Academic Integrity
About
Mary Immaculate College is committed to promoting Academic Integrity and enshrining it in the work of all of those who study at MIC.
National Academic Integrity Week 2022 takes place on the week commencing Monday 17 October. See programme of events.
10:00 – 11:00 (online)
Title
National Student Panel: Discussion on Academic Integrity and Student Engagement
Union of Students of Ireland
Summary
The opening session of the week is a panel discussion chaired by the USI Academic Affairs Officer, joined by five SU Sabbatical Officers from higher education institutions (HEIs) around the country. The discussion will focus on how students enrolled in Irish HEIs engage with academic integrity and how they can be encouraged to further engage.
Chair: Clodagh McGivern (VP Academic Affairs and Education Officer, Union of Students in Ireland)
Panel: Zoe Cummins (TCDSU), Niamh Gibbins (TUDSU – Tallaght), Jacqueline Casserley (CC SU), Niall Naughton (TUS SU), Kevin Pakenham (TUS SU)
Click here to join the session
14:00 – 15:00 (online)
Title
Responding to the Cheating Landscape with Positive Educational Approaches to Academic Integrity [MIC Keynote]
Dr Mary Davis, Oxford Brookes University
Summary
This keynote presentation will raise awareness of current student cheating practices and how to notice them. It will then focus on educational responses to promote and develop academic integrity through supporting students and following Universal Design for Learning principles for inclusive practice.
14:00 – 15:00 (online)
Title
From Wrongdoer to Do-Better to Do-Gooder: Reflections of a Person who Engaged in Poor Academic Practice
Summary
This session involves a discussion with a courageous student sharing his story of engaging in poor academic practice and the positive impact of interventions from his institution in helping him redeem himself and get back on track. This is a universal story which touches all higher education institutions.
Presenters:
Dr Brid Lane (Head of School), Dr Finbarr Murphy (Registrar) Muhammad Usman (BA Honours in Business, Student), Aoife Williams (College Librarian)
IBAT College Dublin
10:00-11:00 (online)
Title
Using Turnitin to Support Academic Integrity: Getting to Grips with Similarity Checking
Amy Mitchell and Lauren Brochu, MIC LEAD
Summary
This session will introduce and examine the facilities that Turnitin offers, addressing the important steps in setting up Turnitin assignments, the pitfalls that can sometimes occur, and will consider the essentials of the core similarity checking feature that Turnitin offers.
12:00 – 13:00 (online)
Title
Automate Your Referencing with Endnote Web
Gary LaCumber, MIC Library
08:00-9:00 (online)
Title
How Everyone Can Contribute to Academic Integrity
Dr Mary Davis, Oxford Brookes University, and Dr Irene Glendinning, Coventry University
Click here to join the webinar
09.00 – 13.00 (online)
Title
At the Frontline of Protecting Academic Integrity: What Can be Done at an Institutional Level?
QQI and QAA
Summary
This online webinar, jointly hosted by QAA and Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), will explore what can be done at an institutional level to promote academic integrity and combat contract cheating. This event will coincide with QQI’s 10th anniversary and QAA’s 25th anniversary and reflects their longstanding partnership, particularly in the area of academic integrity.
Speakers will include:
– Dr Helen Gniel, Director of Higher Education Integrity Unit, Tertiary Education and Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australia
– Professor Michael Draper, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Education, Swansea University
– Clodagh McGivern, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Union of Students in Ireland.
– Steph Lomas, Advice and Insights Coordinator, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) Students’ Union
Eve Alcock, Head of Public Affairs, QAA and Mairéad Boland, Senior Manager, Academic Integrity Regulation & Strategic Partnerships, QQI will give an overview of academic integrity legislation in England and Ireland, respectively.
The panel will be chaired by Billy Kelly, Chair of the National Academic Integrity Network, who will also speak about the work being carried out through the Network to enhance academic integrity practice in Ireland.
12:00 – 13:00 (online)
Title
Escape Room Demonstration
Dr Stephen Bunbury, University of Westminster
Summary
This webinar is hosted by The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI)
14:00 – 15:00 (online)
Title
An Academic Integrity Conversation
Dr Thomas Lancaster, Imperial College London, and Dr Irene Glendinning, Coventry University
Summary
Join Irene Glendinning (Coventry University, UK) and Thomas Lancaster (Imperial College London, UK) to hear them chat about academic integrity, contract cheating and the work that they're involved with.
Irene and Thomas first held a conversation of this type for the International Day of Action 2020. That session was well-received and, by popular demand, they are back for more.
Listen in on this unscripted conversation to hear what Irene and Thomas feel are the future challenges to integrity and how to address them.
13:00 – 14:00 (on MIC campus)
Title
Supporting Academic Integrity through Feedback in Turnitin
Caitlin Neachtain, MIC LEAD
Summary
This on-campus session explores methods of providing students with feedback efficiently and effectively through QuickMark libraries and assessment rubrics in Turnitin. The session will engage with feedback best practices to show how to share resources for consistent feedback across teaching teams.
