This module addresses communications skills, provides opportunities for information gathering, synthesis, and analysis in solving problems and in critical thinking.
Students should have the following skills prior to using this module:
The instructor should identify local resources that can provide these students with the skills they need to complete this module. Some examples of these resources include:
Identification of students lacking these skills and providing them with learning opportunities to acquire these skills is a critical necessity. This module will not provide this instruction. It will only provide the opportunity for students to utilize these resources in a meaningful, relevant manner.
The instructor should explain that the content for this module resides in ANGEL and ask students to read the content, and complete any relevant activities prior to any in-class instruction. Provide students with the following information:
Each module contains activities designed to help students learn and practice the concepts presented. Reflective questions help students recall what they already know about the topic as well as to work through new ideas and concepts. Worksheets and tip sheets supplement the instruction and give students an opportunity for additional practice. Quizzes provide yet another means for students to practice as well as to check to be sure they have read and understand the materials.
The modules all have a standard layout. When you import a module into your ANGEL group or course a folder with the module's name will be added under the "Lessons" tab (course) or the "Content" tab (group). This folder can be moved and placed within another folder if desired.
To start the module, students should open the first file in the list inside each module's folder. This file has the word lesson as part of its name and contains the links to other parts of the lesson.
Open the first file in the module folder to begin the lesson.
This "master" file contains descriptions of the purpose, goals, and objectives, as well as instructions for completing the module, references to materials used in designing and developing the content of the module, a summary of the important points in the module, and a survey for students to complete after finishing the module. (Survey results are available to editors in the group or course through the on-line grade report tool.)
The rest of the files in each module's folder are accessed through links embedded within the content. As the student reads the content and completes the activities, other files from the folder will be used. Some students may become confused if they try to complete the module by working their way down the list and viewing each file without reading the accompanying materials. Instructors may want to make a point of announcing in class and/or putting directions in the syllabus about how to complete each module.
Note: The module will not work correctly if the student does not begin with the "master" file and work through the activities using the embedded links.
Scores for quizzes are recorded in ANGEL and can be accessed through the on-line grade report tool. Responses to reflective questions using the "My Notes" tool are accessible only to the person who types them - they are not available to the group or course editors.
In addition to the quizzes and activities already written into each module, owners/editors may want to add discussion (message) boards, chat rooms, surveys, links, etc. These are all tools that are available within ANGEL. Instructors also have the option of editing and adding or deleting quiz questions and/or quizzes.
As the instructor, you will need to choose which assignments students are to complete, determine if and how credit will be given for the assignments, and establish due dates and submission methods for the assignments. Including this information in your course syllabus will make it readily available to students.
This module on Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Copyright is applicable to all Penn State courses and helps to fulfill the instructor's obligation to address the topic of academic integrity. Because the content of this module is very comprehensive, you may want to pick and choose sections for your students to complete, depending on the content of your course. If you are using this module to ensure the students in your class are well informed about Penn State's policy on Academic Integrity, you may wish to assign the module as work to be done outside of class, or even as work to be completed before the semester begins.
If you are planning to use the plagiarism detection tool "Turnitin.com" in your course, we recommend that you have your students work through this module first to be sure they understand what plagiarism is and the consequences of being caught plagiarizing. More information about "Turnitin.com" is available at http://its.psu.edu/turnitin.
The following assignments are embedded in the Academic Integrity module:
Activity 1: Reflective question -- What does it mean to have integrity?
Activity 2: Quiz -- Plagiarism and Cheating
Activity 3: Quiz -- Copyright and Fair Use
Activity 4: Reflective question -- Have you ever made excuses for cheating?
Activity 5: Quiz -- Excuses and Penalties
Activity 6: Activity -- Case study situations
This module is directly related to the Search Strategies and Source Evaluation Module. Many of the strategies illustrated here are used when one is accessing information.
Many faculty members are increasingly frustrated by students’ academic integrity violations and by the long and stressful process that they must go through to correct, prove, and/or penalize these violations. What can we do, then, to try to raise awareness among students and to find ways to make violations less likely?
What follows is a collection of suggestions for staff and faculty (both authors and instructors) on how to design and run courses to discourage academic integrity violations and to encourage proper research methods and student learning.
