Fanshawe implementing more academic integrity measures

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To learn more about academic integrity and how to cite in APA format, attend one of the Fanshawe Library and Media Services Co-Curricular workshops.

Fanshawe College, the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU), and Library and Media Services are teaming up to remind students of academic integrity’s importance.

The FSU website features an academic integrity section called Donut Cheat. Donut Cheat highlights the definition of academic integrity, what counts as an academic offence, and the penalties after committing an academic offence.

The academic offence examples include plagiarising and cheating on a test, submitting work by other people without permission from the instructor, using unauthorized materials for schoolwork and falsifying records. Consequences for committing an academic offence can range from failing an assignment and classes to being expelled from the College.

In the Academic Integrity Policy (A136), found on the Fanshawe College website, credentials including degrees, diplomas, or certificates acquired from the College could be taken away from a student or former student if it’s found that there was a major breach of one or more academic offences when the credentials were acquired.

The FSU’s Academic Integrity web page also has information on citing in APA and MLA formats and links to the turnitin.com and Owl Purdue citation resources, along with links to further details about academic appeals and the rights and responsibilities of the College community.

Chelsea Bancroft, the FSU’s advocacy and communications coordinator, said in an email interview that although most of the academic offences are clear, there are some offences students might not consider as such. She said that sharing an in-class password with someone absent from class is considered an offence in one of her classes. Bancroft said students should ask their instructors if they have any doubts.

“It can never hurt to double check if you are unsure,” Bancroft said.

She added that by informing students about academic integrity, the students will find success in their academics and life after Fanshawe.

“Our hope is with all the tools and resources the College and the FSU are offering the students,” Bancroft said, “that the topic of academic integrity will be able to go down in terms of issues, as we are trying to make the offences clear as possible in advance for students.”

In an email to Interrobang, Mary Pierce, the dean of the Faculty of Business, Information Technology and Part-Time Studies, said that during the past decade the College’s record of academic integrity offences grew. She said students must know the different types of academic offences and how they can avoid them.

“Plagiarism is the number one area of AI [academic integrity] challenges at Fanshawe followed by cheating on tests,” she said. “Understanding plagiarism helps students to do better research and improve the quality of their academic work.”

Kara Malott, the program manager for the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business, emailed an overview of the academic integrity initiatives. The new actions include revising the College’s Academic Integrity Policy (A136), adding a module for students to complete on Fanshawe Online (FOL) each year, and hiring an academic integrity manager.

Jessica Bugorski, the acting director of Fanshawe’s Library and Media Services, said the academic integrity manager is a completely new role at Fanshawe. The manager, who is expected to start sometime in the fall, will educate students and faculty about academic integrity and continue to implement the policy.

Bugorski said that while issues with academic integrity aren’t new, the College is seeing it more often. She said it’s likely because there are more students than there were in the past, but also a difference in how we access information for academic research.

“Scholarship has changed, right?” Bugorski said. “These aren’t the old days where the best resources were just books. Information is readily accessible digitally and therefore people are just able to scoop up kind of bits and pieces from absolutely everywhere, and I don’t think a lot of people are always aware that they need to attribute that to someone else.”

She said anyone with questions about academic integrity should speak to their instructors and Library and Media Services staff, along with reviewing the academic integrity policy and taking the quiz on FOL. Bugorski said that Library and Media services also partnered with the FSU for the Academic Integrity and APA Citation workshops, which have had what she called “record-setting attendance” so far.

“I think the word’s getting out there that academic integrity is really important to the College and a lot more students are signing up and coming to the sessions.”

On the Fanshawe Library and Media Services website, the APA Citation and Documentation workshop is scheduled for Oct. 7 and the Academic Integrity Fundamentals workshop is scheduled for Oct. 9. Students can sign up for the workshops, which also count towards the Fanshawe Co-Curricular Record, by visiting fanshawelibrary.com/ccr-student-workshops.

Visit fsu.ca/academic-integrity for more information on academic integrity.