Academic integrity standards: Recommendations for good practice

Julianne East j.east@latrobe.edu.auUrsula McGowan ursula.mcgowan@adelaide.edu.au

Academic Integrity Standards Project: Aligning policy and practice

in Australian universities http://www.aisp.apfei.edu.au/

Project leader: Tracey Bretag (University of South Australia) Julianne East (La Trobe University), Margaret Green (University of Wollongong), Colin James (The University of Newcastle), Saadia Mahmud (University of South Australia), Ursula McGowan (The University of Adelaide), Lee Partridge (The University of Western Australia), Ruth Walker and Margaret Wallace (University of Wollongong)

purpose statement

The following is a compilation of information and recommendations for good practice for achieving and maintaining academic integrity standards in learning and teaching practices.

The recommendations are grounded in current literature and based on analysis of Academic Integrity policies of 39 Australian universities; and staff and student comments from data gathered within the 6 Academic Integrity Standards Project (AISP) partner universities.

overview

1. Introduction: AISP research questions and data 2. Current approaches – literature and websites3. Project data and recommendations

• Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy

• Students’ comments • Staff comments

4. Summary recommendations for good practice 5. Good practice resources

introductionAISP research questions

1. What are Australian universities’ policies and procedures for academic integrity breaches?2. What responses to breaches of academic integrity are actually implemented in practice?3. What is good practice in aligning academic integrity policy with teaching and learning strategies?4. How could a culture of academic integrity be more effectively fostered in the current Australian higher education context?

introductionAISP research question

Focus: research question 3

What is good practice in aligning academic integrity policy with teaching and learning strategies?

This presentation focuses on the responsibility of the university to make an institutional commitment to academic integrity through good teaching and learning practices.

introductionAISP project data

• Current approaches: literature and websites• Analysis of the 39 Australian academic integrity

policies• Online survey of 15,304 students at six Australian

universities• 28 Focus groups with students and staff• Interviews with 28 senior staff

(28 staff: 21 senior decision makers, 6 course coordinators & academic integrity officers, and 1 teaching & learning developer)

current approachesacademic integrity

Academic integrity understood as: • an institutional approach – institution upholding standards

• honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility (ICAI)• policy and practices are aligned • consistent practices

• scholarly practice – students learning in academic culture• research skills (e.g. University of Tasmania 2008, McGowan

2010)• academic literacies (Lea & Street 2006, Wingate 2010)

• an ethical attribute – valued within and beyond the university• ethical, professional behaviour listed in University ‘Graduate

Attributes’ statements

Fairly and transparently • deterring • detecting and • dealing with plagiarism (JISC 2005)

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2005/pub_plagiarism.aspx

International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) www.academicintegrity.org

Four stages of institutional development:1. no policy and procedures2. cheating issues: concerns with consistency & fairness of existing practices3. academic integrity policies and procedures are known but not universally,

supported4. students take responsibility

http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/resources-4.php

current approachesinstitutional

current approacheseducative

• The practices of acknowledgement and referencing can be unfamiliar for students entering university

“concepts of plagiarism are embedded in Australian academic culture, which explains why university lecturers as members of this academic culture can “know” what plagiarism is, while new students by contrast can be concerned and confused” (East, 2006, p.16)

• The Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-integrity

• Plagiarism advice http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/

current approachesacademic literacies

• Students require “acculturation into disciplinary and subject-based discourses and genres” to become academically literate (Lea & Street, 2006, p. 369).

• Student learning is more effective if academic staff promote students’ academic literacy “within their regular teaching” (Wingate, 2006, p. 467)

• The AUQA (2009, p. 2) Good Practice Principles note that: • “Different disciplines have different discourses of academic inquiry”• “Development of academic language and learning is more likely to occur when it is

linked to need (e.g. academic activities, assessment tasks)”

• Apprenticeship into scholarly writing • By treating undergraduate education as a research apprenticeship:

“The problems of students whose plagiarism is unintentional would be handled proactively as part of the education process, rather than as a remedial issue after a ‘breach of integrity’ is identified” (McGowan, 2010, P8)

current approachesan aligned approach

• an holistic institutional approach (Macdonald & Carroll 2006)• aligning policy and practice (East 2009) • Bertram Gallant (2011)

