Fixes that Fit: Systems Thinking in Academic Integrity

Academic misconduct is typically recorded on student files to deter cheating and identify repeat offenders, but how often is this data analyzed to find systemic issues? By collecting student data, Prinsloo and Slade (2017) assert that higher education has a duty to act in creating improved student experiences. Teymouri et al. (2022) propose the use of academic misconduct data to identify gaps in student supports, policy education, and assessment design. This session will apply a systems thinking approach to propose that post-secondary institutions can create institutional responses in support of academic integrity based on findings from collected academic misconduct data. Reallocating the intensive energy required to respond to misconduct toward early education and assessment design benefits both staff and students. Literature supporting a systems thinking approach for effective data use will be discussed, as well as examples from practice at Conestoga College. Attendees will gain frameworks for applying systems thinking and ethical data use, as well as the opportunity for questions and further discussion

Cardinal Composition

The thesis of Weak Unrestricted Composition says that every pair of objects has a fusion. This thesis has been argued by Contessa (Analysis 72(3):455–457, 2012) and Smith (Erkenntnis 84(1):41–55, 2019) to be compatible with the world being junky and hence to evade an argument against the necessity of Strong Unrestricted Composition proposed by Bohn (Analysis 69(1):27–31, 2009a, Philos Q 59(235):193–201, 2009b). However, neither Weak Unrestricted Composition alone nor the different variants of it that have been proposed in the literature can provide us with a satisfying answer to the special composition question, or so we will argue. We will then go on to explore an alternative family of purely mereological rules in the vicinity of Weak Unrestricted Composition, Cardinal Composition: A plurality of pairwise non-overlapping objects composes an object iff the objects in the plurality are of cardinality smaller than κ. As we will show, all the instances for infinite κs determine fusion and are compatible with junk, and every instance for a κ>ℵ0 is furthermore compatible with gunk and dense chains of parthood

You've got this! The fundamental values of academic integrity

After so many changes in education over the past year, the need to stay grounded in fundamental values is more important than ever. The surge in cognitive offloading tools (i.e. apps and websites that will offer completed academic work), have educators feel they are running a losing race to keep a diverse student body focused on learning content and demonstrating knowledge with integrity. Integrating discussions on the fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage in classroom supports has allowed the Academic Success Centre and Library Services at Red River College to build academic integrity into their suite of supports. Session presenters will share examples of collaborative sessions that have empowered students to analyze options and make decisions that lead to academic success. Session participants will be asked to reflect on opportunities to integrate the fundamental values into their work. This session will encourage you to use the resources you have to promote academic integrity with confidence.&nbsp

Preventing online shopping for completed assessments: Protecting students by blocking access to contract cheating websites on institutional networks

Contract cheating or “the outsourcing of student work to third parties” (Lancaster & Clarke, 2016, p. 639) is a type of academic misconduct that is growing and changing due to advancements in technology and the emergence of a lucrative, multi-million dollar per year industry that targets students relentlessly (Lancaster & Clarke, 2016). In an effort to protect students from engaging in contract cheating, three postsecondary institutions in Manitoba (i.e., Assiniboine Community College, Red River College, and the University of Manitoba) launched initiatives to block access to websites that offer contract cheating services from their networks. This initiative facilitated a preliminary examination of student activity on institutional networks. In any given month, a relatively large number of students (i.e., up to 3,519 unique users) were attempting to access websites identified as providing contract cheating services. We recognize that a single initiative will not eliminate academic misconduct, however, by combining various educational, protective, and preventative strategies, the likelihood that students will make ethical decisions regarding their academic work can be increased

Two problems for Zylstra's truthmaker semantics for essence

In his article ‘Making semantics for essence’ (Inquiry, 2019), Justin Zylstra proposed a truthmaker semantics for essence and used it to evaluate principles regarding the explanatory role of essence. The aim of this article is to show that Zylstra's semantics has implausible implications and thus cannot adequately capture essence