Promoting a culture of academic awareness and honesty:developing an institutional ‘good academic practices’ website and understanding how student can and do make use of it

Dr Arlëne G. HunterScience Faculty Academic Conduct Officer, The Open University

Background to change• growing levels of concern about plagiarism and

academic misconduct across HE sector in general– ‘blame’ commonly attributed to misuse of the internet

– time pressures

– internationalisation and globalisation issues

– changing social cultures

• concern as to whether ‘average’ UKOU students are more or less at risk of poor academic practice than conventional campus-based peers– UKOU students: distance, online learning

– studying part time and balancing study and life/work demands

– typically adult learners returning to/entering HE education

– open entry system so no prior qualifications (experience) required at UG level

Reviewing practice at the UKOU

• Open University (UKOU) set out to review plagiarism policy and procedures in 2006– main objectives were to:

• enhance detection integrate systematic text-comparison software and devise clear guidelines on reporting cases

• revise disciplinary penalties and procedures develop equitable system of disciplinary penalties to apply across geographically distributed institute

• promote educational support ensure all stakeholders (students, staff, external partners) understand what constitutes ‘good academic practice’ versus plagiarism in HE/UKOU

• Holistic approach needed to actively change awareness and culture of learning, teaching and academic integrity

Poor practice versus skills development

• Skills development most successful when embedded in learning (i.e. learning in context) – BUT need to establish awareness of general academic integrity

‘baseline’ (i.e. what is expected at HE/OU)

Key objective: to engender confidence in individuals at all academic levels, that they can match to exceed the basic academic integrity standards expected within their UKOU studies

• Potential issues: – creating something that was relevant at the institutional level

– dealing with diverse student population (experience, expectations)

– addressing needs and expectations of level/ subject area

• Developing good academic practices (DGAP) website

Methodological approach used

• desirable attributes of site– provides positive reinforcement

– relates to individual learning context

– encourages self reflection and iterative development

• use constructivist approach to learning progression– self directed learning

– creates a learning scaffolding to build level and discipline specific understanding and application

– name of site viewed as crucial: reinforces good practice

Developing good academic practices

theoretical understanding

policy and penalties

practical skills

Freely accessible soon at http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn

Introduction to the site

Promoting positive skills development

Collaboration versus collusion: generic

Referencing and quoting: course specific

Common Knowledge: discipline specific

Common Knowledge: discipline specific

Whole site ‘Academic Integrity’ Quiz

Example: collaboration or collusion

End of quiz formative feedback

Student usage: initial findings

Key questions:

• what type of student typical is using the site

• how and when are they using it

• what are they accessing most commonly

• role of the formative quizzes– end of topic

– whole site quizzes

– introductory versus advanced level quizzes

Key issues for all institutes• student engagement

– need to integrate resource into the pre-existing learning culture effectively– decide whether to target all students or specific cohorts (level 1, new to study)

• staff awareness– raise awareness and encourage reactive and proactive use by all staff at all levels

• getting the balance right– identify areas that can be dealt with generically versus discipline, course and/or level

specific skills development needs– match learning styles and approaches commonly used online in institute

• promoting self-awareness and enhanced confidence– develop culture of iterative learning through embedded practice and reinforcement

The Developing good academic practices website will be publically available through OpenLearn from July 2010 (http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/)

Dr Arlëne G. HunterScience Faculty Academic Conduct OfficerThe Open University in Ireland110 Victoria StreetBelfast, Northern IrelandBT1 3GN

email: A.G.Hunter@open.ac.uk