Importance of Academic Integrity in Higher Education and Implications of Academic Misconduct

This report discusses the importance of academic integrity in higher education and the implications of academic misconduct. It also covers the steps to produce a game of academic integrity and the difficulties encountered.

BSc (Hons) Business Management with
Foundation
BMP3003
Further Academic Skills
Academic Integrity
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................1
Section 1.......................................................................................................................1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity..................................1
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education...............2
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct....................................................2
Section 2.......................................................................................................................3
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in producing the
game.........................................................................................................................3
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in
producing your game................................................................................................4
Conclusion....................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................6
Online:.......................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Academic integrity is defined as expectations that act by teachers, researches,
students and all other members of academic community (Gamage, Silva and
Gunawardhana, 2020). It includes trust, honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect. If
any person is bleaching academic integrity then it is known as academic misconduct or
academic dishonesty. It is important for the students of university that they need to
uphold academic integrity in their studies. This report aims to identify the importance of
academic integrity in higher education and the implications of academic misconduct. It
will also cover the steps which is important to produce a game of academic integrity. It
will also encounter the difficulties which find in producing game of academic integrity.
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
It is identified that academic integrity is found to be the basis of university’s
goal (Muhammad and et.al., 2020). It enables an exchange of ideas and also
development of new knowledge. In addition to this, it is identified that academic
integrity requires that an individual scholar should work with trust. It is important for
the university's students that they need to avoid academic misconduct or academic
dishonest behaviour. In academic misconduct, it includes plagiarism, falsification and
fabrication should not be included in the behaviour of students. Academic integrity is
dependent 5 pillars which include honesty, fairness, trust, responsibility and respect
(Academic integrity matters: five considerations for addressing contract cheating,
2018). It is important to know that an individual or students need to focus on
following all the pillars of academic integrity as it is very crucial for their future
success. The details of five pillars are mentioned below:
 Trust is an important pillar in academic integrity in which people are allowed to
trust on other people as it helps to make better working relationships (Fatemi
and Saito, 2020). It is also found that trust is established in a system in which
all members of an organisation or university are doing their best work where
the policies and the structures of an organisation are based on fairness.
 Honesty is the second pillar of academic integrity which is related to sincerity.

 Respect is the third pillar of academic which allows and individual to share
their opinions as well as point of view in front of other people. It is identified
that student shows respect with the help of listening others point of view.
 In the pillar of responsibility, it is identified that it refers to acknowledge
accountability and agency in day-to-day actions and in work.
 Fairness is found to be an important pillar in academic integrity as it focuses
on going hand in hand with trust (Guerrero-Dib, Portales and Heredia-
Escorza, 2020). It is an important pillar in which every individual should
believe that they will be judged and treated fairly.
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
Academic integrity is found to be very important in higher education and that's
why it is crucial for universities to convince their students that they should follow
academic integrity in their studies (Abdalla and Abdalla, 2021). It is very important for
the university that their courses and assessment should have possessed standards
which include academic integrity. It is identified the way staff and students study and
worked at University affects on other people and the way in which others view the
university. It is important to know that universities need to trustworthy and consistent
in their standards for assessment and courses (Stoesz and Los, 2019). This is really
helpful for the community as they can get confidence in the degrees from which they
graduate. This is the main reason that University takes this issue in and serious
manner. For the welfare of society as well as students, University try to take the
issue of academic misconduct in a serious way.
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
There are many implications of consequences found of academic dishonesty
or academic misconduct. It is very important for the university that they need to
impose penalties on offending students (McKenzie, 2018). Academic misconduct is
found a serious moral, social and ethical issue. Some applications of academic
misconduct are mentioned below:
 It is identified that academic misconduct is providing an impact on students,
teachers and individual schools. It provides a negative impact on the growth
of students. For example, when students are doing any academic misconduct
activity then they are not able to gain the knowledge of that particular subject

or assignment. During misconduct activity in the assignment, they are
engaged in plagiarism which is the crucial element of academic misconduct.
Students are judging with their marks but it will wrongly judge because they
are cheating in their assignments (Eaton, 2020). It is the case of academic
misconduct that provides a negative impact on students. Their career will be
get destroy because they are not able to learn knowledge and skills which
they require in their career growth.
 Academic misconduct is also creating problems for teachers as it is identified
that cheating causes under production of knowledge. It is well known that the
professor job is to produce knowledge which becomes destroy because of
academic dishonesty or academic misconduct. It is also found that because of
cheating there are many cases found in which faculty members are suffering
from emotional distress as the students are responsible for violation of their
trust.
 It is also identified that academic misconduct is provided a negative impact on
the reputation of college (Initiating countdown - gamification of academic
integrity, 2021). Goodwill or reputation as an important asset of any school or
college and because of involving in this type of scandals, they are not able to
run their schools as their reputation get destroyed.
 In result, it is identified that academic dishonesty or academic misconduct
undermines the academic world. It is found that academic dishonesty
interferes the basic mission of education. It creates an environment or
atmosphere which is not conducive in the learning process of students as it
effects on students as well. When it is found by honest students that cheaters
escape detection then it will provide a negative impact on morale of students.
Section 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in producing the
game
In order to develop or produce the game of academic integrity, I found that
there are many types of difficulties which I encountered with the help of right step. I
produced game of academic integrity which i found an important approach for the

