Academic Honesty and
Integrity Task Force Draft Report: Promoting
Academic Integrity at SFU Released INTRODUCTION The Task Force on Academic Honesty and Integrity has
the following terms of reference:
The Task Force has consulted broadly within the university community and is encouraged by the support we have received. Everyone we talked to offered insight into issues concerning academic honesty and integrity and suggested ways of improving the situation. Although the problems are complex and some issues elicit strong differences of opinion, there is substantial agreement on the following:
Two of our many meetings with members of the university
community demonstrate a need to balance concerns with accountability,
detection, and deterrence with education and support. One meeting was
with student representatives from an undergraduate student society who
were deeply concerned with suspected instances of cheating on exams
and assignments by some of their classmates. The students we met with
expressed the indignation of SFU students who want the integrity of
their degrees protected. They want opportunities for cheating eliminated
and offenders to be caught and punished. Without contradicting the need
for deterrence and punitive measures, others are more circumspect. One
undergraduate teaching assistant asked to address the Task Force in
order to point out that many students who plagiarize are not deliberately
cheating. From her experience, they plagiarize because they lack an
academic writing skill: the ability to cite and reference the work of
others. She expressed a concern of many when she argued that the university
must offer resources so that students can, as she put it, “overcome
gaps in their academic skill set.” The more the Task Force has learned, the more we are
convinced that merely insisting upon academic honesty and integrity
is not enough. Protecting the integrity of SFU degrees and the reputation
of the university requires vigilance in reducing opportunities for academic
dishonesty and in detecting suspected cases as well as due diligence
in disciplinary procedures and consistency in penalties. At the same
time, the university has a responsibility to ensure that everyone is
aware of their obligations and has the education and support necessary
to achieve the high standards to which they are held. The need for education
and support is most obvious for students who are new to academic culture
and unfamiliar with the conventions of academic discourse. This focus on education and support does not negate
the need for students to take responsibility for their actions; rather,
it reinforces the university’s responsibility to ensure that students
have the capacity to fulfill their obligations. Responsibility
for strengthening and maintaining a culture of academic honesty and
integrity must be shared among faculty, students, administrators, and
the various units that support teaching and learning. The
consensus that informs this report and the level of commitment expressed
by those we have consulted are grounds for optimism that SFU can do
more than react to an existing problem; it can establish itself as a
leader in promoting academic honesty and integrity. Serious attention to this issue is necessary not because
the problem at SFU is greater than at other universities, but because
academic dishonesty is endemic and a threat to all institutions of higher
education. Research in the Why should promoting academic integrity be a priority?
SFU must promote academic integrity because it is a core value of any
university and a key to maintaining public trust. The public and university
community demand high moral standards and ethical behaviour
from faculty, staff, and students alike. As many institutions have experienced,
any perceived failure of this trust results in condemnation from the
media and the public. Without a reputation for integrity, the scholarship,
scientific discoveries, advances in research, knowledge, and innovations
as well as the expertise of our faculty and the quality of our graduates
would be in question. Academic integrity is also essential if the university is to meet its commitment to “engage all our communities in building a robust and ethical society” (SFU Values and Commitment, http://www.sfu.ca/pres/vandc.html). In the words of SFU President, Michael Stevenson, A democratic society requires leadership and conviction, but also a willingness to confront authority and a skepticism about certainty and orthodoxy. It requires acculturation in tolerance and respect for difference; it requires positive values on dialogue and communication, and it requires a commitment to live in society and to compromise individual benefits to collective interests. (March 2001 presentation to the Vancouver Institute, http://www.sfu.ca/pres/president/speeches/20012.html.) Academic integrity is essential for such a mission.
