Reasons Why Students Violate Academic Integrity Rules in a University Setting

A person’s lack of clarity as to what constitutes “cheating” can lead to both the occurrence and the severity of academic dishonesty behaviors. It was hypothesized that participants would be more successful at identifying academic integrity violations involving another person than violations done alone. Further, it was predicted that a participant’s school size would determine the success of identifying academic integrity violations. Participants from a small school (Winthrop University; n=73), a large school (the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; n=125), and other schools (n=26) in the Southeast United States were asked to indicate whether they thought a particular scenario or statement was a violation of academic integrity. Next, participants indicated whether various statements (adapted from a nearby university’s honor code) were violations. Finally, participants rated ethical behaviors and rated the severity of statements related to academic integrity using a previously validated scale. Results found differences in students’ ability to identify types of academic integrity violations with academic violations done alone (ex. self-plagiarism) being correctly identified less often. Additionally, students from a smaller school had a slightly lower rate of correctly identifying academic integrity violations

Interventions for “Best Practices” Teaching of an Introduction to Psychology Course

Since 2019, our lab has focused on best practices for supporting student learning in an introduction to psychology (PSYC 101) course. We discovered that, seemingly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average, overall grades of students in PSYC 101 rapidly declined. As a result, our lab began introducing various intervention strategies in hopes of raising overall scores by maximizing student support and learning. These interventions (such as the use of teaching assistants, AI-driven discussion technology, alternative student-friendly communication, and peer-designed study guides) were added gradually in order to confirm that they were working and/or which would be most effective. One of the more impactful interventions was a low-cost, instructor designed textbook courtesy of Sykepack.com. This textbook was interactive, fit exactly with the course materials, and included built-in study tools like flash cards. Overall, the interventions have combined to significantly improve students’ overall grades (p andlt; 0.05) as current average grades are close to pre-pandemic levels. Research is still ongoing to identify which strategies, if any, are unnecessary or unhelpful and which have been most effective and/or could benefit from minor improvements

Packback Interaction in an Introduction to Psychology Course

Seemingly as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the overall grades of students taking an introduction to psychology course rapidly declined. As an attempt to maintain interaction levels amongst students and help with course grades, various academic interventions were used. One particularly impactful tool was Packback: a discussion-based, Al-driven, writing and communication tool (www.packback.co). This study examined the impact of frequent peer interaction via Packback on enhanced student performance (final course average). We examined and compared the overall grades of students enrolled in Introduction to Psychology for five consecutive semesters-Fall of 2019 through Fall of 2021. This allowed us to examine the impact of Packback on overall student performance. During semesters when Packback was used, students were required to complete a set number of responses and questions each week of a semester. Overall, there was a positive correlation between average Packback participation and overall course grade (p\u3c0.05). Although harder to quantify, the semester evaluations also suggest that the continuous Packback participation requirement allowed for students to stay connected with fellow classmates

Effect of Presenter Credentials on Believability of Tik Tok Mental Health Information

We examined participants’ reactions to an online health care professional and an online social media personality sharing information about autism on TikTok. We hypothesized that young adults would perceive personalized information (social media personality) as more believable and entertaining than more formalized information (health care professional). Participants were 123 adults with a mean age of 23.91 (SD = 7.82). The majority were cisgender women (79%), Caucasian (60%) and heterosexual (68%). We assessed participants’ TikTok engagement and then randomly assigned them to one of two conditions. Half of the participants were shown a formal, informative TikTok video about autism. The speaker was a clinical psychologist who described the diagnostic criteria. The other half watched a more entertaining TikTok video of a social influencer, diagnosed with autism, who described her personal experiences. The videos were identical in length and speaker gender. Then, participants gave their opinions about the video they watched and about autism. We found many similarities in young adults’ engagement with TikTok. The more often adults used TikTok, the more they trusted it, including for mental health help. After viewing the TikTok videos, adults found the clinical psychologist provided more factual and educational information about autism than the young woman who shared her personal story about the disorder. However, the two speakers were perceived as equally entertaining and trustworthy, and influenced viewers’ perceptions of autism similarly. These findings suggest that viewers may be receptive to online mental health information, without careful discernment of the quality of the information