboratories could not replace the in-person laboratory experience. In response to university lockdowns, the educators transitioned from traditional on-campus, in-person laboratories to off-campus, remote laboratories within a week or less. This transition was mainly achieved by using commercially available online laboratory software, home-made videos and sample experimental data (collected before COVID-19). Opportunities associated with the remote transition included new collaborations (local and international), the exploration of unfamiliar technologies and revisiting the laboratory course curriculum and structure. However, the experience also generated challenges including excessive workloads, lack of expertise, disparities in online and workspace access, academic integrity issues, educator/student stress, changes in learning outcomes and a perceived reduction in student engagement (particularly due to the loss of educator-student and student-student interactions). Despite these challenges, most of the educators planned on retaining successful aspects of the remote laboratories post-pandemic, particularly with a blended model of remote and in-person (on-campus) laboratories. This study concludes with recommendations and practical strategies for physiology educators as to how they can plan, develop, deliver and assess effective remote laboratories.

Glitches and hitches: sessional academic staff viewpoints on academic integrity and academic misconduct

ABSTRACT Increasing incidents of academic dishonesty are a problem for universities globally. The traditional approach to dealing with academic dishonesty has been to detect and punish, which may not be the best solution. This study explored the perceptions of sessional teaching staff (a growing but often neglected workforce) on academic integrity and misconduct issues at an Australian university. Findings from the focus groups revealed a deep-seated concern for the size and extent of the problem. While some participants were of the view that students should be punished, others provided interesting suggestions to reduce instances of academic misconduct. This study found that prevention is preferable to punishment as a guiding principle for policy development to address academic misconduct in universities. Students should be educated on the importance of mastering established academic protocols as a way of learning the discipline. Universities need to provide sessional academic staff with contextualised professional development activities.

АКАДЕМІЧНА ДОБРОЧЕСНІСТЬ – ЗАПОРУКА ПІДГОТОВКИ ВИСОКОКВАЛІФІКОВАНИХ ФАХІВЦІВ

The article considers the issue of academic integrity at the university. The origins of dishonesty starting from the school desk and ending with higher education institutions are analyzed. It is established that excessive workload of students pushes them to use the Internet, not only as a source of knowledge, but also as a source of finished work, which is published as their own work. It is stated that the basic principles of academic integrity are honesty, trust, justice, respect, responsibility, courage, which must be followed by all participants in the educational process. The main violations of academic integrity are: in the field of educational activities – extortion or provocation of money, gifts, personal services in various forms of student assessment, lack of fair evaluation of plagiarized educational and qualification work, performance for payment of such work to order, forced purchase of educational and methodical literature, underestimation of grades and coercion to additional educational services and consultations, updating of equipment at the expense of students or purchase by students of various consumables, stationery; in the field of scientific research – preparation and publication of scientific, educational and methodical texts with the help of plagiarism; falsification of experimental data underlying scientific publications; inclusion in the list of authors of persons who did not make a proper contribution to the results; approval of research or dissertations on topics that have no scientific, practical, social and other significance; providing positive reviews and feedback on works that, according to their scientific results, do not deserve it; obtaining unjustified preferences in the provision of scientific and educational grants; misuse of his official position. The rights and responsibilities of each participant in the educational process in the field of compliance with the requirements of academic integrity are given. Virtue in the modern civilized world is the cornerstone that forms the foundation of the inner harmony of man, the stability of his character and the consistency of the moral image. Higher education through teaching and research actually binds this foundation with elements of academic integrity. Academic integrity must be formed from the beginning of university studies and adhere to its principles throughout the period of study. For this purpose, the documents adopted by the KhNTUSG – the Code of Honor and the Regulations on Academic Integrity of Participants in the Educational Process, and the Ethics and Professional Commission and the Commission on Academic Integrity are created. This will not only train a highly qualified specialist, but also form a highly conscious member of society. Keywords: academic integrity, university, University honor code, professional activity, highly qualified specialists.