A few high profile cases of academic dishonesty can
cast doubt on an institution’s commitment to academic integrity. To
protect its reputation and to ensure that the high quality of its education
and its scholars, researchers, and graduates is fully appreciated, This draft report provides a summary of Task Force
findings and preliminary recommendations for promoting academic honesty
and integrity at SFU. Now we need your confirmation that we have identified
the major issues and made recommendations that are reasonable and will
be endorsed by the university community. Please take the time to read
and respond. You can submit comments to the Task Force via email (academic-honesty@sfu.ca), or you can attend
one of the public forums to be held September 2003. Contact information
for Task Force members is available on our website at http://www.sfu.ca/integritytaskforce
and information on public forums will be posted when available. MAJOR ISSUES A fundamental principle is that members of the university
community must take personal responsibility for academic honesty and
integrity. Without this individual commitment, measures implemented
by the university will have little effect. Personal responsibility is
supported by four other areas of concern – education, support, deterrence,
and resources – that create the context in which academic honesty and
integrity can flourish. Responsibility The entire university community must share responsibility for creating and maintaining a strong culture of academic honesty and integrity at SFU. Given the factors influencing cheating, an honour code that places the responsibility entirely on students would not be appropriate. While students remain responsible for their actions, faculty must take responsibility for educating students and the administration must ensure students receive adequate support for their efforts to develop necessary skills and understanding. Given differing expectations across the university on such issues as what counts as acceptable help or how much collaboration is allowed on assignments, university policies must clarify what counts as academic dishonesty and ensure students are aware of their responsibilities in maintaining academic honesty. Faculty, staff, and administrators are also responsible to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity and to be appropriate role models for both undergraduate and graduate students. Academic honesty and integrity issues for graduate students are largely related to their research and relationships with their supervisors. Most problems can be avoided when relationships are supportive and issues relating to intellectual property and authorship are clarified. Education Education is necessary for those students who arrive at university unsure of the meaning of “academic integrity” or “plagiarism” and confused by bibliographic and discipline-specific conventions. These students are afraid of accidentally engaging in academic dishonesty; they want to learn about academic integrity and what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. For some students, cheating has become a habit, and they need education because, in their pursuit of grades, they have lost sight of the value of learning. The following comment from the first-year student survey echoes what we heard and read from a number of sources: The reason
. . . many students engage in cheating activities with the intention
of getting credit for work that they did not do or for learning material
that they do not know is that they place higher value on the numbers
on their transcript than on what they actually learned. For many students,
education is not a goal in itself, but rather a pathway to a high paying
job/prestige or whatever. As such, it should be completed with minimal
effort. Often this leads to crossing lines of academic honesty. These
students need instruction that helps them experience the intrinsic satisfaction of learning and that broadens
their understanding of the value of higher education. Support Some students describe academic dishonesty as a response to desperation. Students
report that they are tempted to cheat when they lack the means necessary
to meet their expectations for success – whether that be passing an
assignment or receiving an “A” for a course. Competition and the pressure
for grades are not excuses for cheating, but they are factors influencing
behaviour. Students report that they are less
likely to cheat when adequate help is available in terms of access to
faculty and teaching assistants and when other support mechanisms such
as review sessions for tests and exams are in place. Students may also struggle
because of poor study skills and inexperience with academic writing.
While most people who gain admission to university have developed strategies
for getting good grades in high school or college, they may not have
developed the study or writing skills necessary for learning at university.
Transition courses and more support services, including an Academic
Literacy Centre, are needed to boost confidence, fill gaps in skill
sets, and moderate the factors that tempt students to resort to academic
dishonesty. Such resources help to create a level playing field for
all students. Plagiarism, the most prevalent
form of academic dishonesty, requires special attention. Recent research
indicates that plagiarism is a complex concept and that traditional
methods of dealing with it leave students with notions of academic discourse
that contradict the ways in which academics work and write. Those
involved in teaching may also require support. Resources on academic
honesty and integrity should be available to all instructors, teaching
assistants, and tutor markers to ensure they are equipped to provide
students with the instruction they need in order to understand what
is expected of them and why. As role models for students, faculty members
also require up-to-date information about Canadian Copyright Law to
avoid unintentional breaches of copyright in their course materials.