purpose of maintaining academic integrity in the college. Tutors gave us assignment
to produce an academic integrity game so that every individual will take opportunity
to learn and maintain academic integrity. Some important steps which I taken that
includes meeting with colleagues and exploring the idea in front of them. After that,
we were discussed about the games rule and constructed a plan which helps to
create an actual game of academic integrity. In the second step, we were started to
divide the game into small parts such as board and question card creation, positive
and negative card creation and the rules of writing. The last step in which I finalized
with the dates of each and every task. These are the important steps which I took in
order to produce academic integrity game.
During the development of academic integrity game, I found some many
problems as it is important for me to focus that game should be designed in such a
way which is easily accessible and understandable. There are many technicality
problems which identified during the development of game (Games for Teaching
Academic Integrity, 2021). I already know that an individual is not able to understand
the game if they have no right knowledge of use of game. In addition to this, I also
found that designing of game was very complex process for us as it is important for
us to design rules of game in such a way that each and every person can easily
understand that how they will go to play a game.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in
producing your game
This academic year was very interesting for me as I developed many skills
and knowledge which is really helpful for my career growth. I got to know that it is an
important for each and every person should adhere academic integrity as it is crucial
for student as well as universities. I also learnt that academic integrity is playing a
very important role in the reputation of University. During the development of game
of academic integrity, I learnt many skills and knowledge which I found that important
for my career growth. I learnt most important skills which is technological skill. In
today's business environment, technology is playing a very important role as it
becomes the key element of change. It is everybody knows that change is a constant
feature of any organisation and the main reason for change is technology. So it is
crucial for each and every person to understand the use of technology and should
develop technological skills accordingly. During the development of game, I

developed technical skills which provided me better opportunity for my career. I also
learnt about the communication skills which is playing a very important role in the
individual life. I identified that communication skills is required in each and every
stage of life. During the production of game, all students need to talk with each other
and because of that I found that I developed better communication skills as
compared to my prior communication skills. My teacher emphasized on building
better communication skills because it is very important in order to describe the rules
of the game in front of audience. So in the process of development of game, I
developed communication skills. I learnt about teamwork skills as it is crucial in order
to complete the work. Teamwork skills are defined as the skill which is focusing on
collaborating with each and every person (Gamifying academic integrity, 2019).
During the game process, I identified that teamwork is playing a very important as
there were many situations came where we need to work with each other. During
that time, I analyse and teamwork skills is crucial. With more and more engagement,
I learned that teamwork skills development should necessary to understand.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from that academic integrity is playing a very important
role in the success and growth of any student career. It is analysed from the
discussion of academic integrity and that it plays a very important role in higher
education. In addition to this, there are many implications found due to academic
misconduct which includes plagiarism, falsification and fabrication. It is also analysed
that academic misconduct is not only provided an impact on students but also on
teachers as well as schools or colleges. For the purpose of maintaining academic
integrity in universities, it is identified that some important steps which included in
this report for producing game of academic integrity. It also covered a reflection on
the skills which an individual learn from their academic year.

References
Abdalla, M. and Abdalla, M., 2021, July. The Grey Hoodie Project: Big tobacco, big
tech, and the threat on academic integrity. In Proceedings of the 2021
AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (pp. 287-297).
Eaton, S. E., 2020. Academic integrity during COVID-19: reflections from the
university of calgary.
Fatemi, G. and Saito, E., 2020. Unintentional plagiarism and academic integrity: The
challenges and needs of postgraduate international students in
Australia. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(10), pp.1305-1319.
Gamage, K. A., Silva, E. K. D. and Gunawardhana, N., 2020. Online delivery and
assessment during COVID-19: Safeguarding academic integrity. Education
Sciences, 10(11), p.301.
Guerrero-Dib, J. G., Portales, L. and Heredia-Escorza, Y., 2020. Impact of academic
integrity on workplace ethical behaviour. International Journal for
Educational Integrity, 16(1), pp.1-18.
McKenzie, A. M., 2018. Academic integrity across the Canadian
landscape. Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity, 1(2), pp.40-45.
Muhammad, A., and et.al., 2020. Factors affecting academic integrity in E-learning of
Saudi Arabian Universities. An investigation using Delphi and AHP. IEEE
Access, 8, pp.16259-16268.
Stoesz, B. M. and Los, R., 2019. Evaluation of a tutorial designed to promote
academic integrity. Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity, 2(1), pp.3-
26.
Online:
Academic integrity matters: five considerations for addressing contract cheating,
2018. [Online] Available through:
<https://edintegrity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s40979-018-0038-5>
Initiating countdown - gamification of academic integrity, 2021. [Online] Available
through: < https://edintegrity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s40979-020-00068-
0>
Gamifying academic integrity, 2019. [Online] Available through: < https://educational-
innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching@sydney/gamifying-academic-integrity/>
Games for Teaching Academic Integrity, 2021. [Online] Available through: <
https://tlconestoga.ca/games-for-teaching-academic-integrity/>