Developing and evaluating nationwide expert-delivered academic integrity workshops for the higher education sector in Australia

ABSTRACT In 2019, the Australian higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), commissioned a team of academic integrity experts to design and facilitate a series of national workshops, with the aim of increasing academic integrity knowledge and building a culture of integrity across the higher education sector. As a team, we investigated whether these three-hour workshops would make a measurable difference to workshop participants’ awareness of academic integrity issues and their confidence in their own institutions’ practices. Three hundred and forty-two (342) workshop participants (representing 75.7% of attendees) completed pre-workshop and post-workshop surveys regarding their awareness of academic integrity issues and their confidence in their institutions’ academic integrity practices. Results from the post-workshop surveys showed that the participants expressed significantly increased awareness about the Model Statement of Commitment to Academic Integrity, Australian and international academic integrity research, and ways to promote academic integrity. In addition, the participants expressed increased confidence in their institutions’ risk-mitigation strategies and staff members’ ability to detect contract cheating. However, these results were moderated by institution size and institution type (university vs. independent higher education provider). The evaluation data indicates that even a short staff development workshop can make a difference to participants’ understanding and knowledge of academic integrity. We conclude that this type of focused and evidence-based professional development can make an important contribution to the development of a culture of academic integrity across the higher education sector, and can provide participants with avenues for subsequent professional development and institutional policy improvement.

Back to the Classroom: Educating Sessional Teaching Staff about Academic Integrity

The increased incidences of academic misconduct in universities are compromising the reputation of higher education in Australia and increasing the work of academics responsible for the delivery of quality learning outcomes to students. Confronted with increasing instances of academic dishonesty in university classrooms, universities play a pivotal role in ensuring their academic staff are well-equipped with academic integrity knowledge. It is therefore important to understand academic staff perspectives about the training their workplaces could provide them on academic integrity. Specifically, this qualitative case study explores the opinions and perceptions of sessional or casual university academic staff on what content they would like to know about academic integrity, and how this knowledge could best be delivered to them. The study found that participants (N = 18) were genuinely interested in furthering their understanding of academic integrity issues, particularly in the areas of contract cheating, effective use of plagiarism detection tools, and developing a toolkit of skills that they could use to detect and deter plagiarism. In terms of the delivery of academic integrity training programs, webinars and orientation sessions were suggested as effective delivery mechanisms. Imparting knowledge about the content areas through the identified delivery mechanisms could enhance teaching faculty’s understanding of student academic dishonesty and how to curb this behaviour proactively.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ УМОВ ДЛЯ ДОТРИМАННЯ ПРИНЦИПІВ АКАДЕМІЧНОЇ ДОБРОЧЕСНОСТІ ЗА ПУБЛІЧНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ СИСТЕМОЮ БЕЗПЕРЕРВНОЇ ОСВІТИ

The main theme of this article is to ensure compliance with the principles of academic integrity in the system of continuing education under conditions of public administration. It is assumed that academic integrity will ensure a high quality of knowledge acquired in the system of continuous education. The study aims to investigate the practice of implementation of academic integrity in postgraduate teacher training institutions and the creation of appropriate statistical information on this topic. The study uses the method of theoretical analysis of the bases of academic integrity as well as the method of content analysis of regulatory documents of postgraduate teacher training institutions to ensure academic integrity and the avoidance of plagiarism. This has led to the view that the more open and accessible the documents are, the more people are familiar with them, and thus the amount of fees decreases. To determine the status of implementation of academic integrity codes on the websites of postgraduate teacher training institutions, a content analysis was carried out to identify the availability of relevant documents on those sites; their structure and placement were analyzed. The survey of the websites of postgraduate teacher training institutions revealed that half of the institutions published their website’s documentation on the basics of academic integrity. The analysis of the structure shows a positive dynamism, as all the published documents include disclosure of basic understandings and assertions, nearly a third of the documents include information about the responsibility for violation of academic ethics, information about the responsible person or body, and identification of the procedure for their selection. It is concluded that the issue of academic integrity is very important and it is suggested that the "academic integrity" section should be placed on the main page of the postgraduate teacher training institution’s website to increase the number of people familiarized with the main legal and regulatory documents on this issue.

ЦІЛІ ТА ЦІННОСТІ СУЧАСНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ: ВИКЛИКИ АКАДЕМІЧНОЇ ДОБРОЧЕСНОСТІ В УМОВАХ ОНЛАЙН НАВЧАННЯ

The paper presents the results of a study of the moral problems of online learning in higher education. Analysis of the trend of contemporary universities determined positive and negative influence on the participants of educational and scientific activities and society in general. The purpose of a contemporary university is to preserve, produce, and disseminate knowledge and educate independent, critical and responsible citizens. Academic freedom and academic integrity are defined as the core values of today's higher education. The presented results of the survey of students and teachers from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv on certain issues of academic integrity (2020-2021) revealed an asymmetry between the teachers and the students in the attitude to the violation of academic integrity. It was recorded that the level of awareness of ethics among the students is inadequate. Ways to address the moral issues of the educational process and online learning are associated with technical and institutional decisions on the implementation of academic integrity policies and raising the level of ethical awareness of all participants in the educational process, and expanding the role of the humanities. The author believes that philosophy and ethics can develop critical thinking and form a moral consciousness of students, a sense of personal responsibility for their actions.