Culture of Academic integrity

Policy

Teaching and

learning

Review of policy and

process

AI decisions

Diagram from Bretag et al. (2011b)

project data & recommendations

The following slides provide excerpts from the AISP project data from

• 39 Australian University policies• Student and staff comments

with recommendations for good practice which are summarised at the end of this presentation

policiesAcademic integrity in policies of

39 Australian universities

• a moral issue – values to be upheld; punitive for misconduct: as deterrent

• scholarly practice – educational: information, referencing guides, quizzes, learning modules, curriculum embedded: for the development of competence

• an attribute – as one of the outcomes of university education

policiesacademic integrity statement

Academic integrity is about mastering the art of scholarship. Scholarship involves researching, understanding and building upon the work of others and requires that you give credit where it is due and acknowledge the contributions of others to your own intellectual efforts. At its core, academic integrity requires honesty. This involves being responsible for ethical scholarship and for knowing what academic dishonesty is and how to avoid it.

(University of Tasmania: Academic Integrity, 2008)

policies recommendations

Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy

Access easy to locate, read, concise, comprehensible

Approach statement of purpose includes educative focus; institutional commitment to academic integrity

Responsibility outlines responsibilities for all stakeholders.

Detail description of breaches, outcomes and processes

Support systems to enable implementation of the policy

Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy

Bretag et al. 2011b

students want

• more opportunities to practice• more than generic information• discipline-specific targeted support• to be engaged

and • they notice inconsistencies

student comments

student survey comment

“Providing more support to students, rather than telling us all the consequences of breaching the academic integrity policy, teach us how to do it properly! This means doing it more than once” (Bretag et al. 2013 forthcoming)

recommendation

Teachers provide opportunities for students to practise and learn through engaging activities and assessments

student survey comment

“A number of lecturers accept/expect different things and I think they need to all be on the one playing field in order for academic integrity to be maintained” (Bretag et al. 2013 forthcoming)

recommendation

Teachers induct students into discipline specific writing and referencing practices

student survey comment

“I have heard of a case of a breach of academic integrity being swept under the carpet, so the university avoids embarrassment. Needless to say, policies are useless when the university would itself lie to avoid a scandal” (Bretag et al. 2013 forthcoming)

recommendation

Universities demonstrate that academic integrity standards are enacted

student focus group comment

“In attaining knowledge, I think it is good as a student to distance yourself from what you […] are putting forward. It reinforces knowledge if you can make clear distinctions between one idea to another idea to another idea… the notion of genealogy of knowledge is more interesting. I’ve become much more interested in referencing having come to this perspective, whereas before it was just a task” (University E: FG4)

recommendation

Academics present academic integrity as building on knowledge of others

• introducing students to academic integrity • developing academic integrity • the value of integrity as an academic attribute• modelling good practice by staff • taking a systematic approach to dealing with academic

misconduct• taking an educative approach to student errors in academic

integrity scholarship • balancing penalties for academic misconduct, with: • embedding the teaching of academic acknowledgment and

broader academic practices within subjects and courses

staff recommendations

Underpinning the enactment of these recommendations for good teaching and learning practice is the need for staff professional development and other support

“It is not sufficient for the institution to merely place the additional workload of teaching students about citation and attribution concepts and mechanics without the need for staff professional development and also additional time to fulfil such requirements”

(Sutherland-Smith 2010, p.9)

staff comments & recommendations

staff commentsintroducing students to academic integrity

“We can't just bring students out and assume they understand what is appropriate and what isn’t appropriate, and particularly for international students, but not just international” (Senior decision maker, Uni D)

“If we do better pre-emptive and we do better formative learning in the early years, the theory is it shouldn’t happen in later years” (Senior decision maker, Uni F)

recommendation

Staff provide timely and accessible teaching of what is and isn’t appropriate

staff comments

introducing students to academic integrity: it’s not just a problem for international students

