A Question of Integrity

By Lori Bona Hunt

Just about every professor has a favourite story to tell about a student who tried to pass off another's work as his or her own. For drama professor Ann Wilson, it's the "Love Story" episode, where a dating couple wrote one essay together and each turned it in under their own name.

It was when Wilson was teaching one section of a two-section course at York University. "I happened to be in the office of my colleague who was teaching the other section, when I glanced down at a pile of essays on the desk and noticed that the paper on top looked familiar."

It turned out to be the exact same essay another student had submitted in Wilson's section of the course. "We figured out the two students were going out. I guess they decided they would write one essay and share it between the two of them. Now that's love," she says with a chuckle.

But Wilson and other professors at U of G and across Canada agree that academic misconduct such as plagiarism is no laughing matter. This month, 47 economic students at Simon Fraser University were accused of cheating on an assignment. Last year, more than 120 students at the University of Alberta were charged with academic misconduct, with 45 of them being suspended or expelled. The University of Toronto is currently investigating 150 students for academic misconduct.

U of G administrators and faculty say it's difficult to know how widespread it is at Guelph and how to determine if students know what constitutes plagiarism - or, if they know, whether they consider it academic misconduct. And even if a professor is pretty sure a paper she or he is grading includes plagiarized sections, how does one verify it or even find the time to take such action?

These issues are just some of the topics Teaching Support Services (TSS) and the Learning Commons, in conjunction with a newly formed Academic Integrity Committee, hope to tackle with a series of initiatives aimed at protecting academic integrity at Guelph. They include:

• surveying professors, teaching assistants and students this month to find out how widespread the problem is at Guelph, how concerned people are, the level of understanding and acceptance of policies and procedures, and suggestions for dealing with issues;
• continuing to analyse literature that looks at academic misconduct at other North American universities;
• pilot testing software that scans papers for plagiarism; and
• making academic integrity the focus of the 15th annual Teaching and Learning Innovations Conference this spring.

"I believe these initiatives will put Guelph at the forefront of dealing with this issue," says TSS director Prof. Julia Christensen Hughes, who, along with the Learning Commons and Academic Integrity Committee, spent more than a year reviewing the literature and exploring how academic misconduct is dealt with at other North American universities, at the request of the Vice-President (Academic)'s Council.

The committee released the findings of this research last month. The report included some disheartening statistics, such as: 84 per cent of university students in North America engage in some form of academic dishonesty; Web sites offering term papers receive as many as 80,000 hits a day; and students are more likely to engage in such misconduct if they think their peers are doing the same and getting away with it.

"The research also shows that 40 to 60 per cent of faculty who have seen academic misconduct say they have chosen to do nothing or little in response," says Christensen Hughes. "That's why we want to engage our faculty in the process to find out where they feel they need more support. And that's why we want to involve our teaching assistants and students as well, so we can understand what the issues are from their perspective and what help we can provide. The University has well-defined policies in this area, but it seems they are not always followed. We need to understand why."
(Information about U of G's policies is available on the University Web site at www.uoguelph.ca/GraduateStudies/calendar/archive/19982000/genreg/miscondu.html.)

Later this month, TSS will send out three different e-mail surveys to faculty, teaching assistants and students, asking them about their perceptions of academic integrity at Guelph. The survey has been endorsed by both the U of G Faculty Association and CUPE 3913, which represents teaching assistants. Data will be sorted by college and will become part of a larger study being conducted by Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity in North Carolina.

"No one at Guelph will see any individual responses - they will be sent directly to Duke for aggregation," says Christensen Hughes. "Confidentially is absolutely assured."
From an institutional point of view, she says, "it's critical that we understand this issue and develop plans and strategies for dealing with it effectively."

Prof. Maureen Mancuso, associate vice-president (academic), who has been working with TSS and the Learning Commons on the initiatives, adds that the main reason for doing the survey is to provide real data about attitudes at Guelph. Previous reports about academic misconduct have varied considerably from year to year.

"There is concern among both faculty and students about maintaining academic integrity," she says. "Data from other sources indicate there is an erosion of academic integrity across North America and that student attitudes about what is 'acceptable' behaviour are changing. We want to collect information specific to Guelph, which can be reviewed and understood in light of the data from other jurisdictions."

Provost Alastair Summerlee says he's pleased that Mancuso, TSS and the Learning Commons have launched these initiatives. "It's very important that we support our faculty and students in this area of concern," he says.

The survey results will be shared this May at TSS's Teaching and Learning Innovations Conference, which is being co-hosted by the Learning Commons and McLaughlin Library. At the conference, faculty, students and teaching assistants will be able to comment on the survey and make recommendations for enhancing academic integrity. The event will also include workshops and two keynote speakers: Don McCabe of Rutgers University, who has done much of the existing research on academic misconduct in North America, and Robert Harris, author of The Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting and Dealing With Plagiarism.

In the meantime, TSS and the Learning Commons will continue to provide other support programs and educational materials aimed at maintaining academic integrity, including developing a Web site and pilot testing the software program Turnitin, a Web-based service that identifies essays that may have been purchased through "paper mills" or sections of papers that may have been plagiarized from the Internet.

"You submit a paper electronically, and it takes about 24 hours to get it back," says Pat Thompson, who is overseeing use of the software for TSS. The papers come back with questionable sections highlighted in colour and a notation about the source of the information.

A second phase of the pilot test is scheduled for this semester. For more information about the program, visit the Web site www.turnitin.com or call Thompson at Ext. 2965.

Having options and guidance about academic misconduct is welcomed by professors such as Wilson. "I think students plagiarize for many reasons," she says. "In some cases, they do it out of desperation. Others plagiarize because it's the easy thing to do. I also think some students genuinely don't know what is acceptable and what is not."

For these reasons, she adds, professors have an obligation to their students to make academic misconduct difficult. "Part of the solution involves designing assignments that are specific in addressing concerns particular to the course and issues that have been raised in class."