The special needs of international students in adapting to this academic
culture must also be addressed. Deterrence High profile cases of academic
dishonesty have led some members of the university community to assume
SFU should adopt a zero tolerance policy. Such a policy is inappropriate
as long as students are likely to act out of ignorance rather than with
intent. The university community should also reduce, as much as is reasonably
possible, the sources of desperation that foster academic dishonesty
and ensure that factors motivating students and opportunities for acting
upon whatever motivates them to engage in cheating behaviours
are minimized. A number of issues also require clarification such as
what counts as plagiarism, when collaboration is allowed, and what sort
of tutoring is permitted. Some issues may need to be clarified course
by course. A coordinated effort is also required to ensure that the
treatment of students who are accused of academic dishonesty and the
penalties they receive are consistent across the university. Other important
aspects of deterrence include ensuring that everyone understands the
policies concerning academic honesty, that teaching assistants, tutor
markers, instructors, chairs, and directors adhere to those policies,
and that reporting mechanisms for substantiated first-time offences
are put in place so that repeat offenders can be dealt with appropriately. Resources Members of the Task Force are
convinced that at SFU, as at most other institutions of higher learning,
academic dishonesty is a serious issue – particularly at the undergraduate
level and specifically for first-year students. Creating and maintaining
a culture of academic integrity requires commitment from everyone involved.
Students, staff, faculty, sessional instructors,
teaching assistants, tutor markers, and administrators all have a role
to play. Fortunately, SFU is blessed with many individuals and groups
who are willing and eager to participate and to share their expertise.
Despite this enthusiasm, the Task Force has heard repeated concerns
about the time required to address this issue. Adequate compliance is
unlikely unless responsibilities can be met without significant increases
in existing workloads. Consequently, the following recommendations take
into account the need to avoid further increases to the workloads of
busy people – students and faculty alike. RECOMMENDATIONS A growing number of Canadian Universities actively
promote academic integrity. Active promotion is essential to creating
a culture of academic honesty and integrity at SFU. Effective promotion
is more than good public relations, it involves proactive measures to
encourage academic integrity at all levels, demonstrate the administration’s
commitment to creating a culture of academic integrity, and make that
commitment evident to the university community and to the public. I. Promote Academic Honesty and Integrity Comments on the student surveys indicate that many
undergraduate students enter SFU unsure what academic integrity means
or why it is important. Anyone who routinely deals with students accused
of academic dishonesty has heard the defense that a student was unaware
of doing anything wrong. Some students who admit to cheating have explained
their actions in terms of a cost-benefit analysis in which they weigh
perceived risks against rewards. Their assessment of risk is too often
tied to their perception that cheating is not taken seriously. Other
students are unaware of the standards for academic honesty or lack the
skills necessary to achieve these standards. Faculty can play a vital
role to ensure students develop understanding and skills. To make certain that students are aware of what counts as academic
dishonesty and to assure them that the university takes academic integrity
very seriously, SFU must actively promote academic honesty and integrity
not just to students, but throughout the university community. Several
students have suggested that academic honesty and integrity should be
discussed at the beginning of every course and again before every test
and assignment. Recommendation 1: Create a university statement on academic honesty and integrity and give
academic integrity a presence on the SFU Home page. Any review of the
University’s Recommendation 2: Include a section on academic honesty and integrity in all orientation
sessions for chairs and directors, students, faculty, teaching assistants,
and tutor markers. Ensure relevant information is available for others,
including departmental assistants, student advisors, and undergraduate
and graduate secretaries. Whenever people from different backgrounds engage in discussions of academic integrity, differences of opinion are expressed. While consistency is a goal, local variations are inevitable in terms of such issues as collaboration on assignments, the use of tutors, and grading practices. What is essential is that students know the instructor’s expectations for each course they take. Recommendation 3: Require an academic honesty statement in all course outlines. Ideally,
this statement should include course-specific expectations concerning
individual and group work, appropriate use of tutors, acknowledgments
for help received (if allowed), acceptable bibliographic conventions,
and potential penalties. Course outlines should also explain the instructor’s
grading practices for that course. If not provided on the course outline,
instructions for all assignments that will be graded should include