Suggestions on How to Encourage Academic Integrity and Discourage Plagiarism and Cheating
compiled by
Ian W. Riddell—Instructional Materials Designer
Penn State World Campus
February 2003
Below you will find a collection of suggestions for designers, authors, and instructors of courses. These pages suggest ways to help build courses to lead students away from temptation: both through raising their awareness of how to do proper research and writing and through designing assignments to make it more difficult for them to cheat.
What follows is an amalgamation and adaptation of material from several sources:
Colyer, Anita. 2001. “13 Design tips to foster academic honesty”. E-mail summary of discussion at February 2001 Instructional Design and Development “open mic” session. [Colyer]
PSU Libraries. 2002. “Information literacy and you.” A modular, on-line course in beginning research methods. [LIAS]
PSU Teaching and Learning with Technology. 2001. Cyber-plagiarism: Detection and prevention. Web site: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/#prevent. [TLT]
Harris, Robert. 2002. Virtual Salt: Anti-plagiarism: Strategies for research papers. Web site: http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm. Site adapted from: Harris, Robert. 2001. The plagiarism handbook. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing.) [Harris]
Note:These suggestions have been categorized into sections for course designers, authors, and instructors, but they may be useful to all three groups and to students as well.
Course Designers:
- Include a statement in the course syllabus about academic integrity policies. What is academic dishonesty? What are some examples? How will it be addressed? What are the possible bad outcomes for the student? Academic dishonesty cases can range from cheating on exams, sharing answers on lesson assignments, falsifying data, copying another student's work, downloading papers written by other individuals from a Web site, plagiarizing from textbooks or articles, and many more! [Colyer]
- Link to the appropriate college info, if available. Many individual colleges have their own specific forms and procedures that are to be used. [Colyer]
- Identify courses at risk. Undergraduate general education courses with high enrollments typically draw from a large pool of on-campus students, for whom it is easier to exchange information or answers for a particular course's assignments or exams. Tests and exams that use multiple-choice questions are more easily "cheatable." Writing-intensive courses (or even undergrad courses with lots of essay assignments) are more likely to foster plagiarism problems. [Colyer]
- In cases where collaborative assignments are included in a course, clearly define processes, structure and purview of "group" feedback, and expected outcomes. Will the outcome of the group's work be a single paper with all three students' names on it? or individual papers submitted by each of the three individual students? Be clear in stating how any such collaboration will be evaluated. As a part of such activities, it is also a good idea to have each student (near the end of the process) provide an assessment of what s/he contributed and what s/he perceived that other team members contributed. [Colyer]
Authors:
- Even in lower-level undergraduate courses, teach students how to cite material that they did not generate themselves. Mention use of quotation marks or indentation of blocks of text, teach students the formal citation style of the course's discipline area, or identify an informal style a student can use (for example, "from Ember and Ember text, page 14"). [Colyer]
- Explain to students how proper citation of sources increases the caliber of their writing. Citation strengthens their writing by forcing them to be clear when presenting arguments and counter-arguments. It shows their instructor that they have put time, effort, and thought into the assignment. And it allows them to be engaged in “the great conversation” carried on by academic thinkers. [Harris]
- Make your assignments specific. Don’t just ask students to write a paper about “Hamlet” or “The Electoral College.” Use specific instructions like “Discuss how Shakespeare used flowers in Hamlet to signify rites of passage. Be sure to reference the deaths of Ophelia and Rozencrantz and Guildenstern” and “Discuss proposals to amend the process of electing presidents. Should the Electoral College be abolished? Be sure to reference opinions from your local news media as well as national media.” This may eliminate the possibility that students can find complete papers to copy and will force them to assimilate materials from several sources. [TLT]
- Provide specific details regarding expectations on student assignment: structure of response, how much time an assignment might take. Identify any time-consuming assignments or long papers in advance so student can plan "extra" time for specific lessons. [Colyer/TLT]
- Require students to use specific resources in their research: sources published in the past year, personal interviews, specific articles or book chapters. Be clear about the types of sources you would like the students to use: only one Web reference, two articles from the course readings booklet, no more than one article 5 or more years old, one article from a specific journal. This guides the students to appropriate research and can show them the breadth of materials available in the field. [Harris]
- For courses that have papers, require multiple points of interaction. Student can submit in steps: identify topic, provide outline, provide list of sources, provide rough draft, submit final paper, submit revisions based on instructor input. This is good instructional design, too! Breaking an "intimidating" writing assignment up into steps helps the adult learner—who may have some writing anxiety—accomplish the task in subsets of more manageable small steps. [Colyer/TLT]
- Ask your students to submit their research notes. This will encourage them to keep neat and accurate notes as they work and will allow you to guide them toward better notetaking if they have problems citing their research. [TLT]
- Ask students to submit a “meta-learning essay.” What did they learn while they worked on this research? How has their view of the subject changed? What was challenging about the work?
