These simple steps will help faculty and staff communicate and uphold UNM standards for academic integrity. We encourage you to explore the resources listed on the right.
1. Show students that you take academic integrity seriously by taking time to introduce and discuss academic integrity in your class. You can help change the culture.
2. Draft a statement for your syllabus that clearly delineates your position on academic integrity and place links in your syllabus to the Dean of Student’s Academic Integrity/Honesty page, UNM Student Code of Conduct, and/or the Graduate Studies Academic Integrity Research Ethics page.
3. Ask students to write a brief essay on academic integrity and what constitutes a breach of academic honesty. (See sample assignment)
4. Discuss in class best practices for careful note taking and instruct students how to cite sources, including online sources, properly; do not assume no matter what level of class you are teaching that they already have this knowledge. After this instruction, you can ask students to write down their definition of academic integrity and what constitutes a violation and then have them sign the document to verify their understanding.
5. Assign incremental (sequenced) research and writing assignments where students write their papers in stages; you can start with asking for a topic, a short prospectus, a research bibliography, and a series of drafts.
6. Assign new paper topics each semester for standard courses; ask very specific questions for paper assignments tailored specifically for the materials you introduce in class. Set clear guidelines for collaborative work.
7. Use multiple forms of assignments and assessment measures—a mix of short papers, quizzes, exams, longer papers, project papers, posters, e.g.—to distribute the weight of the assignments broadly. Avoid high stakes assessment strategies, such as midterm, final, and/or final paper.
8. Use new questions or ask old questions in new and different ways for examinations in standard courses. Use multiple versions of multiple choice/short answer exams and distribute alternately for testing.
9. For more tips, see the Dean of Students’ Academic Integrity/Honesty page.
Assignment
Academic Integrity/Plagiarism Assignment
Please answer each of the following questions with a full paragraph for each answer. This is an “open-book” assignment, but use your own words for each answer. When you complete the assignment, send your answers to me via e-mail as a single Word or pdf file. When you come to class, append a hard copy of your answers to this sheet, and sign and date as indicated below.
You will receive credit for accurate answers, but I may ask you to retake all or part of the quiz if one or more answer is substantially incorrect, if you do not follow the prompts, or if is your answers show that you do not adequately understand the plagiarism policy.
- What is academic integrity?
- List at least four types of violations of academic integrity.
- According to UNM’s policies, what are the possible consequences of violating the student code of conduct on academic integrity?
- Explain what plagiarism is and how it can occur even unintentionally?
- What should you do if you are uncertain about how the plagiarism policy applies to your work?
- What are some ways that you can avoid plagiarism?
I have answered these questions on the attached sheet.
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Print Name
____________________________________________ Date: __________________
Sign Name