“I think it's time for the sector to move past this notion that international student's just regurgitate stuff” (Senior manager, Uni A)

recommendation

Staff provide timely and accessible teaching of what is and isn’t appropriate to all students

staff commentsdeveloping academic integrity

“And we need to give students examples, we need to say what’s acceptable, what’s not, this is an example of something’s that’s not acceptable, here’s an example of something that is. What’s the difference between the two of them?” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)

recommendation

Teachers provide examples of texts that can be used to illustrate the practice and place of acknowledgment in academic writing

staff commentsdeveloping scholarly practice

“…there’s quite a lot of skill in teaching students about…doing a conventional development of an argument or an essay, […] moving from stringing quotes together, with names behind them, to actually synthesising the ideas and coming up with your story, and bringing in the quotes, as evidence for statements that you’re making” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)

recommendation

Teachers demonstrate and provide practice in skills of scholarly inquiry and using sources to support arguments

staff commentsthe value of integrity as an

academic attribute

… this has much greater resonance about what we're doing, how we're doing it, how we conduct ourselves and a way of being in the academic world that we should probably promote and one important part of a much broader education picture (Senior decision maker, Uni C)

recommendation

Staff promote academic conduct as an important part of higher education

staff comment

the value of integrity as a professional attribute

“…the importance of students developing their own sense of professional identity and how they represent themselves as a professional you know, not to falsely represent their competencies…” (Senior decision maker, Uni D)

recommendation

Staff connect learning academic integrity standards with personal integrity and professional identity

staff comments

modelling good practice by staff

“…it is difficult to convince students not to copy […] without appropriate attribution, when there are instances in the sector […] of academic colleagues putting their PowerPoints up which have been clearly copied without attribution from other sources” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)

recommendation

Teachers model scholarly practice in the presentations and resources they use, by giving source information

staff comments taking a systematic approach

to dealing with academic misconduct

“…the institution in which I work actually does seem to have a pretty good framework and policy structure for dealing with those [breaches] and letting you make some judgements along the way, but also giving you a framework for thinking about it, and also good appeal systems…people have got options for getting a second opinion on circumstances” (Senior decision maker, Uni B)

Recommendation

Institutions have fair and systematic processes in place

staff commentstaking an educative approach

to student errors in academic integrity scholarship

“…there was quite a lot of [attention on] breaches early on, but they're taking those now to the educative sorts of interventions, rather than just automatically calling it as a breach” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)

“…other things if we teach them how to do something and they don’t get it right, the penalty is lack of marks not a record that says you’re a cheat” (Course coordinator, Uni A)

recommendation

Teachers help students learn from errors by giving constructive feedback, in line with learning objectives and assessment criteria

staff commentspenalising academic misconduct

“…balance between education and punitive, I think you can’t avoid punitive measures in cases where you’ve done all those right things, there has to be a sufficient deterrence for those that just want to game the system…” (Senior decision maker, Uni F)

recommendation

Institutions ensure that a balance exists in their policies, where both academic integrity education takes place, and misconduct is penalised to deter cheating

staff comments

embedding the teaching of academic acknowledgment within subjects and courses

“It’s not a matter of you know one size fits all” (Course coordinator, Uni D)

“In every program there should be a built-in section on academic integrity for that discipline that every student should be given some overt instruction about how to do the right thing in terms of referencing, in terms of whatever it might be for their discipline…journalism has different expectations than law, for example, than mathematics…” (Course coordinator, Uni A)

recommendation

Teachers explicitly teach the acknowledgment practices of their particular subject

staff comments

embed teaching of academic acknowledgment within subjects and courses

“…there’s no doubt in my mind, it needs to be embedded in courses” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)“… we need to make it very clear, within our courses, what our expectations are about referencing, citations, however you want it, people do it differently” (Senior decision maker, Uni A)

recommendation

Teachers are explicit about where they teach scholarly practice within courses

summary recommendations for good practice

1. Exemplary academic integrity policy2. Promoting academic integrity 3. Teaching scholarship4. Managing academic integrity breaches

1. exemplary academic integrity policy elementssummary recommendations

1. Access: easy to locate, read, concise, comprehensible

2. Approach: statement of purpose includes educative focus; Institutional commitment to academic integrity

3. Responsibility: outlines responsibilities for ALL stakeholders.

4. Detail: description of breaches, outcomes and processes

5. Support: systems to enable implementation of the policy

2. good practice in promoting academic integrity summary recommendations

1. institutional messages and practices demonstrate that academic integrity is expected of all stakeholders

2. good practice is modelled by staff3. the value of integrity is communicated as an academic

attribute4. the value of academic integrity is communicated as a

professional attribute

3. good practice in teaching scholarshipsummary recommendations

Support provided for academic and sessional staff to:

