Academic Integrity and Game Design: Importance, Implications, and Skills Learned

This report discusses academic integrity, its importance in higher education, implications of academic misconduct, and game design. It also reflects on the skills learned this academic year. The report emphasizes the importance of academic integrity in improving an individual's understanding, skills, and knowledge. It also highlights the negative consequences of academic misconduct. The game design, Academy Integrity, is discussed, including instructions, difficulties encountered, and skills learned. Technical, communication, written communication, team working, and decision-making skills are among the skills learned.

Academic skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Section 1..........................................................................................................................................3
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity..................................................3
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education.................................4
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct......................................................................4
Section 2..........................................................................................................................................5
About the game............................................................................................................................5
Instructions of game....................................................................................................................6
Difficulties encountered in producing the game..........................................................................6
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing
your game....................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Academic integrity simple terms determined by practising academic work in the most
reliable and transparent manner. It is an ethical obligation of an individual especially a student in
order to use fair measures to complete the academic work. This report focuses on academic
integrity and its importance in the higher education, it also discusses the implications of
academic misconduct. The another section of the report briefly frames game design, the
difficulties encountered while designing the game, the skills learnt in the academy year and the
skills that have been acquired by developing the game design (Amigud and et.al., 2017).
MAIN BODY
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is defined by the act of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and
responsibility in one’s action towards the academic work. An individual must respect the work of
others and conduct academic work in the most transparent manner. The breach of academic
integrity is also called as academic misconduct or academic dishonesty. It is a fundamental
towards learning, teaching and research in the university. Academic integrity can be defined as
avoiding plagiarism and unfair code of conduct such as cheating. Academic integrity is mainly
practiced by educational institutions, it is also taught in different educational institution as a
learning sessions and these institutions have their own terms pertaining to the academy integrity.
There are six core functions of academic integrity these includes fairness, honesty, trust, respect,
responsibility and courage. The students and teachers in the educational institutions and
universities are severely punished or can even risk degree, for teachers they can be terminated for
practicing any academy dishonesty. In academic integrity students should practice behaviours
such as they should use clear references and sources, should submit their own work, conduct all
the research work by complying with the university policies, should use relevant information,
should act in ethical and right manner and communicate when facing difficulties (Bretag ed.,
2016).

A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
Academic integrity plays an important role especially in a life of a student, an academic
integrity defines the ethical code of conduct and the way a student has to behave for academic
work. Further, the importance of academic integrity is discussed as:
 Academic integrity is important in order to improve and individual’s understandings,
skills and knowledge pertaining to different subjects where he or she should be capable of
adding on ideas knowledge to become a better leader in future.
 It is important in order to draw relevant and transparent information, where an individual
is able to use his or her own views and capabilities for completing certain task.
 If an individual practices academic misconduct it will negatively affect his or her future
career as he/she would not able to improve own understandings and knowledge.
 It would also damage an individual ‘s image, wherein he/she would always feel ashamed
and lack confidence.
 Integrity is important in order to shape and individuals career for becoming a leader,
honesty, integrity, ethical behaviour and responsibility towards the work drives to
become a successful leader in future.
 Academic integrity is important in order to reflect an ethical and transparent working of
an individual both in short-term and long-term career goals.
 Students acquiring university learning where in the student is expected to graduate with
best of the knowledge and experience but when student practices academic misconduct,
he/she can lack all the professional knowledge and practices that would be crucial in
future career (Bretag, 2018).
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
The implications of academic misconduct are discussed as:
 Sometimes students in the university have a wrong notion that practicing academic
misconduct would not lead to severe consequences or is a commonplace (Gottardello and
Karabag, 2020). But it is totally false as there are serious penalties and negative
consequences for breaching academic integrity. Different universities and educational
institutions have different norms for the academic misconduct, so when an individual is

caught in the same can face negative consequences which are mentioned by the specific
university for non-compliance of the academic integrity such as when caught in academic
misconduct, an individual might always feel ashamed and lack confidence in order to
communicate with others which can also have a negative impact long-term career goals.
 When an individual is not caught in academic misconduct, he or she would continue to
use such negative ways of managing a work and would lack his or her own
understandings and decision-making capabilities towards different subject.
 Academic misconduct happens when students copies the content of others or steals
another’s work and ideas, resubmitting the work without permission, fabricating
information, collusion, cheating in the exams where the students practice is unfair means.
Students can face severe consequences including failing in the assigned task, compelling
from the University, facing criminal charges, repeating the assigned task. Other
consequences such as can damage relationship with other individuals.
 Penalties may cause financial losses and as well the loss of student visa.
 It would stagnant the growth of an individual wherein he or she would be unable to
improve on knowledge and understanding is over different subjects.
Thus, it can be said that students in university must adhere to the clear-cut norms pertaining to
student discipline, and should take such matters very seriously.
Section 2
About the game
The name of the game is Academy integrity, the main motive of designing the game is to
deliver the message of how important academic integrity is both in short-term and long-term
career goals. It would also inherit the habit of practicing academic integrity in their lives. The
game is designed in a manner that focuses on importance academy integrity, where in the player
has to use his/her own understanding and knowledge to win the game. Moreover, that the
winners of the game will be rewarded with different exciting prizes and scholarship that will
motivate an individual in order to win the game with the sincerest and reliable efforts (MacLeod
and Eaton, 2020). With the help of the game design large number of individuals would be able to
know the importance of academy integrity. The questions added in the quizzes and puzzles of the

