Welcome

Introduction

What is this course about?

Welcome to Academic Integrity. This programme is designed to help you understand what academic integrity is and why it is an integral part of any learning journey. It will also help you to recognise academic integrity challenges and how to identify changes you can make to improve your own approach to learning and academic integrity.

Who is this course for?

Anyone who is a part of the education community. Maintaining academic integrity is a shared responsibility that involves everyone, including students, faculty, administrators, and staff. Depending on your role, the course will provide opportunities to educate yourself on academic integrity; guide and support students, collaborators, and stakeholders; or to stay informed about evolving issues, standards, and practices – enabling everyone to help create an environment that values honesty, fairness, and ethical conduct. Academic integrity is an ongoing commitment; this course will help you to contribute to an institution-wide culture of integrity within educational and professional settings.

Using the course

If this is the first time you have accessed the Academic Integrity course, or if you need a brief reminder, here is some information on how the screens are organised, and some of the tools and features that are used throughout:

Content

The centre of each screen contains the core content for each course, presented either as text, interactive activities, graphics, videos or animations
Text highlighted in a box preceded by an arrow contains instructions on how to navigate the activities that follow
Terms highlighted like this are clickable glossary terms, and can be clicked on to access pop-up boxes containing definitions of key terms. In the 'Introduction' and 'Reflection and practice' screens of this module, there is an opportunity to download a document containing all of these terms and their definitions
Note that your responses to the notemaking and text entry activities (where you type responses in the space provided) can be saved and used as part of your ongoing work.

Text/print versions

We strive to make our content accessible to the widest possible audience. While the module is largely compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, there are some interactive objects that we cannot make fully accessible. Where this poses a challenge, you may want to access the text/print version of the screens. However, it is important to note that while the text/print version retains the core content, it may be limited in presenting certain interactive features. The Text/print version does include transcripts for video and audio files, and increased font sizes for greater readability.

Look out for the Text/print version button, located at the top right of any screen in the course, to toggle this feature.

You may also use this feature to activate a print-friendly version of any screen, in case you would like to print and keep the content for your notes.

Pods

Throughout this course, you will find additional information in 'pods'. Exploring these pods will enrich your learning experience, as they contain extra content to expand on key points from the main screen, as well as links to useful external resources:

Think about it: Encourages reflection on how the learning applies to your role in an academic integrity culture.
Your context: Contains links to helpful external resources that expand on key points from the main screen.
Useful links: Contains links to helpful external resources that expand on key points from the main screen.
Useful information: Contains extra content to expand or emphasise key points from the main screen and houses links to useful external resources.
Students say: Contains helpful or thought-provoking commentary from students about the screen content.
Video: Contains additional video interviews with staff members to support the main screen content.
Audio: Contains additional audio interviews with staff members to support the main screen content.
Download: Gives you as the user the opportunity to download the content or activity when prompted.
Module evaluation: Contains a short survey for you to rate and send us feedback on the module you have completed.

Polls

The poll questions are designed to help you think about your own situation and attitudes, and to compare your responses to those of others taking the programme. Consider talking to an academic advisor about your responses.

Quiz

At the very end of each module, you have the opportunity to test your learning further with a multiple-choice quiz. This consists of five questions and can be taken more than once (a new set of questions will appear).

The Academic Integrity course is designed to gradually build up your understanding and skills. We recommend that you complete the modules in the order given, but they have been designed so you can access each of them independently according to your own requirements and those of your institution.

Technical support

If you require technical support with using the course, please refer to the Technical support button, located at the top right of any screen in the course.

Expert panel

Dr Lee Adam :"
Author

Dr Lee Adam is the Director of Academic Integrity at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Lee has been researching academic integrity and misconduct, as well as informing institutional policy and processes at Otago since 2012. Her other research is centred around teaching and learning in higher education. As well as her academic integrity role, Lee is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Dentistry, and Director of the Education research group for the Sir John Walsh Research Institute.

Sarah Eaton :"
Lead advisor

Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is an associate professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada. Dr. Eaton an award-winning educator, researcher, and leader. She leads transdisciplinary research teams focused on the academic integrity and ethics in higher education. She is regularly invited by the media to provide expert commentary on academic misconduct. Dr. Eaton also holds a concurrent appointment as an Honorary Associate Professor, Deakin University, Australia.

