In October 2019, the Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) at Dublin City University (DCU) organised a week of events for academic staff and students called ‘Promoting Academic Integrity Week’. The purpose was to provoke discussion with academics and students about academic integrity, why it is important and what can be done to uphold it. The TEU has been involved with an Erasmus+ project to create resources

for academics around assessment design approaches to embed academic integrity. They wanted to collate these resources in a central ‘hub’ for academics and launch and promote it during the week of events. They also wanted to engage students in thinking about academic integrity and what it means, through an online quiz and inviting contributions to a ‘Declaration Wall’ in prominent campus locations. This paper discusses the TEU experience of planning, organising and rolling out the week

of events. The paper also explores the reflections of the TEU on how the events were received by academic staff and students and ideas for refinements for a future iteration

Lowney, Rob

O'Riordan, Fiona

DCU Online Research Access Service

            Reflections on ‘Promoting Academic Integrity Week’ Starting a Conversation with Academics and Students    Dr Fiona O’Riordan and Rob Lowney fiona.m.oriordan@dcu.ie, rob.lowney@dcu.ie Teaching Enhancement Unit Dublin City University Dublin, Ireland     Abstract In October 2019, the Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) at Dublin City University            (DCU) organised a week of events for academic staff and students called ‘Promoting             Academic Integrity Week’. The purpose was to provoke discussion with academics           and students about academic integrity, why it is important and what can be done to               uphold it. The TEU has been involved with an Erasmus+ project to create resources              for academics around assessment design approaches to embed academic integrity.          They wanted to collate these resources in a central ‘hub’ for academics and launch              and promote it during the week of events. They also wanted to engage students in               thinking about academic integrity and what it means, through an online quiz and             inviting contributions to a ‘Declaration Wall’ in prominent campus locations. This           paper discusses the TEU experience of planning, organising and rolling out the week             of events. The paper also explores the reflections of the TEU on how the events were                received by academic staff and students and ideas for refinements for a future             iteration. Keywords  Academic integrity, professional development, assessment   International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  2    1. Introduction The Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) in Dublin City University (DCU) is           approaching the conclusion of an Erasmus+ project titled INTEGRITY. It was funded            under the KA2 strand and involves collaboration with colleagues in partner           institutions in Georgia, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Austria. The TEU led the             development of a suite of professional learning resources for academics to support the             design of assessment which actively encourages academic integrity (DCU Teaching          Enhancement Unit, 2018). Academic integrity has been defined by the International           Center for Academic integrity (ICAI) as “a commitment, even in the face of adversity,              to six fundamental values; honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage”           (Fishman, 2014). As the project is reaching its conclusion, the TEU turned its             attention to sustaining the outputs produced as part of the project and keeping             academic integrity and the resources created as part of this project on the radar of               academic staff in DCU. The TEU discovered an annual international event run under             the auspices of the ICAI called ‘International Day of Action Against Contract            Cheating’ and decided to become involved, with the intention of provoking discussion            around academic integrity with academic staff and students and to draw attention to             the resources that have been created. This international day was scheduled for 16             October 2019. 2. Planning Promoting academic integrity as part of the university experience can have a positive             lasting impact on society and economics (business). Egan (2017) conducted a scoping            review of the literature to investigate how educators can promote academic integrity.            She draws on the work of Dick et al (2002, p.172-173) who highlight the risk of                ‘graduating incompetent professionals…[as they] may produce work that fails or is           even dagnerous to human life’. Jones (2011, p.142) supports this proposition and            points to a correlation between ‘academic honesty and workplace ethics’. Thus,           attention to promoting academic integrity across the university is of the utmost            International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  3    importance, and any opportunity afforded to us should be welcomed - the ICAI and              their recommendation of an ‘International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating’           provided the impetus and idea for such an opportunity. The ICAI provides suggestions             around what institutions can do for International Day of Action Against Contract            Cheating. Many institutions choose to collect pledges from students, in which they            vow to act with academic integrity in their studies. The ICAI also suggests that the               event can be localised, renamed, or extended beyond a single day. They also             recommend engaging with student representatives to include their voice and to           compose a clear message for the event (ICAI, 2019). Given the work the Erasmus project the TEU were involved in, we settled on a               message of ‘Promoting Academic Integrity’ as it was felt this would strike a positive              note. DCU Library and DCU Students’ Union came on board as supporting partners             for this initiative. After discussions with the team it was decided to run a week of                events from 14 to 18 October 2019 dedicated to both students and academic staff. Students An online quiz branded an ‘Academic Integrity Challenge’ was made available for the             week on DCU’s virtual learning environment. Its aim was to test students’ knowledge             of academic integrity and related practices. Students were encouraged to take the            challenge with the prospect of winning Ticketmaster vouchers in a raffle. For one hour at lunchtime over three days, the TEU team manned a ‘Declaration              Wall’ in prominent locations in two campus libraries and the student centre building             and invited students to make pledges around academic integrity or share their            thoughts and opinions on integrity, plagiarism and cheating. These were captured on            post-its and affixed to the wall. Academic staff The academic integrity resources were collated and made available on a new            ‘Academic Integrity Hub’ on DCU’s virtual learning environment. These resources          included a list of 12 principles of academic integrity, a checklist, a glossary, case              studies, discussion scenarios and a suite of screencast videos showing how to use             technology to embed good academic integrity. Academics were given access to this            International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  4    hub and two lunchtime webinars held during the week explored the