game covers different subjects that a student studies in an academic year and other questions
pertaining to real-life scenarios. The game would help to utilise the time of the players into doing
something productive and build professional knowledge.
Instructions of game
 Players can install the game from the Desktops and on the mobile phones, in case of
desktop students can install the game named academic integrity from Google search
engines and the mobile users can download it from Google play store (android users), the
IOS users can download it from App Store.
 After that the installation is complete, to login, the players can give credentials such as
name, contact details/email ID (whichever is preferable).
 After that the player login’s, set the time duration and the number of players who will be
playing the game. They can also connect with their friends using social media platforms
such as Facebook.
 There are two games option available one is puzzles and other is quizzes, the players
must select one at a time.
 In order to proceed playing the game, click on the start button.
 Quizzes and puzzles contains different questions which are to be answered within the
time period mentioned on the screen, the players have to ensure that they stay on the
same page else the players can lose the game.
 Players should ensure that the game is been played with utmost sincerity and integrity. It
would be a live game, where in the players cannot use any unfair means of copying the
answers or taking ideas from other sources, in such cases the game will be finished and
the players will lose the game (Morris, 2016).
 There would be 25 questions for each set, the players have to respond all the correct
answers, the winners will be awarded with scholarships and other exciting gifts.
 The players can exit the game whenever wanted
 After responding the all the questions, do not forget to click on the finish button.
 Best of luck!
Difficulties encountered in producing the game
Talking about the difficulties encountered for developing the game design, these are
discussed as:

 There were different technical glitches faced for designing the game including the
software testing, the approval for the software to be used, and others.
 For designing the game, it was a tedious and time taking process also incurred a lot of
cost for purchasing the software and other expenses such as to pay to the team
members other technical experts.
 Other difficulties faced included to coordinate the efforts of each and every individual
towards the team goal accomplishing the targets before the deadlines.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing
your game.
This academic year I was able to enhance different set of skills and knowledge to
different subjects especially with the help of the game design, the reflection on the skills
acquired is discussed as:
Technical skills: working for developing the game design helped me to enhance my technical
skills, where I worked on software such as Unity in order to establish a real-time game design.
Communication skills: with the help of this game design I was able to effectively communicate
to my fellow team members. It also helped me to be accountable and more answerable towards
my work. I was also able to work on my communication skills by proactively taking part and
interacting with the team members, communicating the deadlines and the standards of the
expectations that needs to be met (Newton, 2016).
Written communication skills: I was also able to enhance my written communication skills,
where in I have conducted research from different sources such as Google, Group discussions,
books in order to carry information search and add my own ideas and understandings over the
game design.
Team working: with the help of game design, I was able to enhance my team working skills
wherein I am taking participation in team work projects, be it group discussions, decision making
and other activities of this team helped me to enhance to work and coordinate each of the efforts
to accomplish group goals (Robinson and Glanzer, 2017).
Decision making: With the help of academic integrity which helped me to enhance my own
understanding and knowledge, by carrying the academic work and research papers with the best

of my knowledge through honesty and sincerity wherein I was able to add my own ideas and
creativity to the content. It also helped me to enhance my decision making skills especially while
game designing to different situation context.
CONCLUSION
Thus, in a nutshell, it can be said that academic integrity plays a significant role in the
lives of students and other professionals. It helps to manage the academic workings in the most
legal and ethical manner. It is important in both personal and professional life especially in the
life of student that greatly impacts in order to enhance the academic skills and professional
knowledge. Where an individual is able to draw his/her on understandings over different
subjects. On the other hand, academic misconduct is determined by using unfair means for carry
academic work, there are different negative consequences of academic misconduct where an
individual can even risk his or her own degree and damage the future career goal.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amigud, A. and et.al., 2017. Using learning analytics for preserving academic
integrity. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning:
IRRODL. 18(5). pp.192-210.
Bretag, T. ed., 2016. Handbook of academic integrity. Springer Singapore.
Bretag, T., 2018. Academic integrity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and
Management.
Gottardello, D. and Karabag, S. F., 2020. Ideal and actual roles of university professors in
academic integrity management: a comparative study. Studies in Higher Education. pp.1-
19.
MacLeod, P. D. and Eaton, S. E., 2020. The paradox of faculty attitudes toward student
violations of academic integrity. Journal of Academic Ethics. 18(4). pp.347-362.
Morris, E. J., 2016. Academic integrity: A teaching and learning approach. Handbook of
academic integrity. pp.1037-1053.
Newton, P., 2016. Academic integrity: A quantitative study of confidence and understanding in
students at the start of their higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education. 41(3). pp.482-497.
Robinson, J. A. and Glanzer, P. L., 2017. Building a culture of academic integrity: What students
perceive and need. College Student Journal. 51(2). pp.209-221.
Sefcik, L., Striepe, M. and Yorke, J., 2019. Mapping the landscape of academic integrity
education programs: what approaches are effective?. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education.
Sheard, J. and et.al., 2018, January. Informing students about academic integrity in
programming. In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Computing Education
Conference (pp. 113-122).
Sotiriadou, P. and et.al., 2020. The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity
and promote skill development and employability. Studies in Higher Education. 45(11),
pp.2132-2148.