clear guidelines for all of these issues. A major concern in promoting academic honesty is providing a level playing field with equal treatment and opportunities for all. One contentious issue is the availability of old exams. The Task Force is aware that old exams – in some cases even those that have not been officially released by instructors – are being collected and distributed by various official and unofficial student groups to their associates. The most equitable way to deal with the problem would be for instructors to make their old exams available through official channels, as is the practice of at least one department. Recommendation 4: Every department should be encouraged to make all old exams available
to students. If a department
lacks the resources to administer such a service, then the exams could
be forwarded to the Academic Literacy Centre
(see Recommendation 15). A wealth of material has been developed on ways to
encourage academic honesty and integrity, and instructors and teaching
assistants should have easy access to such resources in order to promote
these qualities. Other materials should be developed in house to address
the needs of SFU faculty and students, and workshops and courses on
issues designed to enable students to understand and maintain academic
honesty and integrity should be readily available and well advertised. Recommendation 5: Provide faculty, sessional instructors, teaching
assistants, and tutor markers with easily accessible materials they
can use to encourage academic honesty among students. This “toolkit’
of ideas should include suggestions to help faculty make their exams
and assignments honesty friendly. These materials could be available
on a website that includes generic statements that can be adapted for
use in specific courses, discussions around prepared cases, an evolving
Q&A section, tips for what to do in various situations, articles
on the topic, information on web-based and face-to-face workshops and
courses, and links to other sites. The major issues for SFU graduate students are relations with their supervisors (see Recommendation 11) and clarification of intellectual property. Many potential problems can be avoided if an appropriate contract is negotiated before research begins. Issues to consider include the following:
Recommendation 6: Revise the Sample Template for Agreement between Graduate Student and
Supervisor in the Graduate Student Handbook to expand the section on
intellectual property and to specifically address issues such as authorship
and confidential research. Librarians and others have raised concerns with instructors’ use of copy-righted material in their courses. Good role models are essential to promote academic honesty and integrity. The university should ensure that instructors are aware of current Canadian copyright law and are provided reasonable assistance in obtaining copyright for course materials. Recommendation 7: Ensure information on copyright law and infringements is readily available
to all faculty and sessional instructors and
that resources are available to provide advice and assistance. The Code of Faculty Ethics and Responsibilities (A30.01) has not been substantially revised for many years. The current policy focuses on what faculty should do, but makes no mention of the consequences for unethical behaviour or failure to fulfill responsibilities. It also lacks an interpretation clause explaining the procedure to follow when parties to the policy disagree on its intended meaning. Issues relating to graduate student supervision are also not included in the existing policy. Recommendation 8: The Administration and Faculty Association should revise the faculty ethics
policy (A30.01 Code of Faculty Ethics and Responsibilities) to include
sanctions and to cover more issues such as authorship, intellectual
property, copyright, and ownership of data. While promoting academic honesty and integrity requires support from across the university, coordinating an on-going effort requires that someone be designated and assume responsibility for this role. Someone must ensure issues of academic integrity are adequately addressed at orientations, coordinate with various units on campus to improve support for students and faculty, ensure resources for students and instructors are readily available on a website, raise the profile of academic integrity at SFU by organizing an annual Academic Integrity Week, periodic conferences, or other activities, monitor progress, and so on. Recommendation 9: Create a position such as Director of Academic Integrity to ensure academic
honesty and integrity is actively promoted. Responsibilities of this
position should include working with appropriate units and individuals
to create resources for teaching and learning on this topic and assessing
the University’s progress in creating a strong culture of academic honesty
and integrity. The person in this position should work closely with
individuals who seek and act upon opportunities to present seminars
or lead discussions on academic honesty and integrity at orientations,
symposia, workshops, and events at all three SFU campuses. Recommendation 10: Establish an Academic Integrity Advisory Committee comprised of faculty,
students, and staff. This committee should work closely with the person
responsible for promoting academic integrity. Among its duties, it should
periodically collect information and/or conduct surveys to review progress
toward creating a strong culture of academic integrity as SFU. II. Provide Support for Students Students, faculty, and administrators have pointed to the importance of the relationship between students and faculty as a vital aspect of education and a deterrent to academic dishonesty. In the words of students, It is important for students to feel that they have other recourses to follow.