1. introduce academic integrity concepts to all students2. embed the teaching of academic inquiry within

subjects and courses3. use engaging activities to develop effective learning of

research skills and acknowledgment conventions4. take an educative approach to errors when students

are being inducted into scholarship

4. good practice in managing breachessummary recommendations

1. penalise genuine misconduct2. be systematic in dealing with breaches3. support staff to be able to make appropriate

decisions

good practice resources

AISP (2010 – 2012) Learning activitieshttp://www.aisp.apfei.edu.au/content/learning-activities

Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service (2011). Supporting academic integrity: Approaches and resources for higher education. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/academicintegrity/SupportingAcademicIntegrity_v2.pdf

Carroll & Appleton Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/plagiarism/brookes.pdf

references

• Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), (2009) language proficiency for international students in Australian universities, Report to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Canberra. Link:http://www.innovation.gov.au/HigherEducation/ResourcesAndPublications/Documents/Final_Report-Good_Practice_Principles.pdf

• Bertram Gallant, T. 2011 Creating the Ethical Academy: A Systems Approach to Understanding Misconduct and Empowering Change. USA: Routledge.

• Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., McGowan, U., East, J., Green, M., Partridge, L., & James, C. (2012, in press). ‘Teach us how to do it properly!’ An Australian academic integrity student survey, paper submitted for review to Studies in Higher Education, 5 April 2012.

• Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., East, J., Green, M., James, C., McGowan, U., Partridge, L., Walker, R.& Wallace, M. (2011a) Academic Integrity Standards: A Preliminary Analysis of the Academic Integrity Policies at Australian Universities. Proceedings of AuQF 2011 pp48-53. See AUQA Audit archive: Proceedings: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/127066/20110826-0004/www.auqa.edu.au/qualityenhancement/publications/occasional/publications/index.html

• Bretag, T., S. Mahmud, M. Wallace, R. Walker, C. James, M. Green, J. East, U. McGowan and L. Partridge. (2011b). Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian higher education. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 7(2): 3-12 http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/article/viewFile/759/574

• Carroll, J. (2002) A Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher education.. OCSLD. Oxford Brookes University

• Carroll, J. & Appleton, J. (2001) Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide, Oxford Brookes University http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/plagiarism/brookes.pdf

• East, J. (2006) The problem of plagiarism in academic culture. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2(2), 16 – 28. http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/IJEI/index

• East, J. (2009) Aligning policy and practice: An approach to integrating academic integrity, Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 3(1), A38-A51 http://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/viewFile/66/62

references - 2

• Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service (2011) Supporting academic integrity: Approaches and resources for higher education. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/academicintegrity/SupportingAcademicIntegrity_v2.pdf

• Higher Education Academy JISC Academic Integrity Service (2005) Deterring, detecting and dealing with plagiarism http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2005/pub_plagiarism.aspx

• ICAI (International Center for Academic Integrity). Fundamental values project http://www.academicintegrity.org/fundamental_values_project/index.php

• Lea, M. & Street, B. (2006) The ‘academic literacies’ model: Theory and applications, Theory into Practice, 45(4), 368-377.

• Macdonald, R. & Carroll, J. (2006) Plagiarism – a complex issue requiring a holistic institutional approach. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(3), 233-245.

• McGowan, U. (2010) ‘Re-defining academic teaching in terms of research apprenticeship’. In M. Devlin, J. Nagy and A. Lichtenberg (Eds.) Research and Development in Higher Education: Reshaping Education, 33 (pp.481-489). http://www.herdsa.org.au/?page_id=1371#M

references - 3

• McGowan, U. & O'Regan, K. (2008) Avoiding Plagiarism: Achieving Academic Writing. Audio narrated resource for students and staff. Available at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/learning/staff/plagiarism/ (click on ‘Resources’)

• Sutherland-Smith, W. (2010) Retribution, deterrence and reform: the dilemmas of plagiarism management in universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and management 32(1) 5-16

• University of Tasmania (2008) Academic integrity http://www.academicintegrity.utas.edu.au/

• Wingate, U. (2006) Doing away with “study skills”. Teaching in Higher Education 11(4) pp. 457-469

references - 4

Support for this project has been provided by the Office for Learning and Teaching, an initiative of

the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The views expressed by this project and in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views

of the Office for Learning and Teaching.