Importance of Academic Integrity in Higher Education

This report discusses the importance of academic integrity in higher education, its implications, and the steps taken to produce a game for Project 2. It also reflects on the skills learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing the game.

Business Management with Foundation
BMP3003
Further Academic Skills
Academic Integrity
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Contents
Introduction
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
Section 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Project 2
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game
Conclusion
References

Introduction
Academic integrity is associated with fundamental principles and moral conduct
according to which students and teachers are suppose to behave during the process of
learning. Academic integrity allows teachers and students to acknowledge each other
opinions and value their views. It encourage values of honesty, fair attitude, respect, faith and
responsibility among students. Academic integrity is a crucial part in educational institutes in
the process of learning which set beliefs and convictions for students as well as teachers. In
this report, the importance and significance of academic integrity in higher education along
with implications of academic misconduct. In addition to this, it reflects upon the steps and
difficulties encountered in producing the game. Moreover, it also discuss enhancement and
development of skills during the academic year and those emphasized in producing game
design.
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
Academic integrity refers to the ethical policies and code of conduct which supports
moral values and appropriate behavior of students. It is an integral part of educational
institutions and universities which establish majorly six core values that are to be emphasized
during the course of learning. These core values includes trust, honesty, fairness, respect,
responsibility and courage (Bretag, 2018). Academic integrity set fundamentals for students
and instruct them to avoid practices of cheating, plagiarism and other unethical practices. It
strongly discourage inappropriate behavior of students which promotes dishonesty and
breaching of trust. Academic integrity refers to commitment of student to comply with the
values and morals of fair attitude. It implies students to indulge in acquisition of knowledge
with relying on truth in the process of research and learning. It promotes trust among students
and teachers where free exchange of opinions are facilitated in order to support inquires of
students to enhance their potential. The aspects of fairness promotes transparency between
students and other higher authorities of school administration. It strongly disapprove partial
behaviors and discrimination among students and encourage justice and equality as well. It
allow students and other faculties to acknowledge and address opinions of one another and
hold mutual respect (Curtis and et.al., 2021). Academic integrity implies focus upon

responsible behavior and implies students to take accountability for their actions. It also
instructs them to agree upon fundamentals and ensures their adherence with standards and
established principles to maintain proper decorum in the learning environment.
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
Academic integrity is a crucial in area in the field of study which is practiced majorly
by higher universities and educational institutes to promote higher education. It is highly
important during learning process in order to discourage unethical practices like cheating and
plagiarism. It has become majorly significant in educational areas to establish proper
decorum and promote ethical behavior to conduct learning process in a systematic manner.
The importance of academic integrity is discussed below:
Ensures constructive learning and knowledge: Academic integrity ensures that
students are avoiding practices of cheating and copying work and assignments. It helps in
enhancing knowledge of students and allows them to learn concepts and promotes
intellectualism. It implies students to submit their own work and assignments which check
their knowledge and encourage them to actually learn concepts. The morals of academic
integrity ensures that students are performing assignments and assessments through gaining
knowledge which are being taught to them. Moreover, it implies that students should be
aware about sources and authors through which they are acquiring content for the purpose of
assignments (Sheard and et.al., 2018). This enhance their research skills while at the same
ensures integrity and honesty during conducting research.
Increase chances of success: Academic integrity helps in career development process
through ensuring constructive process of learning and education. It encourage the values of
honesty and integrity which would help them in future while working in professional
environment. In professional work environment, code of conduct and strict decorum implies
employees to perform their functions in ethical manner. Thus, through maintaining academic
integrity and avoiding deceptive practices of cheating, students are able to go through
learning concepts. It promotes students expertise in intellectual areas as they know they have
to submit their own work through proper learning (Latopolski and Bertram Gallant, 2020).
Improvement of values: Academic integrity promotes values and morals that are
important in order to maintain a healthy learning environment where everyone feels safe and
satisfied. It focus upon aspects of honesty, trust and honor where opinions and viewpoints of
students are respected. It allows them to take responsibility of their actions and should be
held responsible for their wrongdoings. Moreover, it implies that students should improve

their values and morals where they treat everyone with fair attitude and due respect. It has
become extremely important to generate valuable and ethical concerns among students which
promotes aspects of honesty and disapprove academic misconduct.
Creation of new ideas: the practices of plagiarism and cheating among students
creates obstacles in their thorough learning. Moreover, it blocks creativity and innovation of
students in the process of learning assignments. The purpose of conducting assignments is to
enhance research skills and creativity skills of individuals to present unique work. Also, the
presented work should be supported with references and in-text citations to complete project
in ethical manner (Kaktiņš, 2018). Therefore, through exercising academic integrity students
are able to recognize their talents and avoid the practice of copying from others work. This
actually enhance their creativity skills and allows them to think more innovative while
presenting new ideas.
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
The breaching of academic integrity refers to academic misconduct which has serious
consequences. The inappropriate behavior of students leads to breaching of standards defined
under academic integrity. Academic misconduct have severe implications for the student who
undermined standards of academic integrity which could result in penalties, fines, or even
failing or low grades. The major practices of academic misconduct exercised by students are
stated below:
Plagiarism: The action of submitting work using other sources without
acknowledging them or making use of references is known as plagiarism. The use of some
other source of work while preparing assignments should be supported with relevant
references and citations (White, 2020).
Cheating: The action of cheating involves copying notes or work of other students
while examination or in the preparation of assignments. It also includes communicating with
other students during examination to ask questions or use of any electronic device or
calculators through which students can acquire information.
Contact cheating or impersonation: This includes the practice of illegal commercial
cheating where students use someone else to complete their assignments and present it as
their own work. This also includes asking someone to impersonate as an individual during
examination.

