Academic Integrity for Academy Students: Tutorial

RVCC Student Academic Integrity Policy

Policy Statement

Raritan Valley Community College defines academic integrity as a commitment to independent, original, and honest work. Students are expected to conduct themselves with scholarly integrity in all of their academic work. 

Examples of Academic Integrity Violations

Examples of cheating violations include, but are not limited to:

• The use or attempted use of any artificial intelligence, material, information, electronic device,translation software, or study aid in any academic exercise including assignments,quizzes, and tests without the instructor’s permission.
• The use or attempted use of any artificial intelligence, material, information, electronic device, translation software, or study aid in any academic exercise including assignments,quizzes, and tests without the instructor’s permission.
• Copying graded and ungraded homework assignments from another student.
• Working together on a graded assignment that the faculty member has indicated is an individual assignment.
• Looking at another student’s paper during an exam.
• Copying another student’s computer program, class project, or assignment, and submitting it as one’s own.
• Stealing or borrowing all or part of an exam’s questions or answers.
• Entering a computer file without authorization.
• Giving someone answers to exam questions before an exam or while the exam is being given.
• Giving or selling an assignment, term paper, report, drawing, or computer program to another student for submission to the faculty member.
• Deceiving a faculty member to improve one’s grade.
• Falsifying data or a source of information.
• Unauthorized use of any technology to gain access to test answers, test questions or prohibited materials such as notes, online databases and websites during a test.
• Submitting work for a grade that the student already submitted in another class or previous semester without the current faculty member’s permission.
• Submitting work from one course into a second course without permission from the current faculty member.
• Copying quiz questions from Canvas-administered quizzes for private use or for distribution to other students.
• Making up information and citations.
• Using information from study websites (such as Course Hero, Chegg, or Study Buddy) for assignments and submitting it as one’s own work.
• Uploading or sharing an item to a study website (such as Course Hero, Chegg, or Study Buddy)

Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:

• Copying answers from a textbook, website, or any other print/digital source, to submit for a grade without citations and presenting them as their own.
• Using the instructor edition of a textbook for assignment answers without faculty authorization to do so.
• Quoting text or other works without appropriate citations.
• Submitting a paper paraphrased from sources without citations.
• Submitting work obtained from a term paper service or taken from the Internet.
• Submitting work written by someone else (including another student) as one’s own.
• Submitting a paper paraphrased from source material, splicing together sentences from scattered segments of the original.
• Reproduction of visual media and multimedia materials (videos, etc.) without permission from the artist or appropriate citation and distributing the materials as independent.
• Writing an essay using Google Translate (or any other translation tool).

The full Code of Student Conduct can be found in the Student Handbook and the Student Conduct website. Students who wish to challenge an accusation of Academic Dishonesty should speak to the appropriate Divisional Dean and may request a formal Disciplinary Review to adjudicate the matter.

Raritan Valley Community College students are expected to conduct themselves with academic integrity. The activities in this tutorial are designed to get you thinking about some of the temptations to cheat or situations where acting with academic integrity might be difficult or when it is unclear what is the right thing to do. We'll start by learning about some research behind people's motivations for and likelihood of cheating.

Why We Think it's OK to Cheat and Steal (Sometimes)

In this TedTalk, Dan Ariely describes research experiments he has conducted to determine why people cheat or steal. It will begin a few minutes into the video; you can stop the video at 8:22.

Academic Integrity Scenarios

The following scenarios describe situations where students are put in a position to exercise their academic integrity. Read through the scenario and think about whether what is described demonstrates academic integrity. After each scenario, answer the related quiz questions.

Scenario 1

Mid-term exam during Spring Break?! That's harsh.

In Biology 101, there are lab groups of four students. Tiesha, Antonio, Sally, and Jim are in a lab group together. They sit at a lab table together in class, work on all labs together, and write group lab reports that get handed in and graded, and everyone in the group gets the same grade. Over spring break, the professor gives a take-home exam with the following instructions:

This mid-term exam will show me what you have learned so far from our lectures and labs. It is a take-home, open-textbook exam. You may use any notes you’ve taken in class, the assigned textbook, and all the materials I have provided to you online in our course page. The exam is due at our first class session after break, or you can upload it to the class page any time before that class meeting. If you submit your exam before 11:59PM Wednesday of spring break, I will provide feedback and return it to you so you can make improvements before it is due.

Tiesha and Jim both submit their exam before Wednesday and get it back with the instructor’s suggestions. They meet in the library to compare his notes. While there, Antonio shows up to work on his exam, which he hasn’t started. He sits down with his lab partners and the three of them discuss the best answers to the exam questions. They each write their own answers and then read them to each other to make sure they sound good.

Consider: Is this ok? Why or why not? 

Now watch this video to get a different perspective on this issue.

Scenario 2:

“Test”ing the waters

Jean is taking American History as a hybrid class this semester, and all of the tests are online. Her laptop isn’t working because Marco spilled his Starbucks on it, so she goes to the library to use one of the computers there for this unit’s test. As she’s working, a guy in her class, Ben, sees her and comes over.

Ben: What up, Jean?

Jean: Hey Ben! (blushing and nervous because she’s so in love with Ben)

Ben: (Looking over Jean’s shoulder at the test) Oh yeah, man, that question was the hardest one. I looked it up in the textbook to see if I got it right. The answer’s B.

Jean: Really? I was thinking it was C . . .

Ben: I’m telling ya, I checked, it’s B.

Jean: (Uncertainly) Cool, thanks.

Jean selects B and continues with the test. Is this ok? Why or why not?

Working online and academic integrity

Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to doing work for an online class:

• Find a private place to work where you will not be disturbed (like a study room in the library or student center instead of the public computers, we have laptops that can be borrowed for use in the library)
• Do not talk to other students while taking an exam. Stop them before they start. 
• If you thought she was ok to switch her answer, consider whether the professor would have thought that was ok. Would she be able to defend her decision if she's caught? What if another student saw what happened and reported it? Can she demonstrate she acted with academic integrity?
• Remember: academic integrity is making the right decision in a hard situation and doing what is right regardless of whether anyone is watching.

Scenario 3:

Reduce, reuse, recycle

It’s Leslie’s senior year and she is taking Ethics and Morality as an elective. The final assignment is a 10-page research paper on any topic related to what’s been taught in the class. A few semesters ago, Leslie took Introduction to Philosophy and wrote a 9-page paper about the connection between moral behavior and a person’s happiness. She titled that paper, “The Morality of Happiness.” All of the major points in that paper have also been discussed in the class Leslie is now taking. After re-reading the paper, Leslie adds another paragraph to the conclusion to make it 10 pages long. Now that she is a more sophisticated writer, Leslie decides to title this paper, “Don’t Worry, Be Moral: How Happiness and Moral Behavior are Connected.”

Consider: Is this ok? Why or why not?

Now watch this video for an understanding of self-plagiarism.