For Instructors
- Always reporting infractions and adhering to grading practices for addressing instances of academic dishonesty will earn you a reputation, making students less likely to cheat.
- Resource: Community Standards is a good starting places for instructors reexamining current strategies for introducing and integrating academic integrity policies and practices.
- Share documents as a springboard for discussion.
- Student Resource: “For Students: 6 Reasons Students Cheat and How You Can Avoid Them”
- Teacher Resources:
- Advice from Students on Protecting Academic Integrity builds on this key idea: "A passing reference to academic integrity on the first day of class isn't sufficient. Reiteration highlights the importance of the topic.”
- The Best Cheating Prevention: Open Discussion about Academic Integrity from the University of Michigan offers a set of prompts to launch discussions with students, but its best resources are in the three cited articles, which address equity, moral disengagement and motivated forgetting, and impacts of honor codes.
- Create an honor code, and have students discuss and interact with at multiple points during the semester.
- Resource: Academic Honesty Pledges & Honor Codes as an Active Learning Strategy offers sample pledges as well as ideas for guiding students in active learning discussions to demystify and proactively affirm integrity principles.
For Students
- Share your thoughts and fears with your instructor. If you feel that an assignment encourages or necessitates cheating/plagiarism, make an appointment with your instructor to respectfully discuss your observations. Students have a different view of the course than instructors, so your thoughts and ideas have value.
- There are no real disadvantages to honesty. Even if you feel that you are struggling, this process builds skills you will need for the rest of your professional and personal life.
- Only about 30% of Americans have a Bachelor's degree, so you have already chosen to stand out from everyone else by making it this far.