Thomas Lancaster :"
Lead advisor

Dr Thomas Lancaster is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Computing at Imperial College London and one of the world's leading academic integrity researchers and practitioners. Thomas is a regular keynote speaker and has published papers on plagiarism prevention and detection, generative AI use in education, contract cheating, and partnership working with students, amongst other topics. He is a member of the UK's Quality Assurance Group academic integrity advisory group, coordinates the London and South East Academic Integrity Network (LSEAIN), and wrote the book Avoid Plagiarism published as part of the Sage Super Quick Skills series.

Reviewers

Dr Amanda Tinker, Academic Skills Coordinator and Senior Lecturer, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Huddersfield
Associate Professor Lesley Sefcik, Curtin University
Nadia Koren, Academic Integrity Lead state-wide (Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training)
Olumide Popoola, Educational Developer and Linguist at Queen Mary University of London
Dr Philip Owende, TU Dublin
Dr Steph Allen, Principal Academic in Learning Development and Academic Integrity, Bournemouth University
Tom Aherne, Head of Teaching and Learning Centre, SETU, Ireland.

The previous edition of the module was developed with:

Dr Lee Adam :"
Author

Associate Professor Tracey Bretag :"
Lead advisor

The late Tracey Bretag was based in the School of Management at the University of South Australia. Tracey's research for over 15 years was focused on all aspects of academic integrity. She led four large Australian Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded research projects, and co-led (with Dr Rowena Harper) the OLT project Contract Cheating and Assessment Design: Exploring the Connection. Tracey was the founding Editor of the International Journal for Educational Integrity (SpringerOpen), Editor-in-Chief of the Handbook of Academic Integrity (Springer 2016), former Chair of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Educational Integrity, and a Past President of the Executive Board to the International Center for Academic Integrity.

Wilma Alexander :"
Accessibility advisor

Wilma Alexander is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, with Master's degrees in Human–Computer Interaction, Linguistics and Information Science. She has over 15 years of experience as a manager with the online learning team at the University of Edinburgh, where she specialised in usable and accessible digital practice, tutored on the groundbreaking Master's degree in Digital Education and developed online staff training on accessible e-learning and online tutoring skills. Since retiring from the university at the end of 2015, Wilma has provided consultancy services on all aspects of online learning, with a special focus on accessibility and usability issues.

Reviewers

Dr Yvonne Davila, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney
Dr Mary Davis, Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University
Neela Griffiths, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Interactive Media and Learning, University of Technology Sydney
Dr Zeenath Khan, Associate Professor, University of Wollongong – Dubai
Dr Erica J. Morris, Principal Fellow of the HEA, Independent Higher Education Consultant
Dr Amanda Tinker, Academic Skills Coordinator and Senior Lecturer, University of Huddersfield
Karen van Haeringen, Deputy Academic Registrar, Griffith University.

Development Group

Academic Integrity was developed in conjunction with:

Australian National University
CQ University
Charles Sturt University
Curtin University
Deakin University
Institute of Technology, Sligo
Massey University
Navitas
Queensland University of Technology
Technological University Dublin
University of Canberra
University of East Anglia (UEA)
University of New England (UNE)
University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney)
University of Otago
University of Queensland
University of Reading
University of South Australia
University of the Sunshine Coast
Victoria University
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)

You now have all the information you need to get started.

Please continue on to the next screen of this module...

Introduction

What is this course about?

Who is this course for?

Using the course

Content

Text/print versions

Pods

Polls

Quiz

Technical support

Expert panel

Dr Lee Adam :" Author

Sarah Eaton :" Lead advisor

Thomas Lancaster :" Lead advisor

Reviewers

Dr Lee Adam :" Author

Associate Professor Tracey Bretag :" Lead advisor

Wilma Alexander :" Accessibility advisor

Reviewers

Development Group

Dr Lee Adam :"
Author

Sarah Eaton :"
Lead advisor

Thomas Lancaster :"
Lead advisor

Dr Lee Adam :"
Author

Associate Professor Tracey Bretag :"
Lead advisor

Wilma Alexander :"
Accessibility advisor