Overview
According to academic integrity specialist Madison Hansen academic integrity is “engaging with all of our academic work and the people in our communities of learning in a way that is honest, open, and ethical” so university community members can get the most out of their time and efforts. She explains that a university community is filled with individuals who want to be and do their best, but they may find themselves navigating new experiences without the confidence to make the best choice.
What design strategies could be used to ensure the academic integrity of your course? You can design instructions and assessments with some strategies in mind. Below are some tips and tools that can be used on online learning to help students uphold the academic standards of our university community.
How to Build In Academic Integrity Strategies
Build Student Understanding of Academic Integrity
Promote Academic Integrity from the beginning of the semester and throughout. Engage students in a conversation about what it means to be ethical in their course work.
Include an Academic Integrity statement in the syllabus that clearly outlines expectations.
Support students in avoiding plagiarism by modeling and requiring proper citations and providing practice for paraphrasing.
Strategies for Written Assignments
Require annotated bibliographies in which students have summarized potential reference sources and identified how they may support the intent of the assigned research.
Break research and writing projects into phases with activities throughout a course that culminate in a final written submission. This not only results in stronger final submissions but reduces the opportunity for submitting a final product that was created by someone else.
Add Ouriginalto assignments in Canvas, allowing written submissions to be checked for proper documentation and potential plagiarism.
Strategies for Testing
Create tough questions, particularly in open-book situations, so it requires more than skimming a page to determine an answer.
Focus on higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy for questions that require more analyzing, applying, and evaluating versus remembering and understanding.
Limit test-taking times. In Canvas, for example, an instructor can adjust options, such as setting a timer for completing a test or limiting the time a test is available. With limited time, students are less able to communicate with others or look up answers from unapproved sources.
Use LMS settings to display random questions from pools so students will receive different versions of the same test.
Select the option to show answers to question in random order for multiple choice questions.
Update or change questions regularly to eliminate the potential for questions to be shared with future classes.
Engage the Boise State Testing Center for remote test proctoring if needed.
Use Alternatives to Tests
Online learning provides more opportunities for assessing learning than one might find in most physical classrooms. By removing scheduled time limits and the physical environment, students can demonstrate their ability to perform tasks, analyze situations, solve problems, apply solutions, and innovate with their new knowledge and understanding. There are a variety of alternatives to tests when it comes time to Assess Online Learning. Here are just a few:
Video recordings of student performing tasks or role playing a scenario
Podcasts explaining concepts
Un-essays providing creativity and choice of methods to demonstrate a concept
Creation of 3-D models of solutions or design concepts
Examples
Instead of this | Do this |
Mid-term exam | Short quizzes with each module drawing random questions from large test pools |
Final exam | Final project demonstrating course learning objectives |
Proctored test | Open-book test with random questions to be completed in 45 minutes |
End-of-course research paper | Research paper completed in stages with assignments relating to topic selection, library research and citation skills, annotated bibliography, draft of sections with peer evaluation, video presentation highlighting results and lessons learned, final submission |
Related Information
Academic Integrity for Faculty at Boise State University
Academic Integrity Workshop by Boise State University
Academic Integrity Tools and Samples from the International Center for Academic Integrity
Bloom’s Taxonomy by Vanderbilt University
How to Prevent Cheating During Online Tests by Schoology Exchange
Tips for Online Tests from Boise State’s Academic Integrity Program
Want to stop cheating on online quizzes?...Let them cheat! by OLC Insights