Academic Integrity Values
Curt Shoultz; Lisa Vogt; Josh Seeland; Dr. Brenda Stoesz; and Dr. Paul MacLeod
Honesty: Honest students respect college policies, follow their instructors’ instructions, and do their work on their own without any unauthorized help. For a graduate of the business program, that honesty might look like making large bank deposits at the end of the night.
Scenario
Your friend asks you if you want to meet up and do an online quiz together. Somehow you feel uneasy about this. What should you do?
Click on the responses to see the answers to each.
Trust: If you are always honest, you will be able to build a relationship of trust both with your peers and your instructors. Trust is established over time and is based mostly on your actions. In your classroom, an example might be knowing that other people in a group assignment will do their part to help meet the deadline your instructor has given. For a graduate of the early childhood education program, it means the high level of trust placed in you by the parents of the children you care for in a daycare or preschool setting.
Scenario
Charlotte has a difficult time writing her essay. She asks you if she can just have a quick look at yours to see how you went about it. As she is your friend, you want to be helpful, and give it to her before you leave for your job. Charlotte is tired and thinks to herself: “I just want to be done with this. I’m going to change a few things. That should be enough to submit it.” Why do you think Charlotte made this choice?
Click on the responses to see the answers to each.
Courage: To uphold academic integrity standards requires courage to resist temptations for the “easy way out” and to speak up against wrongdoing. In a class this might be a shy student participating in mock interviews or a difficult scenario, which can both be stressful to do in a workplace. This might be graduates of the nursing comprehensive healthcare aid or police studies programs working in dangerous situations.
Scenario
Your course has policy of no cell phones during tests or quizzes but you have noticed that often the other students bring their phones into the tests in their pockets. You have a family member in the hospital and would like to be reachable but you have a quiz. What should you do?
Click on the responses to see the answers to each.
Fairness: A person of integrity is fair. You are fair to your peers when you do your own work, to authors when you acknowledge their work by citing it, to the college when you respect and follow academic integrity standards, and to alumni when your behaviour helps to support the value of their degree. In a classroom, this might be your instructor giving you lots of time to practice and develop a skill before you are tested. And just as you have supports at Assiniboine to help you be the best student you can be, a lot of your future workplaces will have staff and policies in place to help you to do your best.
Scenario
You are a new student and juggling to keep up with your courses while also working a part-time job. You are a bit stressed about your upcoming exam. A student who is a year ahead of you offers you a copy of the exam questions for one of your courses. What action would be acceptable?
Click on the responses to see the answers to each.
Respect: You show respect when you adhere to your assignment instructions, when you actively participate in learning and show interest in gaining new knowledge, when you contribute your thoughts to the academic discourse while accepting that others may disagree with you, when you credit others for their ideas, and when you show that you are putting your best efforts forward. Respect for self and others is a universal value across many family, community, religious, and cultural spectrums. For graduates of programs like land and water management or sustainable foods, you might be working with an external stakeholder group whose cultural values are part of a partnership or collaboration.
Scenario
At the end of your class your instructor says: “Don’t forget your assignment is due next class. Remember, this is an individual assignment. You are meant to work on this alone!” You think, “Oh no, I already completed half of the assignment with Jason and Harpreet!” What should you do?
Click on the responses to see the answers to each.
Responsibility: You show responsible behaviour when you lead by example, when you resist negative peer pressure, and when you discourage others from violating academic integrity principles. Being responsible means being accountable to yourself and others and to do your work to the best of your abilities. As a student, you and your instructors have a responsibility to be on time and ready to work upon graduation. Whether you’re working in a restaurant, a government agency, or a construction company, your responsibilities will be very similar, so you’ll see academic continuity in many aspects of your student life. Here at ACC, this could be in classroom environments, whether they’re in person or online, in your assignments, tests, and exams, and in the Assiniboine Student Honest and Integrity policy.
Scenario
You have difficulties with your studies, especially in one of your courses. You have been stuck on your essay for a whole week already. You are afraid that you may fail the course if you can’t turn this situation around. What should you do?
Click on the responses to see the answers to each.
