Saturday, May 3, 2008

9,000 Freshman, One Common Foundation: Academic Integrity

Leslee Shell, Joseph Buenker, and Julie Tharp from Arizona State University.

ASU has 60,000 students on 4 campuses. Campuses used to be autonomous, but new president and provost wanted to have "One University in Many Places". Now most students take courses on more than one campus, single accreditation, single Senate, increased collaboration.
Created ASU 101 course, required for all first-semester freshmen. Basically taught what it's like being a freshman at ASU. Also have an FYE program, not required, but for at-risk and other students. Also had Freshman Seminars.
ASU 101 had over 400 sections, taught by faculty, administrators, advisors, etc.
Librarians decided they needed to be involved, and that academic integrity was a good way to do it.
Academic integrity is more than just plagiarism. Surveys show that serious test cheating has become a bigger problem over time, while plagiarism has remained steady.
Peers are largest factors in deterring or encouraging cheating.

Students cheat because of ignorance, not invested in learning, situational ethics, low risk of detection (Auer and Kupar, 2001)
What students say: Time pressure, ease of cut-and-paste plagiarism, dislike for the class or professor (Lester and Diekhoff, 2002), low risk of detection, peer behavior (McCabe, Trevino and Butterfield, 2001)
Who cheats: HS students cheat at a higher rate, more widespread at larger campuses, frat/sorority and college athletes are more likely to.

AI Module: Out-of-class assignment first. They created a scenario for each AI violation, instructors chose 5 that best fit their class, then students watched a PPT, discussion board, and quiz. They wanted students to be able to tell which uses of information were honest or dishonest. Professors could choose which parts were completed online or in class. This one was required of all 400 sections.
They also created a plagiarism module, which wasn't required. Consisted of handout, test, discussion.

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