The other actions of academic misconduct involves resubmitting already assessed work,
fabricating information and collusion. The implications of academic misconduct are stated
below:
 The students are obliged to repeat the assessment task.
 The breaching of academic integrity could leads to failure in a assessment task or unit
study.
 The student could be expelled from school or might be suspended.
 The student involved in academic misconduct could also be faced with criminal
charges (Cronan, Mullins and Douglas, 2018).
Section 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Project 2
The process of development of a constructive game design was involved with various
steps and stages which are accommodated with some difficulties as well. The construction of
academic game design promoting the values of integrity and avoiding practices of plagiarism
was associated with essential steps. The steps taken for the game design assessment along
with difficulties encountered are discussed below:
Researching and analysing concepts: the fundamental of every assessment is to
conduct proper research related to subject matter in order to acquire better understanding. The
process of game designing was facilitated with researching on topics of academic integrity.
The development of game design was supported with analysis of various concepts of
plagiarism and cheating. Difficulties encountered in effective research and analysis was
related to identification of reliable sources and organizing those materials. Moreover,
analysing and interpreting highly intellectual content was among the difficulties encountered.
Imagination and presentation criteria: The assessment of game design includes
application of imaginative skills along with presentation skills. I focused upon my developing
my imaginative and creative skills in order to construct an appropriate design for my project.
Moreover the process of presenting the game was a challenging task. A constructive game
design should have clear instructions and should be presentable in front of audience. The
difficulties encountered in proper presentation and designing instructions for the game. It
requires me to create various sample of games and experimenting them through playing with
my friends in order to analyse which one is most suitable and presentable.

Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game
The reflection criteria for this project could be performed with the help of one of the
most popular reflection model known as Gibbs reflective model. This reflective model
includes six stages which helps in exploring an experience. With the application of Gibbs
model, I have identified the skills that I have learned this year and those emphasized in
producing my game. The six stages of Gibbs reflective cycle are explained below:
Description: The process of learning and education was highly focused upon
promotion of practices and conduct of academic integrity. This academic year was critically
influenced by emphasizing on values of honesty, respect, fairness, responsibility and trust. It
was made very clear that students are require to comply with beliefs and ethics of academic
integrity. The breach of academic integrity was accompanied with fines and penalties
including severe complications. The compliance with academic integrity obliged students to
avoid practices of plagiarism and cheating in completion of assignments as well as during
examinations.
Feelings: The process of learning while complying with codes of academic integrity
was created and helps in building values of trust and honesty. It enhanced the sense of
responsibility through actually performing assignment tasks without any act of cheating or
presenting others work as own. It has enlightened me by improving the knowledge on aspects
of academic integrity and ethical practices of students. This academic year helps me in
recognizing my abilities and generated feeling of self accomplishment. The process of strictly
adhering to standards of completing assignments without cheating or plagiarism has resulted
in high motivation and feeling of self satisfaction.
Evaluation: In this academic year, I have evaluated that academic integrity is an
integral part of curriculum in educational institutions or universities. It is highly crucial for
students to comply with these standards or set of principles in order to avoid any serious
consequences. I have evaluated that while acquiring or using information from other sources,
it is very important to support those assignments with relevant references and in-text
citations.
Analysis: It has been analysed in this academic year that while strictly adhering to
standards of academic integrity, I have enhanced my researching skills along with
interpretative skills. I have also improved my learning abilities and imaginative skills in
completion of game development project. It has been analysed that academic integrity has

promoted by personal and creative skills through avoiding practices of cheating and copying
from others work. It helped me in gaining expertise and improved my presentation skills.
Conclusion: In this academic year, I have performed deliberately well through
complying with academic integrity and it has enhanced my numerous skills. I have developed
high analytical skills through studying concepts and subjects related to my assignments.
Moreover, It helped me in enhancing knowledge regarding various authors and original
primary sources which I have used in completion of my assignments. Also, it has helped me
in improving presentation and imaginative skills through assessment of game design
development.
Action Plan: I have planned to focus more upon my researching and organisation
skills in order to act better in the completion of assessments. Moreover, I am planning to
continue complying with standards of academic integrity in order to enhance my knowledge
and improve my performance in academics.
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been concluded that academic integrity holds great
significance in educational organisations and universities. It helps in establishing beliefs and
code of conduct which oblige students to avoid unethical practices. The standards of
academic integrity are very crucial for students to comply with as breaching these conducts
have severe implications on the career or future of students. Academic misconduct could
result in suspension or penalties due to which students can even have to face failure. It has
been analysed that through engaging in practices of academic integrity, various skills and
abilities are enhanced or improved.

References
Bretag, T., 2018. Academic integrity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and
Management.
Cronan, T.P., Mullins, J.K. and Douglas, D.E., 2018. Further understanding factors that
explain freshman business students’ academic integrity intention and behavior:
Plagiarism and sharing homework. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(1), pp.197-220.
Curtis, G.J. and et.al., 2021. Developing and evaluating nationwide expert-delivered
academic integrity workshops for the higher education sector in Australia. Higher
Education Research & Development, pp.1-16.
Kaktiņš, L., 2018. Contract cheating advertisements: what they tell us about international
students’ attitudes to academic integrity. Ethics and Education, 13(2), pp.268-284.
Latopolski, K. and Bertram Gallant, T., 2020. Academic integrity. DM Waryold & JM
Lancaster (Ed, 2nd edition). Student Conduct Practice: The Complete Guide for
Student Affairs Professionals. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
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).
White, A., 2020. Interactive approaches to learning about academic integrity: the role of fun
and games. In A Research Agenda for Academic Integrity. Edward Elgar Publishing.