- Include a variety of assessments, not just multiple choice. It might be a good idea to include several assessments that require written responses. [Colyer]
- Describe the research/writing process to your students. Encourage your students to work through the on-line module “Information Literacy and You” (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/instruction/infolit/andyou/infoyou.htm), which outlines the research method and gives students guidelines for evaluating sources. This is especially helpful in lower-level courses where students may have little experience doing research and writing college essays. [LIAS/TLT]
- Make assignments as unique to the student as possible. Ask them to include personal or family history, current or local issues, and personal reflection into the work they submit to you. This requires more thought and effort than just reiterating concepts and definitions and allows you to get to know them better, which aids in your working relationship with them and allows you to be aware of their writing style. [TLT]
- Avoid multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions on tests and exams. These are the easiest types of exams to cheat on. These questions also require less understanding and synthesis on the part of students. With essay answers you will also be able to compare exams with other writing the student has submitted. [TLT]
- Set an example. When you write your syllabus materials be sure to properly cite your references and provide students with bibliographies/lists of references—either in each lesson or at the end of the course. This will provide the student with a model for the expected style and procedure for citation and shows that the University’s policies and mission apply to the entire academic community.
Instructors:
- If you feel you need to use a "plagiarism detection" Web site (i.e., Turnitin.com), make sure you warn students in advance that such avenues will be used in exploration of suspected academic dishonesty cases. [Colyer]
- Be prepared with resources for the student who asks for aid in avoiding plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. Have some idea ahead of time how you would describe procedures for citation and paraphrasing in your discipline. Refer them to the appropriate style/publication manual for your discipline.
- Be aware of warning signs or clues about academic integrity violations (the following are fleshed out on Harris’s Web site):
- mixed citation style
- lack of references or quotes
- unusual formatting
- off-topic paper
- datedness of resources or ideas
- anachronisms
- anomalies of diction and style (mixed levels or writing, too-complex vocabulary, etc.) [Harris]
Integrity is a moral value that resides in the affective domain, therefore the best way to help students develop integrity is by presenting the relevant information and then giving them opportunities to apply it to various situations through conscious thought and discussion. A primary goal of this module is to encourage students to develop a personal philosophy of academic integrity based on Penn State principles.
This module begins with a description of academic integrity and the policies at Penn State, followed by information about plagiarism, cheating, copyright, fair use, excuses students use, and penalties for academic dishonesty. The content has been broken into topics to allow instructional flexibility. Instructors can use the entire module, or select just the topics they want to cover. Quizzes present various situations for students to evaluate. The final activity is a series of situations the students are asked to evaluate and respond to. The final activity would also work well for small group discussions or as discussion board topics using the ANGEL message board. Instructors may wish to add additional or different responses to the final activity, depending on their course content.
The key points to make on this topic are that academic dishonesty affects the student as well as the entire community, ignorance isn't an acceptable excuse for committing academic dishonesty, and academic dishonesty has consequences.
The following assessment criteria was used in developing this module and may be useful to instructors in evaluating student performance.
Where |
Domain |
Activities |
% |
Content of iStudy module |
Knowledge |
The student can define academic integrity, cheating, plagiarism, copyright, and fair use. |
|
Activities in iStudy module |
Comprehension |
The student can identify instances of cheating, plagiarism, and copyright violation. |
|
Activities in iStudy module |
Application |
The student can apply copyright rules to a situation to determine if use of the materials is OK or not. |
|
Case Study Activity |
Synthesis |
The student can develop his/her own philosophy of academic integrity based on the Penn State principles. |
|
|
100 |
||