Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity

 What Challenges Might You Face With Academic Integrity?

No matter how effective or advanced the assessment technology nor how creative an instructor may be in designing assessment activities, if students are determined to cheat or shift responsibility for their own work, they will certainly find a way. This perspective is not generally popular, but its reality forces us to rethink our approach to effective assessment in all modalities, especially digital learning. While reading the module materials and keeping in mind your own instructor experiences, please consider the following focal points:

• There is no magic to prevent cheating. 
• Cheating occurs in all educational modalities. Recent research shows that cheating occurs equally in both the face-to-face classroom and in the online environment (Eplion & Keefe, 2010, April; Kravitz, 2007; Watson & Sottile, 2010).
• Technically, there is no such thing as a “closed-book” assessment in online courses. Although there are ways to use assessment technology that discourages using available materials (e.g., time limits, date availability, question and answer randomization), there is no way for an instructor to monitor students in distant locations completely. 
• Authentic assessments include activities and assignments. Authentic assessment is not limited to the traditional quizzes or exams that are often a part of higher education. It’s time to, perhaps, “think outside the box.”
• The focus should be on student learning, not student control. Once the focus shifts away from setting precise controls, you have room to focus on creating activities and exams that rely on higher-order thinking skills. If student learning, not student control, is the major goal of an assessment, it is a good practice to design assessments that will guide students to find the best answer or solution, not penalize them.

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Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity 

Foster a culture of academic integrity: Students are more likely to cheat when they believe others are also cheating or when expectations are unclear. To combat these temptations, consider:

• Using your syllabus to:

• • Communicate expectations clearly. Be clear about how you will address dishonesty. Will the student receive a warning, a chance to resubmit, or a 0?
  • Provide a statement about 

    <Replace -  Institution Name>

    Golden Rule
  • Articulate your specific policies of what is allowed and not allowed for assignments and assessments

Model integrity: Model integrity in your own instructional materials and practices by:

• Acknowledging your sources appropriately
• Designing assessments consistent with your stated learning objectives, instructional materials, and practice activities.
• Communicating the consequences of cheating in your course, in academia, and beyond
• Addressing instances of dishonesty through clear communication about possibly dishonest behavior and suggesting an appropriate action to address the matter, consistent with your stated policies and institutional policies
• Use proctoring and authentication tools. <Replace -  Institution Name> may have several remote proctoring solutions from which to choose; please check with your department to find out which tool you may have access to.

Design assessments for integrity: Students are more likely to cheat when there is an easy opportunity. Consider:

• Designing assessments consistent with clear learning objectives, instructional materials, and learning activities; explicitly communicate the connections between these course components.
• Provide opportunities for frequent practice similar to what students will be asked to do in assessments
• Provide substantive feedback (can be automated or within a rubric) on practice activities
• Consider tests/quizzes as open-book options. Allow students to use resources (e.g., textbooks notes), and use higher-level questions that require students to apply instruction, not just repeat or reproduce facts.
• Have students take timed tests all at the same time; set reasonable time limits;  but be careful that it is not too short due to technical issues.
• Create and use different question sets. Vary assessment questions slightly from semester to semester.
  • If using publisher test banks, edit the questions to make specific questions less searchable on the internet. 
• Randomize the order of questions and response options when possible

Limit high-stake assessments: Students are more likely to cheat when they feel heightened stress and pressure. Consider:

• Using multiple assessments so that each assessment is relatively low stakes (e.g., not 25+% of the final grade)
• Providing a variety of types of ways students can demonstrate their learning so that savvy test-takers do not have undue advantage over others for success
• Provide assessments that build on each other so that the pressure to cheat is reduced.
• Incremental submissions prevent procrastination and deadline anxiety — two of the most common reasons for plagiarism

Read Cheating Online Can Be a Problem, but There are Ways to Stifle That by UCF History lecturer David Head for some practical suggestions about online tests.