Academic Integrity – Teaching Hub

Transition Multiple-Choice Exams Online: A Large-Enrollment Solution

October 8, 2020

empty notebook with pencil and pencil sharpener

by Diana Leung, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry In 2020 the changes brought about by COVID-19 forced me to transition my normally face-to-face classes to an online format. This fall semester I teach two sections of a freshman Introductory Chemistry class (CH 104), each with about ~200 students, and an Organic Chemistry II (CH 232) sophomore class with ~130 students. One of the worries I had when transitioning online was how to give exams to this large student population. Ultimately, […]

Surprise! Experiential Learning Course Design Assists Academic Integrity

March 21, 2019

by Karen Hollingsworth Gardiner, College of Arts & Sciences I attended my first International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) conference in 2016. Fellow attendees repeatedly recommended James Lang’s Cheating Lessons (Harvard U P, 2013), which I found so eye-opening that the next year I applied for and became a Learning in Action Fellow. What’s the link? An explanation: Lang suggests that we “add one final element to our courses” to help students connect to our coursework in “authentic ways over […]

Visited the A&S Academic Integrity Website Lately?

February 20, 2019

by Karen Hollingsworth Gardiner, College of Arts and Sciences Did you know that the College of Arts and Sciences has an Academic Integrity Initiatives website? Did you know that it is teeming with helpful information and links on a variety of Academic Integrity issues for both faculty and students? If you haven’t visited academicintegrity.as.ua.edu, then you need to check it out. You may find exactly the information you or your students need related to academic integrity issues. Here’s a quick […]

Under Pressure: Four Ways to Enable Academic Integrity

January 24, 2019

by Alexandria Gholston, Department of English Imagine you are an Olympic athlete, and you are about to compete for your country. Imagine the pressure of having your family, friends, teammates, and your country all counting on you to represent them in front of the world. How would you handle such pressure? Would you fold, or would you embrace the moment and seize the opportunity to put all of your hard work on display? Athletes competing at the Olympics spend four […]

Living to See Another Day: Survival Through Academic Integrity

January 24, 2019

Happy young woman under a banner saying "Vive la vie"

by Khadeidra N. Billingsley, Department of English In Imperial China, from the 17th to the early 20th century, individuals who wanted to pursue a career in civil service were required to pass a series of rigorous exams. These tests were only offered every few years and the results could literally change people’s lives. It goes without saying (but I will say it), that the consequences associated with cheating on such a high-stakes examination were severe, including the possibility of the […]

Teaching Citations as Part of the Writing Process: Student Voices

January 17, 2019

by Lauren Fleming, Undergraduate English Major Why do students violate University academic integrity policies? As an English major, I began to wonder about the root of this campus-wide issue. I am often subject to the woes of my non-English-major-but-still-have-writing-assignments peers and have noticed one common denominator: interactions with quotations and citations. Often, a conversation might go like this: Friend: My professor gave me my assignment back and said the citations were wrong, but I am allowed fix them and give […]

Solving the Patchwriting Problem, Part 3: Teaching Paraphrasing/Avoiding Patchwriting

January 16, 2019

by Karen Hollingsworth Gardiner, College of Arts & Sciences Merriam-Webster.org, considering whether or not “patchwriting” should be added to the dictionary, suggests that the concept is a gray area, a sort of “less judgmental midpoint that can be seen as a ‘teachable moment’ rather than an all-or-nothing accusation of plagiarism.” This is especially the case with writing that is still at the draft stage of the writing process, writing in progress but not yet turned in for a grade. See, […]

Solving the Patchwriting Problem, Part 1: What is Patchwriting?

January 16, 2019

by Karen Hollingsworth Gardiner, College of Arts & Sciences In her 1992 Journal of Teaching Writing article “A Plagiarism Pentimento,” Rebecca Moore Howard coined the phrase “patchwriting” to describe the student practice of “copying from a source text and then deleting some words, altering grammatical structures, or plugging in one-for-one synonym substitutes” (233). An example would the student who hews too closely to the original text when trying to incorporate research into their writing. For instance, a student might read […]

Solving the Patchwriting Problem, Part 2: What IS the Patchwriting Problem?

January 16, 2019

by Karen Hollingsworth Gardiner, College of Arts & Sciences In a previous post, “What is Patchwriting?” I included an early definition by Rebecca Moore Howard, who has continued to research and write about this issue for over twenty-five years. Her interest in plagiarism and student citation practices led her to conduct the seminal 2010-2013 Citation Project, a study of the citation practices of 174 first-year students from 16 colleges and universities across the US. Sandra Jamieson (Director of the Writing […]

Plagiarism-Proof Assignment?

November 6, 2017

reflection of sunset in glass photography ball

by Karen Hollingsworth Gardiner, Academic Integrity Initatives It’s a catchy “click-bait” title: “Plagiarism-proof Assignments.” Unfortunately, it’s also a myth. There’s no such thing. If students intend to plagiarize, they will typically find a way, despite our best efforts. The good news is that most students don’t intend to plagiarize, and there are things we can do to help students avoid the plagiarism urge. (See Tips on Assignment Writing for many practical suggestions for developing plagiarism-aware assignments). In addition to these suggestions, […]