Ensuring Academic Integrity

Today I attended one of the workshops in our Teaching Workshops Series. This particular workshop was on how to deter academic misconduct, and how to deal with it if it occurs. We shared a lot of great tips and ideas.

For example, breaking written assignments down into several parts (e.g., topic selection, annotated bibliography, outline, draft, final) means that students must work through the steps towards a final written assignment, making plagiarism less likely - and meaning you end up grading more polished work! This doesn't necessarily increase grading time - you can grade the early stages as credit/no credit, or even make them subject to peer review.

For exams, some of the ideas included writing essay (or at least partially written answers) instead of completely multiple choice exams, as this makes it harder for students to memorize answers if they get them ahead of time, or to copy from a classmate. Also, make sure you're modifying your exams each semester so the same set of questions and answers isn't going out semester after semester. If you do use multiple choice, try creating different forms by, for example, shuffling the order of the questions.

For all of the great tips and resources from this workshop, check out CTLE Videos. The video of the workshop itself may take a week or so to post, but in the mean time you can view videos of past workshops or sign up for future workshops. The next is on October 30: Workshop 3: Is an Online Format Right for You and Your Course? (classroom and WIMBA settings).

"Blue Books"

This past week my students took their first exam. I had asked them to purchase "blue books" at the campus bookstore, as the exam had a written component. Then it dawned on me that it would be possible for students to write answers inside their blue books and then use them in the exam. It's not that I don't trust my students, but certainly I didn't want to tempt them, especially when they are under pressure to perform. So I asked around and got some advice from instructors and students alike. Here are some of their ideas:

1) Have students purchase the books and hand them in as they enter the classroom. Then you redistribute the books, so no one gets the one they came in with.

2) Ask students to begin writing their answers on the third page of the book, so the first few pages should be blank.

3) Instruct students to flip the books over and upside down, and treat the last page as if it were the first.

4) Supply your own blue books for the first exam and then use the ones students brought for the next exam. At the end of the year, you get "reimbursed" when students bring in books for the final exam, which you can use in a future class or return to the bookstore for a refund.

Did you know?

We post a teaching tip every Tuesday! To submit your tips, email us at info@ctle.utah.edu and include "blog" in the subject header.