How Online Business School Instructors Address Academic Integrity Violations

While online learning has dramatically increased over the past few years, so have opportunities for students to cheat, plagiarize, or commit other academic integrity violations in the online learning environment. Some online instructors effectively address these issues, while others do not. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how online business school instructors address academic integrity violations. To examine in what manner academic integrity issues were being addressed in the online classroom, 12 teachers at a university located in Florida were interviewed to obtain their perspectives and instructional practices regarding academic integrity online. Results indicate all participants believe it is their job to prevent academic integrity violations; however, only two instructors have reported it through school administrators, with many participants deciding to address the issue in their own classroom and not report it outside to school leadership for help addressing the issue. The importance of this study shows that most online instructors are doing what they believe is their best to address integrity violations; however, they may be promoting it by not reporting it outside of the classroom to school administration.

Knowledge and Academic Integrity Breach among Malaysian University Students

The objective of this article is to evaluate the knowledge and sources of knowledge of academic integrity and the types of academic integrity breach among university students in Malaysia. A quantitative approach was used to obtain the data. A set of questionnaires was distributed to students from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). A total of 1000 respondents were selected to answer the questionnaires. The data are presented in descriptive statistics using frequency and percentage. Based on the findings, there are different levels of knowledge of academic integrity. Besides, it also revealed that the respondents knew about academic integrity issues such as plagiarism and cheating. Sources of knowledge on academic integrity are family, friends, technology, and mass media. The findings conclude that students need to empower their academic integrity, strengthen their code of conduct so that they know that breach of academic integrity is wrong and should not be performed. If such actions are performed by them, they should know the negative consequences of that violation. Their behaviors could be more serious when they later finish their study and pursue their own career path.

Students\u2019 awareness of the academic integrity policy at a Latvian university

An academic integrity policy usually specifies the university’s ethical principles and values, the forms of appropriate academic behaviour, the penalties for academic malpractice and the procedures for handling policy violations. However, the policy does not itself create academic integrity, but needs to be consistently and effectively communicated, implemented, and applied. This paper presents a case study investigating the extent to which students at Riga Technical University (Latvia) are informed about the university’s academic integrity policy. This quantitative research was performed by surveying two groups of respondents: domestic students in the first year of their bachelor’s studies and the heads of the corresponding study programmes. The results revealed a low level of students’ awareness of the university policy on academic integrity and a lack of systematic institutional approach to promoting academic integrity. The study results also indicated that students with a higher awareness of the university policy on academic integrity were less tolerant towards violations and perceived academic integrity as an essential aspect for both the academic community and student life. These findings establish a foundation for a more extensive discussion of academic integrity issues in Latvia. They can also serve as impetus for similar studies in other Latvian universities, as well as research taking an international comparative perspective.

Evaluation of academic integrity of online open book assessments implemented in an undergraduate medical radiation science course during COVID-19 pandemic

IntroductionOnline open book assessment has been a common alternative to a traditional invigilated test or examination during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, its unsupervised nature increases ease of cheating, which is an academic integrity concern. This study's purpose was to evaluate the integrity of two online open book assessments with different formats (1. Tightly time restricted - 50 min for mid-semester and 2. Take home - any 4 h within a 24-h window for end of semester) implemented in a radiologic pathology unit of a Bachelor of Science (Medical Radiation Science) course during the pandemic. MethodsThis was a retrospective study involving a review and analysis of existing information related to the integrity of the two radiologic pathology assessments. Three integrity evaluation approaches were employed. The first approach was to review all the Turnitin plagiarism detection software reports with use of ‘seven-words-in-a-row’ criterion to identify any potential collusion. The second approach was to search for highly irrelevant assessment answers during marking for detection of other cheating types. Examples of highly irrelevant answers included those not addressing question requirements and stating patients' clinical information not from given patient histories. The third approach was an assessment score statistical analysis through descriptive and inferential statistics to identify any abnormal patterns that might suggest cheating occurred. An abnormal pattern example was high assessment scores. The descriptive statistics used were minimum, maximum, range, first quartile, median, third quartile, interquartile range, mean, standard deviation, fail and full mark rates. T-test was employed to compare mean scores between the two assessments in this year (2020), between the two assessments in the last year (2019), between the two mid-semester assessments in 2019 and 2020, and between this and last years' end of semester assessments. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsNo cheating evidence was found in all Turnitin reports and assessment answers. The mean scores of the end of semester assessments in 2019 (88.2%) and 2020 (90.9%) were similar (p = 0.098). However, the mean score of the online open book mid-semester assessment in 2020 (62.8%) was statistically significantly lower than that of the traditional invigilated mid-semester assessment in 2019 (71.8%) with p < 0.0001. ConclusionThis study shows the use of the online open book assessments with tight time restrictions and the take home formats in the radiologic pathology unit did not have any academic integrity issues. Apparently, the strict assessment time limit played an important role in maintaining their integrity.

