Setting expectations for academic integrity

Academic integrity ensures that students approach their learning and complete assessments with transparency, honesty, and responsibility. When students engage in academic misconduct, they obtain an unfair advantage over their classmates and, even more importantly, deny themselves the opportunity to engage in learning more fully and meaningfully.

Since the emergence of online education, it has been commonly assumed that students are more likely to cheat these courses than they do in face-to-face courses. Although the research has been inconclusive so far whether this is the case, there is "a consistent concern that online education is more cheatable than learning in real life" (Harrison et al., 2022, 169).

Regardless, instructors must establish expectations for academic honesty and should cultivate a culture of academic integrity and ethics. By doing so, we can encourage students to remain accountable and responsible in their learning. It is especially important for online instructors to communicate, emphasize, and reinforce university standards of conduct in their courses to set clear norms that students can respect and follow.

Campus academic policies

University of Missouri System

The Standard of Conduct (200.100) discusses the various forms of academic dishonesty forbidden across the system (§C.1) and states, “The instructor shall, consistent with other policies, report the alleged academic dishonesty to the Primary Administrative Officer.”

The value of being proactive

The University of Missouri System requires you to report any suspected or known academic dishonesty. This reporting process will likely lead to disciplinary proceedings and measures that may imperil a student’s academic progress or career.

Often students cheat due to pressure, stress, time demands, and other life circumstances. We can make efforts in our teaching practice to prevent these conditions and better support students in navigating their learning. It is perhaps wiser and even more effective to take additional steps to minimize the temptation to engage in academic dishonesty in the first place. Taking this route can enhance learning and empower students.

Some strategies to potentially mitigate the possibility of cheating include:

• Frequently communicating with students to foster a sense of community and engagement.
• Providing your contact information and office hours to make yourself available to help and support students.
• Humanizing your interactions with students to build trusting, empathetic relationships with them; there is a correlation between “perceptions that the instructor does not care about students and rationalization of cheating” (Harrison et al, 2022, 181).
• Transitioning to authentic or alternative assessments.
• Lowering the stakes of an assessment by scaffolding it across formative assessments.
• Being more flexible with the timeframes and other conditions for online assessments; consider moving to open book exams and quizzes (Amrane-Cooper, Hatzipanagos, & Tait, 2021).
• Offering students a limited number of “late passes” for assignments, no questions asked, each semester (example).

The importance of academic integrity

Even more than a decade ago, researchers were noting that “there may be unnecessary alarm concerning the prevalence of academic dishonesty in online courses as opposed to face-to-face courses” (Spaulding, 2009). Nevertheless, as we develop and teach our online classes, we should emphasize the value of academic honesty and integrity. Students also benefit from the use of proactive strategies, such as scaffolded assessments, that would supplement institutional policies on academic integrity and reduce pressure and stress. By clearly communicating our expectations for academic integrity and supporting students, we can ensure that students participate in our courses with transparency, integrity, and responsibility.

Created on: April 10, 2024