Academic Integrity On Our Campus … What To Do?
Fall 2007 - course #1
Instructor: Shawn McGuirk
CLOSED
Course Overview:
Academic integrity issues are prevalent on every campus. As expert Don McCabe has cited in his Assessment Project of undergraduate students:
- 70% of students admit to some kind of cheating.
- Internet plagiarism is a growing concern.
- Faculty are reluctant to hold students accountable for cheating.
- In high schools, over 70% of respondents at public and parochial schools admitted to one or more instances of serious test cheating and over 60% admitted to some form of plagiarism.
This information begs the question, “if academic integrity is that serious of an issue on our campuses, what should we as educators be doing about it?”
Naturally, responses will vary. Some institutions expect faculty to address these matters with students. Others will require judicial administrators to adjudicate these cases. What do you do where you are, and is it working for you?
Course Outline:
Participants will be provided background information like that found above. We will then address various ways to adjudicate academic integrity issues properly, and how to go about facilitating positive and fruitful relationships between students, faculty and staff on this topic. The class will also define plagiarism and address how to recognize it and work with staff, faculty and students in preventing it. Resources will be identified for proper citation.
Finally, participants will be provided case studies with questions to address with the class to facilitate further discussions and sharing of experiences.
Topics will be explored in depth on the Discussion Board where we will "come together" for what I believe will be thought provoking interchange.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, active participants will be able to:
- Gain a historical perspective on academic integrity issues.
- Address “best practices” in adjudicating academic matters.
- Become familiar with different ways of addressing these matters, and getting buy-in from faculty, staff and students.
- Share strategies on how to best train your conduct board when adjudicating academic cases.
- Define and recognize plagiarism.
- Become familiar with internet cites addressing proper citation.
- Participate in real-life case studies so as to be better prepared should similar situations arise on your campus.
Participant Expectations:
Participants should expect to devote about 5 hours during each week of this three weeks course in order to read the online materials, fully participate in the online discussions and submit the online assignments. The final project for the course will take all of the information above into account as participants delve into an intricate case study of their own making. They will also be expected to create a profile and group on facebook, as well as find people at other institutions.
This will be administered as an asynchronous class which means participants can log on whenever they wish and whatever location they have Internet access. The Discussion Board is the focus of online learning in this course. There will be no "real time" meetings for this course. On the Discussion Board we will spend time considering many facets of facebook.com, and issues that others are experiencing on their campuses. Participation in the online discussion is critical to your success in the class and is expected of each student.
Instructor Bio:
Shawn McGuirk is Director of Judicial Affairs and Mediation at Fitchburg State College. Prior to working at FSC, Shawn was Director of Student Development & Conduct at Brandeis University. He has worked in Student Affairs at Boston College, the University of Maine, and was an RD for 3 years at Marist College in New York. Shawn is Circuit Representative for ASJA, Circuit 1. When he's not at work, he's at home with his wife and 3 children. He enjoys a good cup of coffee and playing golf (though he's not very good at it).
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