Online education: problems and prospects of development

The current situation with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has made adjustments to all aspects of society's life. The sphere of education, including higher and postgraduate education, has not escaped serious and forced transformations-in order to ensure the health of students at all levels of training, organizations of higher and postgraduate education, together with the Ministry of education and science, were forced to implement a universal and complete transition to the format of training using distance technologies. In this regard, certain issues arose with the compliance of the regulatory framework with the current conditions, opportunities and needs of educational organizations and regulatory authorities. Certain problems were identified with educational resources and tools, the readiness and competence of the teaching staff and administrative staff of higher and postgraduate education organizations, as well as public authorities in the field of education to work in a distance format, issues of academic integrity and dishonesty, the process of conducting current classes, intermediate and final certification, proctoring, as a control procedure for an online exam or testing. Some issues are the quality of classes, educational materials and resources used in remote educational technologies, the readiness of students and teaching staff to work in a remote (online and offline) format.

The Whiplash of a COVID-19 Teaching Pivot and the Lessons Learned for the Future

In March 2020, over the course of less than 2 days, the author’s university went from business as usual to suspending classes until weeks later and then completing the semester online. The author reflects on the changes to the mode of teaching, use of technology, problems with academic integrity, and class engagement. The most problematic issues were academic integrity issues and engagement with the online class meetings. Lest the sudden change to online seem to be all bad, opportunities for improvement in the form of transformation of the course to a more flipped-type model have come. Students and faculty largely weathered the emergency.

Minimize Online Cheating for Online Assessments During COVID-19 Pandemic

When campuses across the world needed to transition to the online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many challenges educators faced, and addressing academic integrity issues were some of the most important. Certain strategies, such as online proctoring or additional software, were not available to most institutions because the expenses and training were too much to overcome. A more pedagogical and cost-effective strategy involved modifying the assessment format in a way that minimized or discouraged cheating. This paper presents strategies that effectively minimize cheating while addressing learning outcomes.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY

In recent years, the Ukrainian academic and educational community has been addressing issues of academic integrity and the implementation of international academic standards. In the civilized academic world, a fundamental role attaches to the fundamental values of academic integrity as an effective instrument for the quality of education ensuring, the moral and ethical image of a modern educator and scientist formation, the creation of a highly competitive society. In the article the essence of the concept "academic integrity" in modern discourse is revealed, and its components are presented. The European experience in counteracting of academic fraud has been analyzed; its most widely used methods are outlined. It has been found that there is no ideal way of counteracting academic abuse in the world; standardized procedures for assessing the educational policy of academic institutions regarding academic integrity have not been developed. The information on the SAIUP project (Strengthening Academic Integrity in Ukraine Project), which was launched in Ukraine to promote academic integrity, has been submitted. The scientific policy of the Ivan Ziaziun Institute of Pedagogical Education and Adult Education for preventing manifestations of academic unfairness is described, as well as the introduction of a system of measures to avoid manifestations of academic plagiarism and selfplagiarism, citation errors, and practice of falsification of scientific research. It is concluded that the views of the academic community on the problems of academic integrity depend to a large extent on the state policy and definition of the system of social values and ethical norms by educational and scientific institutions. The proposals on adherence to academic integrity in Ukraine on the state and institu-tional levels are substantiated.

