Academic integrity is about more than just an absence of cheating behaviors. It grows out of and serves our intellectual and academic communities by creating a culture in which we can engage productively and confidently with each other’s ideas and work. The International Center for Academic Integrity defines academic integrity as a commitment to the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. To foster these values effectively, it is essential to move beyond injunctions to attribute quotations or not accept help on exams. We need to encourage deeper engagement with why these values support an academic community and embed these values in the learning environment.
In other words, academic integrity is everyone’s responsibility. It is constructed collaboratively across campus and involves active participation by students, instructors, and staff. For example, if we want students to enact the value of fairness to their peers in class by only turning in work that they independently produced, instructors must also work to embed fairness in the course on the level of the grading system so that students perceive that their work will be assessed accurately and fairly. Using the perspective of cognitive theory, pedagogical scholar James Lang frames “cheating as an inappropriate response to a learning environment that wasn’t working for the student” (2013). Courses that are designed to emphasize process, low-stakes assessment, intrinsic motivation, and students’ self-regulation produce learning environments that support academic integrity.
In response to the advent of generative AI (Artificial Intelligence), the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and Modern Language Association (MLA) joint task force on writing and AI recommends that we “focus on approaches to academic integrity that support students rather than punish them and that promote a collaborative rather than adversarial relationship between teachers and students” (CCCC-MLA Joint Task Force 10). Such an approach means thinking beyond policies and strategies for catching cheating behaviors to the proactive work of building learning environments that value and foster academic integrity and learning. Investing proactively in fostering academic integrity-minded learning environments can also make some of the work of teaching more gratifying and interesting.
Recent developments in AI have intensified conversations about academic integrity, and this technology has no doubt expanded and complicated the discourse. Using AI is not necessarily synonymous with academic dishonesty. You can foster academic integrity while engaging with new generative AI tools, and even use them to have conversations with your students about integrity. Honesty in the context of academic integrity frequently refers to giving credit for others’ contributions. Citation norms are part of this, but with AI tools, authorship, and the rules for attribution are not clearly defined. However, our students are likely familiar with the concept of giving credit for others’ work, whether that be artwork, music, or texts. With the use of AI, we need to make our expectations explicit. For example, “citing” AI might mean including a brief description of how you used AI to support your project, and why you think it was a valuable resource. These conversations will change as the technology and our cultural responses to it change; keeping the conversation open is part of our responsibility as scholars in maintaining academic integrity.
Four principles to promote academic integrity and design integrity-minded learning environments:
1: Make academic integrity relevant to students
Students often encounter the concepts of academic integrity in the form of administrative policies and sanctions, but they don’t always understand why we value academic integrity or how it is practiced in our communities. You can help to make academic integrity relevant to your students by situating salient academic integrity practices such as citation norms or not falsifying evidence in your discipline or professional practice, and by emphasizing how students’ own development benefits from engaging honestly with the learning activities.
Reflect: Why, specifically, does your field or professional community care about academic integrity? What are the major practices of academic integrity in your discipline or field? Why do you do them that way?
2: Set clear expectations
Academic integrity can mean different things in different courses. For example, while one course might explicitly ban any use of generative AI tools, another may allow or even require the use of AI for some learning activities – and a student could be enrolled in both courses in the same semester. Because it is tied to the values and comportment of academic culture, academic integrity can be subject to the hidden curriculum. Students who have not been educated in the United States, or who are new to the culture of American higher ed might bring different ideas about academic integrity practices into the classroom (Amsberry, 2009). You can help students navigate the different contextual meanings of academic integrity by providing explicit guidance on the behaviors that are most salient in your course. Consider providing examples of acceptable and unacceptable ways to complete assignments. Include guidance on academic honesty in your assignment prompts and syllabi – see the Artificial Intelligence Tools and Teaching website for sample syllabus language on generative AI use, and explore ways to design AI-sensitive assignments.
Reflect: What, specifically, does academic integrity look like in your course? What skills will students need to develop in order to practice salient aspects of academic integrity? What opportunities do you have to facilitate ongoing conversations about academic integrity throughout the semester?
3: Emphasize process over product
Learning is a developmental process that requires time and effort. However, if students perceive that only the final outputs of that process will be recognized and rewarded, they may be more motivated to take shortcuts through the learning process. They might prioritize performance on the major products that influence their grade, even if they turn to dishonest behaviors. Supporting, recognizing, and rewarding process can also help students to become more self-regulated learners by giving them tools to plan, monitor their process, and seek support as they work toward higher-stakes assignments. You can help foster students’ intrinsic motivation to engage deeply and honestly in your course by giving them opportunities to understand and reflect on their own development as learners, offering multiple opportunities to try, and by recognizing and incentivizing process work as equally important to polished final products. Consider things like incorporating multiple drafts, providing structured opportunities for students to give, receive, and reflect on feedback, and metacognitive journals and metacognitive wrappers.
Reflect: What opportunities might you have in your course to help students understand themselves as learners, and see their development? How do you incorporate process into your assignments or learning activities?
4: Design consequences for academic misconduct that promote growth and learning
Although we can design learning environments that foster academic integrity, we cannot prevent all academic misconduct. Be prepared for when you encounter instances of misconduct and consider ways that you can support student learning while imposing fair consequences, such as requiring the student to redo the assignment honestly. First, refer to the Dean of Students academic misconduct policies and know that your college may offer additional guidance.
We’ve suggested a few ways you can cultivate integrity-minded learning environments. Let us know how you’re navigating this right now. Email teaching@uiowa.edu to share or set up a time to talk.
Citations
Amsberry, D. (2009). Deconstructing plagiarism: International students and textual borrowing practices. The Reference Librarian, 51(1), 31-44.
Lang, J. (2013). Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty. Harvard University Press.
MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI Working Paper: Overview of the Issues, Statement of Principles, and Recommendations. July 2023.