academic integrity

Syllabus

Academic Integrity

Studies suggest that students are more likely to cheat while learning online than in a F2F environment. A remotely taught course should be designed to strengthen their commitment to academic integrity and reduce the temptation to gain an unfair unadvantage.

“As students spend more and more time online and students themselves increasingly engage in production on the internet, assurance of academic integrity and guarding against plagiarism is something that should start well before the work is produced.”

Ko & Rossen, p. 81

All Princeton students have signed an Honor Code that explicitly forbids plagiarism and any attempt to gain an unfair advantage — yet some find themselves straying from academic integrity under stress, particularly in a remote learning environment.

“Distance learning can weaken students’ attachment to honor codes and learning objectives.”

Lee (2020)

While “remote learning" is not quite the same as “distance learning” in the quote above, similar factors can come into play if students feel isolated and unconnected because of the remote environment. Instructors should anticipate these dynamics while creating the course syllabus:


You can strengthen your students’ commitment to academic integrity by bolstering their sense of personal connectedness to you and the contents of the course.

Research suggests that the stronger the connection students feel with their instructors, the less likely they are to cheat (Lee 2020; Orosz et al 2015).

There is also evidence that the more meaningful the course content becomes to students, the lower the likelihood that they will cheat — which suggests that the more connections you can make between the course material and your students’ personal goals and experience, the more motivation they will have to maintain academic integrity.


References & Resources

Bushweller, K. (1999). Generation of cheaters. The American School Board Journal, 186(4), 24-32.

Christe, B. (2003). Designing online courses to discourage dishonesty. Educause Quarterly, 4, 54-58.

Ko, S. and Rossen, S. (2017). Teaching Online: A Practical Guide (4th ed.). New York and London: Routledge.

Lee, C. (2020). How to uphold academic integrity in remote learning. (Accessed June 15, 2020)

Orosz, G, Toth-Kiraly, I, Böthe, B, Kusztor, A, Kovacs, Z. and Janvan, M. (2015). Teacher enthusiasm: A potential cure of academic cheating. Frontiers in Psychology.

Allain, R. (2020). How to stop students from cheating on remote tests during a pandemic. OneZero. Accessed July 13, 2020.