hub and resources              with them. 3. Reflections Although planning for this week of events commenced in September 2019, and its             planning was kept low-key, the TEU was very pleased with how the events ran and               were received by students and academics. Keeping it low-key was an intentional            approach by the TEU as this was the first time getting involved with the International               Day of Action and organising an event of this kind. The TEU was cautious about               widening participation in the organisation of the events as they were uncertain about             how it would be received or how manageable the planning workload would be. The              TEU was the lead behind the events and both DCU Library and DCU Students’ Union               were supportive partners, but if the events were to be run again, more time for               planning and preparation would give opportunities for others to be involved. In            particular, the TEU feels that there could be a role for lecturers from different              faculties across the university to become involved and promote the message of            academic integrity locally with their own students in their own programmes.           Similarly, there would also be scope for student representatives to become more            centrally involved and be the ‘face’ of the events as this might lead to greater               engagement and impact with the wider student body. Beginning the planning with            more partners much further in advance could also lead to additional events or             innovative ideas being incorporated into the week. The lunchtime webinars were well-received by those who attended. They did not            impinge much on academics’ time, as they lasted for 45 minutes each, and academics              could log in and participate from any location. This was a bonus in terms of making it                 accessible to as wide a group of academics as possible. The webinars explored the              new Academic Integrity Hub and the resources located therein, but were this week to              occur again, perhaps an academics’ event in which they contributed themselves, or            completed practical activities around assessment design would have greater impact,          rather than simply exploring resources. It could be difficult to get engagement in             International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  5    something like this, however, as it would require more commitment and effort from             academics, rather than just logging into a webinar. The event over which the TEU was most uncertain about were the student             ‘Declaration Walls’. The TEU had never engaged in such an activity before and had              no baseline from which to gauge potential student reactions. Nonetheless, the TEU            proceeded, as they felt these ‘Declaration Walls’ would create a visual representation            of the week’s events and become a collaborative artefact of the discussion around             academic integrity provoked during the week. The TEU felt the ‘Declaration Walls’ worked well. Students who were approached by             TEU staff and invited to add to the wall were curious and open to participating. The                majority of them did not immediately have a contribution to make, nor did it appear               that academic integrity was to the forefront of their mind. However, after engaging in              discussion with TEU staff and being prompted to think about plagiarism and cheating,             they articulated an opinion thereupon. Most of the students with who the TEU spoke              then wrote their opinion on a post-it and affixed it to the wall. A ‘snowball effect’                could be seen. As the TEU stopped more students to speak to, and as more students                added to the wall, passers-by were drawn to the wall as it became larger and as more                 people gathered around. Over 120 contributions were made to the walls. The TEU is currently collating and              transcribing the individual contributions, with a view to producing them into a digital             artefact for disseminating throughout DCU and further afield. Some initial rough           themes that have emerged include: ● Fairness — plagiarising and cheating is not fair on others, e.g. “​it’s not respectful”; “when my friends try to cheat I feel disappointed”; “it’s             bad form”; “it’s wrong to take credit for somebody else's work” ● Right and wrong — plagiarising and cheating is just simply wrong, e.g. “cheating is disgusting”; “it's morally wrong”; “honesty is the best policy”;           “plagiarism is theft” ● Value of degree — plagiarising and cheating affects the value of the degree for              all students, e.g. International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  6    “undervalues my hard work”; “uphold the reputation of DCU”; “we don’t           cheat because we want to be ethical nurses” “success should be earned” ● Learning — plagiarising and cheating leads to no learning, e.g. “only the dull cheat”; “I don’t cheat because I want the work I produce to be                authentic”; “leaves you unprepared for practical work”; “the results are not           real” We also got a few amusing outlier comments that are worth mentioning: ​I don’t cheat               because…“my mother will disown me”; “I am already too smart”; “ they are always              watching...they are everywhere”; “I don’t trust the person I am cheating off”​,            demonstrating the fun that was had through discussions at the declaration walls. Figure 3.1: Photos of the three ‘Declaration Walls’  Figure 3.2: Photo of combined ‘Declaration Walls’  International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  7    4. Conclusions and Future Work Overall, the TEU was satisfied with how ‘Promoting Academic Integrity Week’ was            received by academics and students and intends to run it again in 2020, incorporating              the improvements that were identified in their reflections. In particular, the TEU            invites commentary from other institutions on this initiative and is eager to collaborate             with other institutions who may wish to run an event like this in the future.   International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  8    References DCU Teaching Enhancement Unit. (2018)​. TEU Integrity Project. ​Retrieved on 27th           November 2019 at ​https://teuintegrityproject.wordpress.com/ Dick, M., Sheard, J., Bareiss, C., Carter, J., Joyce, D., Harding, T., & Laxer, C. (2002,                June). Addressing student cheating: definitions and solutions. In ​ACM SigCSE          Bulletin, 35(2), 172-184. Egan, A. (2018). Improving Academic Integrity through Assessment Design. Dublin          City University, National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL). Fishman, T. (2014). ​The fundamental values of academic integrity​. Clemson          University: International Center for Academic Integrity. International Center for Academic Integrity (2019). ​Preparing for the International          Day of Action against Contract Cheating​. Available from:        https://live-academicintegrity.pantheonsite.io/product/international-day-of-action-against-contract-cheating-checklist/ Jones, D. L. (2011). Academic dishonesty: Are more students cheating?. ​Business           Communication Quarterly, 74(2), 141-150.    International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP), University of Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 12 & 13, 2019  9   

Reflections on 'Promoting Academic Integrity Week'

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Reflections on 'Promoting Academic Integrity Week'

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