Academic Integrity
What is Academic Integrity?
Highline College simply defines Academic Integrity as a promise to act honestly, have trust, respect others, and be fair in all of your academic endeavors (adapted from ICAI).
What is Academic Dishonesty?
The opposite of Academic Integrity, is Academic Dishonesty.
Academic Dishonesty is when someone consciously, or unconsciously, makes a choice to cheat, plagiarize, fabricate or falsify information, work with others when not permitted, and/or other academic misconduct such as sharing answers to an exam. This is outlined in the Student Conduct Code. Please see Prohibited Student Conduct charges 1 a-e.
What are the types of Academic Dishonesty?
Cheating
Attempting to get unauthorize assistance and take credit for work that is dishonest, disrespectful, or unfair.
Examples include:
- Using AI, like Chat GPT, Bard, Bing, etc., to write (portions of to the entirety of) your papers, assignment, or solve problems, unless, an assignment specifically asks you to use it
- Using sites like Chegg, Course Hero, and google to find answers to any assignment, homework, quiz, test, or assessment
- Copying another student’s work
- Purchasing help on assignments and assessments
- Using unauthorized calculators, mobile devices, websites, and tools
- Getting exam questions from a student who previously took the course
Plagiarism
Taking or using other people’s work without a proper citation or submitting the same work for two different courses. There many types of Plagiarism and it is not limited to written work. Plagiarism can also be accidental due to a lack of knowledge in proper citation. Learn more from the Highline Library. Consider engaging with their tutorial.
Connect with a Highline librarian – a librarian can assist you with research, getting citations, and reviewing your list of works cited and in-text citations for accurate formatting.
Types of Plagiarism include:
- Direct: Copying direct wording from AI-generators or a person’s work with no attempt to show the information is from an outside source and claiming it as your own
- Patchwork: Copying work from multiple people, rearranging their work and claiming it as your own with no attempt to cite the original sources
- Insufficient Citation: When personal work is combined with work of others without proper quotation and citation
- Paraphrasing: When a person paraphrases what is said/ done in original work without giving create to the original source
- Misrepresentation of Common Knowledge: Not providing a citation for information because the student believes it is “common knowledge” when it is not
* Adapted from Northern Illinois University *
Fabrication
Presenting false information as true in any class work.
Fabrication includes:
- Making up fake data for a project
- providing false information in a paper
- Citing the wrong resource in research
Collusion
Working with others on independent work, or having someone else complete work for you and claim it as your own.
Collusion includes:
- Working together on an individual assessment or assignments
- Sharing work or communicating during tests, quizzes, and individual assignments
- Using group work as your individual work
Learn more from University of Melbourne
Academic Misconduct
Any other academically dishonest acts.
Academic Misconduct includes:
- Changing grades on assignments
- Misrepresenting who you are
- Someone else taking an online exam for you
- Having someone else write a paper or assignment for you
Specific expectations surrounding Academic Dishonesty will be outlined in each course syllabus. Your course syllabus is a contract between the instructor and the student. This contract is binding and taken seriously.
How does the Academic Integrity Process work?
Each case is unique and it often can be difficult to map out what a standard process would look like. There are 4 main steps:
Report: The incident is reported
Connect: The Student Conduct Officer connects with the reporter to determine the best course of action
Explore: If this is the first time the student is referred to the Student Conduct Office, the reporter and officer may explore three options: (1) Simply keep record of instance & address issue at classroom level, (2) informally resolve the issue through a developmental conversation with the student, or (3) engage in the formal conduct process. If the student has been referred to the office 2 or more times, the student will engage in the formal process. Learn more about the formal process.
Resolve: A case will be closed once there is proper documentation, meetings have been held, and/or decisions have been made and educational conditions are submitted. The reporter may be notified when a case is closed.
View a more detailed outline of the process (pdf).
View a flowchart of the process (pdf).