The pressure to succeed in university is huge, as it should be, but
I think that people without a well developed support structure, emotional
and academic, are the ones who are most prone
to cheating. (SFU Integrity Survey) Make sure that extra help is always available so that if a person is stuck,
they can go get help, rather than resorting to cheating, and make the
tests and assignments achievable if work is put in. . . . If people see results come with hard work,
what reason would they have to cheat? (SFU
Integrity Survey) Supportive relationships and support services are particularly
important for students making the transition from high school or college
to university and to create a level playing field for international
students and recent immigrants negotiating
much more than a new academic culture. Members of the university community
have raised concerns that some first-year and introductory courses have
large enrolments with few, if any, teaching assistants. Recommendation 11: Review class size and teaching assistant allocations for first-year and
introductory courses to ensure students have reasonable access to instructors
and teaching assistants. Supportive relationships are also important to graduate students. Effective relationships have been described in terms of mentors and apprentices, with helping students conceptualize their research viewed as an important part of the supervisory process. PhD supervision has also been characterized as the process of converting a student into a colleague. Recommendation 12: At the graduate level, review supervisory loads and practices to ensure
graduate students have good access to their supervisors and establish
guidelines for supervisor/graduate student relations. Not all the assistance available to students need be face to face. Web resources and self-test tutorials can meet some of the needs relating to academic honesty and integrity. Recommendation 13: Establish an academic integrity website for students containing self-instructional
components including a plagiarism self-test, an evolving Q&A section,
tips for what to do in various situations, and links to other sites. Comments on the integrity surveys and the experience of SFU faculty and teaching assistants indicate that for a significant number of students, academic dishonesty is a strategy to deal with a gap in their skill set. Despite receiving high grades in high school, many students rely on memorization and lack the study skills necessary to learn in a meaningful way. These students are not used to the level of personal responsibility required at university and need significant scaffolding to develop the skills and understanding necessary to benefit from their education. Of all the forms of academic dishonesty, plagiarism is generally considered the most prevalent and problematic. Since the early 1990’s a great deal has been written about plagiarism and its causes with the majority of recent work focusing on the type of plagiarism in which a student writer relies too heavily on the language of an original source. From this perspective, plagiarism is a pedagogical and developmental issue rather than as a form of intentional academic dishonesty. Avoiding plagiarism requires that students already be familiar with the conventions of academic discourse. To avoid plagiarism, students must be able to distinguish among the multiple sources referenced in what they are reading – that is, to distinguish between a particular author’s position and those that author uses to support or refute other views on an issue. They must understand the value of multiple viewpoints and perspectives for creating knowledge and developing understanding. They must also be able to integrate multiple sources in their own writing and understand the purpose of referencing conventions within the context of academic discourse. Paraphrasing and summarizing require not only understanding what one has read, but having sufficient knowledge of the academic discipline, appropriate vocabulary, and the facility with language to restate ideas accurately in other words. Some students arrive at university with these abilities,
but many do not. Developing these
abilities necessary to avoid unintentional plagiarism can be particularly
challenging for those learning an additional language, even if they
are advanced learners who meet language requirements. If we view this
form of plagiarism not as a literacy problem per se, but rather as a problem of academic literacy, then the university
must ensure that students have access to appropriate instructional resources.
The introduction of mandatory breadth and writing intensive courses
will likely increase this need. Many universities offer transition courses for first-year
and transfer students that teach students what a university education
entails, promote the value of academic integrity, and help them develop
the necessary study skills. By addressing the fundamentals of academic
literacy, such a course could provide a bridge to writing intensive
and breadth courses as well as an introduction to Western academic culture
for some international students. Under certain circumstances, the University
Board on Student Discipline might offer students the opportunity to
take (and pass) such a course in lieu of other remedies. In general,
such courses should be part of a student’s regular course load and taught
by experienced and committed teachers. Recommendation 14: Establish a noncompulsory credit course (or courses) to help students