14:00 – 15:00 (online)
Title
Quality Enhancement and Academic Integrity at CCT
CCT Academic Integrity Committee
Summary
This webinar will explore recent enhancements in the context of academic integrity at CCT College Dublin in relation to the institutional embedding of NAIN resources and guidelines, the prevention of assessment overload and the effective detection of academic misconduct in computing subjects (e.g. plagiarised code) and more.
11:00 – 12:00 (online)
Title
Let’s Talk About Academic Integrity
Dr Mairead Greene and Dr Michelle Tooher, CELT, University of Galway
Summary
This session is a 45-minute workshop exploring what the issues raised in higher education when tackling academic integrity. The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has blazed a trail in developing resources and providing training and development opportunities for students and staff at the University of Galway.
What is Academic Integrity?
Academic Integrity refers to honesty and responsibility in your studies at MIC. It values ethical academic behaviour and the avoidance of plagiarism, cheating, fraudulent representation of academic work and other dishonesty in academic endeavours.
This includes:
- Falsely representing the work of others as one's own in an assignment
- Copying of ideas or work of a fellow student
- Copying from published works, in assignments, without proper acknowledgment (i.e. plagiarism)
- Using co-authoring assistance in individual academic work, including the commission or purchasing of essay writing services, i.e. syndication
- Using technical assistance in assignments where it has not been authorised, e.g. using translation software in a translation assignment
- Signing attendance records on behalf of a classmate
- Fabricating results or research findings in an assignment
- Using false information to gain extensions to deadlines or i-grades
- Cheating in examinations
- Misrepresenting achievements on application form
Key Values
There are five key main values of Academic Integrity:
1. Honesty
Honesty is an indispensable foundation of teaching, learning, research, and service. As you embark on a practice of lifelong learning it is essential that you remain truthful about which ideas are your own, which are derived from others research and the methods you use to find, use and present
information. Cultivating a practice of honesty in your research is a foundation stone of your academic integrity.
2. Trust
Trust is another necessary foundation of academic work. When developing your information literacy skills, you need to trust the research and as you gain confidence to do your own research, you need to show you can be trusted too. Trust enables you to collaborate, to share information, and to circulate your ideas and words, without fear that your work will be stolen, compromised or diminished. Trust is essential so that those outside academic communities can believe in the value and meaning of scholarly research, teaching, and degrees.
3. Fairness
Fair treatment is an essential factor in the establishment of ethical communities. You show fairness to each other and to the community when you do your own work honestly, to authors when you acknowledge borrowed work appropriately, to administrators when they respect and uphold academic integrity policies, and to alumni when they maintain the good reputation of the institution.
4. Respect
Respect in academic communities is reciprocal and requires showing respect for oneself as well as others. Respect for your self means facing challenges with integrity. It also means valuing and taking advantage of opportunities to gain new knowledge, by taking an active role in your own education, contributing to discussions as well as listening to others’ points of view, and performing to the best of your ability. Lifelong learning means cultivating respect for your own and other peoples work.
5. Responsibility
Academic Integrity also means being responsible in holding yourself accountable for your own actions and discouraging misconduct by others. It also means learning to recognize and resist the impulse to engage in unscrupulous behaviour. Being a responsible member of an academic community also means holding others accountable. It can be challenging to hold yourself or others accountable but learning skills and taking responsibility for your work is an essential part of being in an academic community.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is defined as the use of either published or unpublished writing, ideas or works without proper acknowledgement. Put simply, if you read a relevant point in a book or elsewhere, you may want to use it in your essay. This is normal practice. However, beware that if you reproduce a point from a book without referencing it (i.e. saying where it came from), you are breaking rules. To use someone else’s ideas in this way is seen as intellectual theft, and it is more commonly referred to as plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty where, either intentionally or unintentionally, ideas or works are falsely presented as being those of the author for her/his benefit. It can include:
- The use of copying a part of a text without quotation marks and citation.
- The use of a part of a text, with minor paraphrase, without citation.
- The use of an image without citation or permission.
- The use of music without citation or permission.
- The use of computer code, mathematical work, research results, spreadsheets without citation or permission.
- The re-use of one’s own work from a previous assignment without citation (self plagiarism)
Where can I get help with citing and referencing?
The Academic Learning Centre at MIC is a great point of contact for all matters relating to academic practice, including citing and referencing.
The friendly staff at the ALC are always happy to assist you and can be contacted at ALC@mic.ul.ie.
Useful Links
Resources
- Academic Learning Centre:
- Academic Integrity LibGuide
- Academic Integrity Policy
- Access & Disability Office
- Mary Immaculate College Student’s Union
- MISU Academic Writing Resources
- MIC Libraries | Mary Immaculate College
- MIC's guide to designing online/blended assessments
- Resource shared by the DCU Teaching Enhancement Unit's on assessment design and academic integrity
- Study Skills Handbook
- National Academic Integrity Guidelines
Library Resources
National Academic Integrity Week 2022 programme of events.
Videos
Recorded sessions from Academic Integrity Week 2022 will be made available here
- About
- What is Academic Integrity?
- Useful Links
- Videos
