Rachel Teel
STS 589 FA20
Homework #2
11/23/2020
Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct
Academic integrity is a critical aspect of education, especially when it comes to higher
education. The final step of the education system is college/university, the habits and values
that are formed there are most likely going to stay for the following industry career. Academic
misconduct is directly connected to one’s academic integrity, and in order to hold the
education standards of integrity the misconduct must be efficiently handled. In engineering
academic integrity is vital to foster as integrity later is industry is critical due to legal reasons. In
the different engineering codes the concept of avoiding deception and attributing the true
source of information is frequently referenced.
I believe that academic integrity needs to be highly emphasized in all educational
settings. The core purpose of academia is to learn and grow as individuals and integrity should
be a fundamental concept from the beginning. At a young age, students should begin to learn
about academic integrity so that they value is carried throughout schooling and then further
into the working world. An honor code can help to define the foundation of the academic
integrity expected from each student and should be discussed at the beginning of every school
year. In higher education, students are there by choice and academic integrity should be held to
a high standard.
In my experience, academic integrity was only discussed to specify the things I could do
wrong in school, until I went to college. College was the first place that discussed the issue in
terms of having integrity instead of just the basic no cheating rules. Academic integrity was
taken very seriously at my undergraduate college and was emphasized in each of my
engineering classes. I was surprised at the beginning that professors expected me to
understand exactly what they meant by academic integrity, as I had not grown up with that
term being used. Many of my classes throughout the years used honor codes and rules for how
to conduct oneself with academic integrity specific to the class and assignments. This was very
helpful as it served as guidelines for applying the principles in the appropriate way for the given
class.
Rachel Teel
STS 589 FA20
Homework #2
11/23/2020
The value of academic integrity can be enhanced by introducing it to all students at a
young age and providing guidelines for conduct. One of the issues is that “[s]tudents are no
longer embarrassed by it” (Selingo, 2004, p.26) so there is not a huge deterrent unless severe
consequences are laid out ahead of time. If students are helped to understand that academic
integrity involves holding yourself to a higher standard, then it will become a life principle that
no one wants to break. Selingo (2004) notes that Georgia Tech put in a university-wide honor
code and have seen a 22 percent drop in the number of students found cheating. An honor
code can give students something to guide them through academic integrity and the earlier
that is started in education the more successful it will be.
I believe that academic misconduct is a topic that is not talked about enough and in a lot
of cases not handled properly. In all my years of school, I have never actually seen academic
misconduct handled per the syllabus. I have been around cheating that was caught in high
school, but no big consequences ever came of it. I am sure many others have similar
experiences, which leads to academic integrity and misconduct not taken very seriously.
Students and teachers/professors need to be responsible for academic misconduct and the
consequences that should come of it. One of the major issues in dealing with misconduct is that
“many faculty members simply ignore or are unaware of the cheating that goes on in their
classrooms” (Selingo, 2004, p.26). That kind of attitude from faculty only feeds into students
not taking it seriously.
Stone (2003) says in his editorial that “[p]lagiarism is morally and ethically wrong” (p.47)
and I think that this applies to all academic misconduct. The opportunity to get an education is
not something that should be taken lightly and going against academic integrity and the policies
in place is wrong. The lack of consequences that many students observe lead to frustrated
students that no longer care about misconduct. I have personally been frustrated after seeing
people cheat and get a higher grade than I honestly worked hard for. It creates an environment
around cheating and academic misconduct that does not teach young students to respect
academic integrity and trust that misconduct will be properly handled.
Rachel Teel
STS 589 FA20
Homework #2
11/23/2020
In engineering specifically, the attitude that misconduct does not bring consequences
comes through when the work is hard. Engineering is known for being a hard major, and when
students have grown up around cheating and misconduct without consequences, they are
much more likely to continue or start those same practices. The availability of technology now
provides an even easier access to information in a secret manner and the availability of so many
documents to copy for personal use.
The current prevalence of academic misconduct needs to be address in several different
manners. Strengthening the value of academic integrity in students will help to lower the
misconduct and allow students to truly value learning. The other form of attack is policing
situations that are likely to product academic misconduct and properly handling infractions that
are found. Selingo gives a tip to emphasize learning in students “give students examples of
what’s not acceptable when working with others” (2004, p.27). This advice applies to instances
other than group work, as guidelines can help students delineate in their mind what is expected
of them. Outlining the consequences of breaking the outlined guidelines is also important, and
even more critical is following through on those.
Faculty failing to follow through and give consequences for academic misconduct falls
into the category of a deceptive act, which goes against engineering ethical codes. Another way
faculty can show students that academic misconduct is of importance, is by alerting students
and using a plagiarism detection tool for all assignments. I agree with Neill and Shanmuganthan
that “the issue of detection has not received enough attention” (2004, p.20). On occasion a
professor will use a detection tool, but it has always been unclear exactly what that tool is
looking for and how useful it is. A proper software tool to analyze student documents for any
form of plagiarism, will help faculty properly police misconduct. Once that is doable the issue of
actually acting on the consequences is important to show students that it will be followed
through completely. It will require involvement from many different groups to successfully
combat academic misconduct and develop academic integrity. Neill and Shanmuganthan (2004)
note that 75 percent of college students admit to cheating. I hope to see that value go down in
the coming years, and it will require diligent effort from all.
Rachel Teel
STS 589 FA20
Homework #2
11/23/2020
References
Stone, W. R. (2003, August). Plagiarism, Duplicate Publication, and Duplicate Submission: They
Are All Wrong! [Editorial]. EEEAntennas and Propagation Magazine, 45(4). Retrieved
2020.
Selingo, J. (2004, September). The Cheating Culture. ASEE Prism, 14(1), 24-30.
Neill, C. J., & Shanmuganthan, G. (2004, September/October). A Web-Enabled Plagiarism
Detection Tool. IT Pro, 19-23.
