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“Top Ten” List for Preventing Honor
Code Problems Before They Start
Most faculty members share high ideals about the importance of truth
and shared respect within the university environment. Few anticipate
with pleasure the challenges of dealing with student academic misconduct.
The following “top ten” list reflects the distilled wisdom
of many colleagues in far-flung institutions over the years. It includes
links to other resources available from this website and elsewhere.
- Understand why students cheat, so that you can target your efforts
to preventing misconduct before it occurs. Bear in mind that there
are perhaps 20% of students who would never cheat and perhaps an equal
proportion who will attempt to cheat whatever you may do. Work on preventing
problems that might arise for others. See information
on why students cheat on this website.
- Design tests and writing assignments so that cheating isn’t
easy. On tests, ask students to show their work, not just their answer.
If using multiple choice questions use alternate forms (which can be
keyed in on Scantron answer sheets), or alternate short answer (at
the top of the page) and multiple choice at the bottom where it’s
not so easy to copy. On major research papers, require students to
submit the work in several phases (such as a list of sources with summaries,
an outline, and the paper itself). Read good advice from UC-Berkeley,
Robert Harris's web site Virtual
Salt and resources/links on this web
site.
- Bear in mind that encouraging collaboration can significantly improve
student learning, but can result in ambiguities for students who step
over the line and engage in “unauthorized” assistance later
on. Talk with students very specifically about what is permitted or
not permitted and when. Make it clear that students are responsible
for asking questions if they are in doubt about what is permitted,
and make it easy for them to inquire. Consider providing a handout
or an attachment to your syllabus that addresses the issue of collaboration
specifically. Good examples are available from www.academicintegrity.org (pdf
format) and York
University.
- Don’t assume that students understand what plagiarism is and
why it’s a problem. Recognize the points of tension and potential
confusion such as those portrayed in the useful handout developed by
the Purdue
University Writing Center . After covering the subject with an
eye to your specific discipline, assign students to complete some of
the excellent self-teaching
tutorials. Give them a short quiz on
the subject. You may wish to develop models of your own based on these
resources.
- Emphasize to students your commitment to take integrity seriously
in connection with all their work, and explain that you have high expectations
that they will do so too. For ideas on how to do that, consider the
resources on the on-line discussion section
of the web site.
- Make it easy for students to take responsibility for their own conduct
and for you to hold them to the standard that you set. Explain that
you will not grade any test unless the honor code statement on the
bluebook is properly signed. Attach to your syllabus a one-page summary
regarding the expectations in your discipline for avoiding plagiarism
and providing appropriate acknowledgement of authorities. Require your
students to attach the one-page summary along with their signed statement
representing that they have complied with the requirements each time
they submit an assignment. For example, an extensive list of prohibited
forms of plagiarism is provide among the resources on plagiarism.org.
- Become familiar with the easy ways you can detect plagiarism or other
academic misconduct should it occur. The resources/links
section of this web site contains documents that suggest that warning
signs can include lack of references, strange formatting, language
that is out of character for student writers (such as unfamiliar words),
and more. Instructors may also use a growing number of “plagiarism
detection” tools and strategies (including simple internet search
techniques) such as those listed by:
- University
of Michigan,
- University
of Maryland (University College)
- Ley
Moyne College, Prof. Gretchen Pearson
- Association
of College and Research Libraries.
- Prepare for the inevitable by thinking through some possible scenarios
of student misconduct that might occur in your discipline so you have
thought through how you would respond if a problem arose. Some useful
scenarios for consideration and discussion with colleagues are those
available at the following on-line resources:
- onlineethics.org
- N.C.
State,
- Chronicle
of Higher Education
- University
of Michigan
- Read the Honor Code and related
materials on this website.
- Seek advice from the Center for Teaching
and Learning, colleagues, or student judicial program personnel,
and become involved.
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