make the transition from high school or college to university and to promote academic literacy. The intent of this
course is to develop appropriate study skills, provide a basic understanding
of the university culture and academic integrity, and enable participants
to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to avoid academic dishonesty
in all its forms, including plagiarism. Even if such a course were mandatory for all students
(which the Task Force is not recommending), students would still need
a place to go for continued support. Learners require repeated opportunities
to develop academic literacy, not just in mandatory breadth and writing
intensive courses, but throughout their education. For students to fully
develop their skills and understanding, many students will require assistance,
and to be effective, this assistance should be readily available when
students perceive the need for it. Some students, especially those working
in a second or other language, report being afraid to work with a tutor
or show their work in progress to their teaching assistants or professors
for fear of being accused of academic dishonesty. Students need somewhere
to go for help that is sanctioned by the university and that provides
help from people who are not involved in evaluation. A university-wide
Academic Literacy Centre is an essential resource that can help ensure
students develop academic literacy. Fostering the development of academic
literacy will help to significantly reduce instances of the plagiarism
committed unintentionally by students lacking sufficient understanding
of the conventions of academic discourse. Recommendation 15: Establish a university-wide, centrally-located Academic Literacy Centre
for the III. Promote Teaching Faculty members play the most significant role in promoting
academic honesty and integrity, but the current reward system with its
emphasis on research provides few incentives for faculty to give even
more attention to their teaching. Establishing criteria for assessing
teaching as part of tenure, promotion, and salary review is a positive
step toward raising the profile and prestige of teaching. Mechanisms
must be put in place to ensure that this initiative meets its goal and
to consider other means of recognizing the importance of teaching and
of creating a better balance between the rewards for research and teaching. Recommendation 16: Review the reward system for faculty to determine ways to reward teaching
excellence. Recommendation 17: Require all faculty members to submit teaching dossiers for tenure, promotion,
and salary review and provide support for their development. These dossiers
should contain a section in which faculty indicate how they encourage
academic honesty and integrity in courses and graduate supervision. IV. Simplify and Clarify the Process for Dealing with
Academic Misconduct Instructors have expressed frustration with the disciplinary
process in terms of understanding the procedures and what counts as
adequate evidence as well as the time required to take a case forward
to the University Board of Student Discipline. Faculty, students, and
staff have also expressed concern with lack of consistency in terms
of the way suspected cases are handled and the nature of the remedies.
Increased consistency in the application of disciplinary procedures
is an important component of creating a level playing field for students.
Some members of the university community have also expressed concern
with the practice of automatically removing notations for suspensions
from students’ records. With respect
to the process for dealing with cases of academic misconduct, the Task
Force has identified a number of grey areas that require clarification.
In this regard, while specific guidelines for use of tutors and acceptable
collaboration or group work may vary by discipline, instructor, and
course (see Recommendation 3), the policy should provide general advice
on these issues. The policy should also take into account the challenges
students face in developing academic literacy and address the pedagogical
and developmental issues involved in some instances of plagiarism. Recommendation 18: Revise policies T10.02 and T10.03. These revisions should ensure language
and procedures are stated as clearly as possible. It should also address
the nature of adequate evidence and provide guidelines for gathering,
assessing, and presenting evidence as well as guidelines and/or mechanisms
for ensuring that penalties are consistent across the institution. Other
considerations include the length of time disciplinary notations remain
on student records and extending the range of possible remedies to include
creative sanctions or ameliorative measures such as education in lieu
of punishment and restorative justice. The policies should also include
clear language about the appropriate use of tutors, account for the
role of the academic misconduct resource person (see Recommendation
19), and address the conflict created in the existing policy where a
Chair or Director is expected to both advise the instructor and recommend
any punishment beyond that of failing an assignment. An incident-report
form is also recommended to clarify, simplify, and expedite the process
for dealing with incidents of academic dishonesty. For all substantiated
cases – even those involving nothing more than a warning to the student
– a copy of this form should be retained in the department and another
forwarded to the Office of the Registrar.
