The following:
Academic Integrity Module and QUIZ
Have been made available by:

Dr. Athena S. Du Pre
Professor
Communication Arts
The University of West Florida
And
Dr. Ronald W. Belter
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
The University of West Florida

This module on academic integrity has been modified from the original. You are encouraged to make further modifications (using discipline specific passages, quotes, and researchers) to make the content more relevant to your specific discipline.

This module presents the essential principles of academic integrity. These principles are the foundation for success in your college education. Successful completion of this module, with 100% accuracy is required prior to beginning any writing assignments or quizzes and to receive a passing grade for this course.

I will not accept any of your writing assignments or quizzes until you have achieved a score of 100% on this activity.  You will be allowed to take this quiz as many times as necessary to achieve a score of 100%.

The point is that you understand the material. Should the issue of academic integrity raise its ugly head, you will not be able to say, “I didn’t know.”

So,

• Read the following material on Plagiarism, Cheating, and the Penalties for Academic Misconduct.
• Take the associated quiz.
  • Remember, you must score 100% on this quiz prior to beginning any written assignments or quizzes, and to receive a passing grade for this course.
  • You may take the quiz as many times as necessary to achieve the required 100% score.

If you have any questions, please contact your instructor at your earliest convenience.

Plagiarism: This is an act of taking someone else's work (words, ideas, artistic creation, etc.) and presenting it as your own, without crediting that person properly. It is basically stealing somebody else's intellectual property. To avoid plagiarism:

• Never cut and paste from online or other electronic documents.
  • Instead, devise a clear note-taking system for online and printed sources.
  • Clearly identify which words are yours and which are the original author's.
    • Suggestion: As you take notes, draw bold quotation marks around anything you copy word for word and include a notation with the author's name, publication, publication date, volume, and page number.
      
      
• Paraphrase properly. Paraphrasing means more than changing a few words. You must substantially change the sentence structure and wording to avoid plagiarizing.
  • If the author writes: "It will be essential to consider the impact of communication on financial performance . . . "
  • It is not acceptable to write: "It will be important to think about the effect of communication on fiscal performance . . ."
    • This sentence is plagiarized, even though some words have been changed.
      
      
• Give credit even if you do not use the author's exact words. It is plagiarism to use another person’s ideas without giving them credit, even if you put those ideas in your own words. It is the idea that is the Intellectual Property. In APA style, this means citing the author's name and the year of publication in the text.
  • Examples of citing sources when you have paraphrased the information:
    • Doctors surveyed say that their favorite patients are expressive, friendly, and up front about their concerns (Probst, Greenhouse, & Selassie, 1997).
    • As theorist Margaret Newman (2000) has observed, health care encounters typically arise in response to uncertainty and disequilibrium.
      
      
• If you use someone else's words, you MUST put them in quotation marks. This is not a suggestion or just a good idea; it is the law as it pertains to intellectual property.
  • Some people assume that, if you cite the source, you can use the author's exact words without quotation marks or a block-quote indentation.
    • This is wrong!
  • For direct quotes that include fewer than 40 words, you must use quotation marks (see the first example below).
  • As per APA style, quotations of 40 words or more should be put in an indented block without quotations marks (see the second example below). In either case, you must include the author's name, year of publication, and page number, to properly cite the source of the quote.
  • Examples of citing sources when you use the author's exact words:
    • Bormann (1990) defined primary tension as "...the social unease and stiffness that accompanies getting acquainted" (p. 132).
    • As Newman (2000) puts it:
      • The thing that brings people to the attention of a nurse is a situation that they do not know how to handle. They are at a choice point. Each of us at some time in our lives is brought to a point when the "old rules" do not work anymore, when what we have considered progress does not work anymore. We have done everything "right" but things still do not work. (p. 99)
        
        
• Do not over-rely on direct quotes. Some students make the mistake of using a lot of direct quotes.
  • Remember:
    • You are being evaluated on your ability to synthesize ideas and write skillfully.
    • Your writing assignment is intended to evaluate your written work, not somebody else's.
    • You should only use direct quotes if the original phrasing is so unique and powerful it would lose meaning to paraphrase it.
    • Otherwise, you should express your ideas in your own words. Over-reliance on quotes diminishes your work and increases the chance of plagiarism.
      
      
• Be ready to produce your sources.
  • In any writing process, you must be prepared to supply all your research sources (e.g., books, articles), as well as your notes, to verify the information in your work.
    • If plagiarism is suspected, you will need to prove that your sources are legitimate and that you have properly cited them.
      
      

Cheating: This is an act of giving to someone else or receiving from someone else, information or material that is to be considered in grading academic work. This includes giving or receiving test or homework answers, using unauthorized materials for a test, assisting anyone in the process of cheating, and allowing someone else to cheat. To avoid cheating:

• Never allow anyone to do your work for you and never agree to do someone else's work for them.
  • Taking a test for someone else or getting someone to take a test for you is cheating.
  • Likewise, doing someone else's academic work (paper, project, or other assignment) for them, or getting someone else to do your work, is cheating.
    
    
• Never use materials or resources unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
  • Whether for a test or other assignment, make sure that the instructor has authorized the use of any resource such as books, notes, calculator, hand held computer, cell phone or other communication device.
  • The use of any other such resource that the instructor has not specifically authorized, is considered cheating.
    
    
• Never permit other students to cheat.
  • If you become aware of cheating and do not take appropriate steps to prevent it, you become an accomplice to the cheating and your own integrity is compromised.
  • We all have a responsibility to promote academic integrity.
    

Penalties for Academic Misconduct:

• As stated in the course syllabus, the minimum penalty for any instance of academic misconduct will be an automatic grade of "0" for the test or assignment.
  
  
• Furthermore, the university of West Florida has specific procedures for handling issues of academic integrity which are published in the Student Handbook:
  • Administration of Academic Misconduct in the UWF Student Conduct System.
    • Depending on the seriousness of the violation, the process may result in additional penalties such as a failing grade for the course, or even suspension or expulsion from the university.
    • The outcome will include a letter to the Dean of the College, documenting the academic misconduct.
      
      
• You are advised to take special care to preserve your academic integrity and not to jeopardize it by any form of academic misconduct.
  
  
• Academic misconduct is a very serious matter and will be dealt with as such, with no exceptions and no excuses.
  

Academic Integrity Evaluation: The following exercise (Quiz) is designed to assess and confirm your awareness and understanding of the important concepts of academic integrity presented above.

• To successfully complete the Academic Integrity Module, you must correctly complete all of the items on this quiz (100%).
• You may re-take this quiz as many times as necessary to get all items correct (100%).
• If any attempted item is incorrect, you should refer to the material provided in this module, before making another attempt to complete the evaluation.
• "On to the quiz."

TurnItIn:

The University of West Florida (UWF) maintains a license agreement with iParadigms, LLC for the purpose of using their product TurnItIn, an online tool that helps faculty determine the originality of written materials presented by students in course assignments.  The TurnItIn service has the potential to be an important resource for promoting information literacy as well as encouraging academic integrity.   All UWF faculty have access to the TurnItIn service and each faculty can make the service available to students in their classes.

For more information, please refer to this link.

If you have any questions about online assessment, please feel free to contact John Crane (jcrane@uwf.edu, 473-7239).

Have a great day!

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