Benefits and challenges of online instruction in agriculture and natural resource education

ABSTRACT Many land-grant institutions with agriculture and natural resource programs in the United States offer online courses to meet student demand. The goal of this study was to understand how major educational stakeholders, including instructors and students, perceive the benefits and limitations of online teaching and learning in agriculture and natural resource sciences. This study utilized a mixed mode data collection method, which involved informal meetings as well as online survey administration. The data were analyzed through strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)-Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) framework. The study results offer novel perspectives on the perceived utility and challenges of several attributes of online learning including work-home balance, lack of social interactions, virtual classroom opportunities for working professionals, and academic integrity and cyber scam issues among others. Our findings may be beneficial to academic administrators, instructors, and institutions in identifying opportunities, challenges, and adopting programmatic strategies to improve effectiveness of online learning.

Loss aversion as a motivator for engagement with peer assessment

ABSTRACT Loss aversion has been shown to influence decision making in a host of social and economic contexts. This paper presents a novel assessment strategy that seeks to address issues of student engagement and academic integrity through the combination of the concepts of loss aversion and peer-assessment. Students faced the possibility of losing a small number of the marks they had previously ‘earned’ in a task in which they were required to accurately grade a peer’s work. A detailed rubric was designed to support students grading the work. Based on data collected via a survey and interviews, we show that students, despite disliking this assessment strategy, were more engaged in the assessment and felt that their critical thinking skills were enhanced as a result of this approach. The implications from this study includes the need for detailed guidance for students through, for example, rubrics, lecturer accessibility and exemplars.

АКАДЕМІЧНА ДОБРОЧЕСНІСТЬ В ОСВІТНЬОМУ ПРОЦЕСІ ПЕДАГОГІЧНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ: УПРАВЛІНСЬКИЙ АСПЕКТ

The article outlines the problem of academic integrity, identifies the main mechanisms, tools of academic integrity, and their compliance with European standards. Academic integrity plays an essential role in ensuring the quality of education. Compliance with its principles in the educational process of a higher education institution affects not only the quality of training, but also the formation of fundamental values of future professionals. Academic integrity within the community of a pedagogical university is based on the understanding by all its members the need to adhere to the principles of academic integrity, which enhance trust between the university and employers, customers of educational and research services, sponsors and other stakeholders. The article describes the experience of implementing principles of academic integrity in Ternopil National Pedagogical University (TNPU) where they have developed normative documents, the strategy and tactics for the participants of the educational process to follow academic integrity. The University promotes academic integrity through the implementation of the policies in the internal quality culture and employs managerial decisions as tools to combat violations of academic integrity. To better understand and update issues of academic integrity in the academic community the process of future professionals training quality management is constantly monitored, and lectures, seminars, and trainings are regularly held in TNPU. Annually students and teachers sign a declaration of academic integrity. TNPU informs the students about control measures; assessment is carried out on the basis of objectivity; standards and procedures for academic integrity are clear and comprehensible; control is implemented through managerial decisions. Introduction of student-centered learning practices, involvement of students in tasks assessment and discussion, end-to-end assessment of courses, reflection on achievements, conducting lectures and seminars of different types, individual work helps prevent academic dishonesty and improve the students’ motivation. Academic integrity has been shown as an essential component in enhancing the quality of educational programs and the internal quality assurance system in general. Adherence to the principles of academic integrity develops confidence in learning outcomes, promotes academic mobility, increases the competitiveness of graduates in the labor market, ensures success in developing careers.

The International Dimension of Academic Integrity: An Integrative Literature Review

Over half a million international students now study in Canada. This rapid increase in international enrollments has intensified focus on academic integrity because the stakes are high for both international students and the institutions that host them. Academic integrity violations involving international students may garner scandalous attention, and the international students who become entangled in incidents of academic misconduct face potentially devastating life consequences, including expulsion from academic studies and dishonor in family life. International students studying in Canada, particularly those whose first language is not English, face several hurdles not experienced by their Canadian counterparts. Overcoming these cultural barriers is a shared interest and a top strategic priority because academic credentials are a signal that assert students have mastered academic norms of the new culture. There remains considerable debate surrounding international students regarding their increased likelihood to commit academic integrity violations, and this integrative literature review explores the intersection of academic integrity and international students. It takes a broad and holistic approach to identify areas of conflict and knowledge gaps, with a focus on successful institutional interventions that proactively reduce the likelihood of academic misconduct. Little research details efficacious methods to reduce incidents of academic integrity violations involving international students, but taking stock of current interventions provides some guidance to institutions welcoming international students, and the faculty who teach them, so that they can both be successful in addressing academic integrity issues.