When the Registrar receives more than one incident-report form
about a student, the case should be referred to the University Board
on Student Discipline. Reasons students give for cheating include, “The profits
from cheating easily exceed the downfalls” and “The benefits outweigh
the risks.” Advertising summary results
of the University Board on Student Discipline (UBSD) and the Senate
Committee on Disciplinary Appeals (SCODA) would help disabuse students
of the notion that they can cheat with impunity. Publicizing the general
nature of each offence and the penalty would make the campus community
more aware of what actions have been taken and of the likely penalties
for various acts of academic dishonesty. Doing so is important to dispel
myths such as any act of plagiarism will lead to suspension and only
the cases of repeat offenders will be dealt with by the UBSD. Recommendation 19: Publish the summary results of UBSD and SCODA hearings in one or more
easily-accessed venues and advertise their availability to the university
community. Despite their importance, many people do not take the
time to read policies and procedures. A short handbook or a fact sheet
should be provided to all instructors, teaching assistants and tutor
markers to ensure that if they need it, they have ready access to an
explanation in plain language that describes their responsibilities
concerning cases of suspected academic dishonesty and the appropriate
procedures for dealing with such cases. Recommendation 20: Create a handbook or fact sheet on disciplinary procedures to supplement policies T 10.01, T10.02,
and T10.03 that details the step-by-step process for charging students
with misconduct. This document should provide a resource for faculty,
TA/TMs, and sessional instructors, detailing responsibilities and the
chain of command throughout the disciplinary process. From consultations and survey results, it appears that
significant numbers of suspected cases of academic dishonesty are not
dealt with despite faculty members’ concern with academic honesty and
integrity. The major reason is lack of evidence followed by lack of
time to pursue the case. To ensure consistency in dealing with suspected
cases of academic dishonesty, faculty require a dedicated resource person to facilitate the
process. Recommendation 21: Create a position such as Academic Misconduct Officer. Proposed responsibilities
for this position include participating in all of the above (recommendations
19-21), assisting instructors and Chairs or Directors, and ensuring
cases are handled in a consistent, efficient manner. V. Deter Academic Dishonesty Faculty, teaching assistants,
and students raised numerous concerns with the ease with which students
could cheat on exams because of inadequate invigilation and over-crowded
exam rooms. Advice for faculty and teaching assistants on dealing with
these issues are included in “Exam Procedures: A Few Thoughts from an
Ombudsperson,” which is available on the Task Force website (http://www.sfu.ca/integritytaskforce/resources.html). Recommendation 22: Establish university standards and procedures for exams that address the
issues of space and describe invigilation requirements. These procedures
should include guidelines for appropriate numbers of invigilators, a
description of circumstances in which identification should be checked,
tactics to reduce opportunities for cheating, advice on how to deal
with suspicious behaviour, and with people writing exams for students as well
as any other information that can be used to discourage academic dishonesty. Recommendation 23: Review room assignments for final exams to determine ways of resolving
current problems with overcrowding and/or visibility of other students’
work. Possibilities include multi-class exams in gymnasiums or two or
more courses writing exams in the same classroom with exams distributed
in a manner to deter cheating. An increasing number of SFU faculty
are using turnitin.com in their courses. Student responses on the integrity
surveys suggest that students are generally in favour
of its use as a deterrent. While recognizing its usefulness, especially
by instructors with large classes and heavy marking loads, members of
the Task Force recommend caution. Plagiarism-detecting software is useful
in detecting papers that are cut and pasted from Internet sources, written
by other students whose papers are in the system’s data bank, or acquired
from paper mills. Such software could also be useful for helping students
recognize when their ability to paraphrase is not sufficiently developed
and they are technically guilty of plagiarism. One concern is that faculty
may use turnitin.com as a deterrent without addressing the major cause
of plagiarism. Avoidance of plagiarism is a complex task that requires
basic instruction, reinforcement, and advanced instruction in specific
disciplines. Many students who speak English as a second or other language
as well as many students who are native-English speakers arrive in university
without the experience necessary to paraphrase and attribute sources
according to academic standards. No detection tool can substitute for
adequate instruction. Plagiarism-detecting software, such as turnitin.com,
that create a data base of all the work submitted by students also raise
concerns with the possibility of violations of intellectual property
and privacy. Members of the Task Force expressed concern that turnitin.com
might offer inadequate safeguards for intellectual property and privacy
rights. Security issues in general and the passing of the U.S. Patriot
Act in particular elevate concerns that papers submitted for a course
could be accessed without the student’s knowledge or permission.
In many situations, a careful reading of a student’s work and
an Internet search are viable alternatives. Recommendation 24: While plagiarism-detecting software is a useful deterrent, everyone using
turnitin.com should be made aware of potential issues concerning privacy
and intellectual property that arise when assignments become part of
a permanent data base. While taking the nature of a course into account,
faculty should consider if other means of detecting plagiarism that
do not create a permanent data base, such as an Internet search engine,
are viable alternatives. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Task Force thanks the university community for its thoughtful and candid responses on these challenging issues. We look forward to receiving your input on these draft recommendations. Please send your comments and questions to academic-honesty@sfu.ca. |