2.3 Specify course goals, expectations, and policies  (Page 2/2)

Plagiarism and academic integrity

In an effort to help you understand why academic integrity matters, to engage you in conversations about approaching your graduate work with academic integrity and to create and model a learning environment that fosters such an inclination, we've created this component of orientation. It is our hope that your learning experiences across this program of study promote an atmosphere of academic integrity that values “the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner” (PSU Academic Integrity Policy).

Since this course is one that requires you to do research it is logical to expect that we will help you to do research well, particularly in an electronic venue. As faculty, we see this as a shared responsibility with our students. Our goal here is to develop your conceptual understanding of plagiarism, help you to detect it and ultimately, help you to avoid engaging in it. As noted by Lipson and Reindl (2003), “[u]niversities tend to rely on three explanations for academic conduct violations: 1. criminal plagiarism describes the actions of students who knowingly and intentionally claim others' work as their own; 2. sloppy scholarship describes the actions of students who know the rules for proper citation… [but] engage in scholarship of inexcusable carelessness; and 3. ignorance of the rules ” (p. 8).

As a proactive measure, there are numerous resources available that can support us in promoting academic integrity and in identifying the “… connection between [a] scholar's own ideas and the ideas of others” (Lipson and Reindl, 2003, p. 9). Stated differently, how can we distinguish between using sources of information appropriately and being sources of information?

Source: Lipson, A. and Reindl, S. (2003). The responsible plagiarist: Understanding students who misuse sources. About Campus, July-August, 7-14.

For more resources see - iStudy Module from Penn State - Information about Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Copyright

Academic integrity policy

According to Penn State Policy 49-20,

"Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner. Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic activity at The Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University community are expected to act in accordance with this principle."

To support your the commitment that each of you made to practice academic integrity in the course orientation, additional content has been added at the bottom of the Lessons tab. The folder "Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Copyright" contains information that you are expected to be familiar with. Completion of the module per se is not required; however, again, you are expected to be familiar with the information and will be held accountable.

Readings for academic integrity

Below are three sources of information regarding this topic that are specific to Penn State University as well as the College of Education . Visit each website and take note of the various definitions, expectations, examples, strategies, and policies relating to academic integrity and plagiarism.

• TLT Cyberplagiarism: Detection and Prevention. (Available at (External Link) .) Focus on the following sections, in particular: Definition, Causes, Detection, Prevention, Under "Site Menu" see "Student View" for advice to students
• PSU definition and expectations of Academic Integrity (Available at (External Link) )
• College of Education Policy Statement (Available at (External Link) )

Guidelines for students' participation example

In calculating each student's participation points, the instructor will take into consideration the following:

• Total number of hours logged
• Total number of log-ins
• E-mail activity (number of emails initiated, number of emails replied to)
• Total number of discussion forum posts
• Peer evaluation results

At the end of the course, students will be ranked from first to last for each category (i.e. worst to best). The number of participation points allocated will then be based on each student's overall relative ranking score.

Guidelines for online communication

Staying in touch

The online course format offers a number of ways to stay in touch (note: these tools are specific to ANGEL but other CMSs have similar tools). Here is a quick summary:

Netiquette guidelines

Netiquette is important when emailing your instructor and your fellow students

Follow the guidelines that are listed below for all email sent in this class:

• Be clear. Use standard English and do not abbreviate. Spell check, revise and edit your messages before sending them. Use appropriate subject lines that reflect the content of the message.
• Be polite and careful. Do not use ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS!!! or multiple exclamation marks, as it is sometimes difficult to understand the tone of the message. Similarly, avoid sarcasm and irony, which can be misinterpreted by the reader.
• Be inclusive. Send group messages to all members as well as to the instructor to ensure that all lines of communication stay open.