Academic Integrity and its Significance in Higher Education

This report discusses academic integrity, its importance, and implications. It also reflects on the steps taken and difficulties faced in producing a game and the skills learned.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................3
Introduction to academic integrity..............................................................................................3
Significance of academic integrity in higher education..............................................................3
Implication of academic misconduct..........................................................................................4
SECTION 2......................................................................................................................................5
Reflecting on steps taken and difficulties faced in producing game...........................................5
Reflecting on skills learned and in producing game...................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Academic integrity is being referred to the expectation of the student and teachers and
other related people to work with honesty, trust and respect. In the academic work, it is necessary
that there is proper maintenance of academic integrity so that proper working can be ensured. In
the present report the description of academic integrity will be discussed along with its
importance and implication. Further the reflection relating to the difficulties and skills learned
from the game will be outlined.
SECTION 1
Introduction to academic integrity
The academic integrity is stated as expectation which all the researcher, student, and
teachers has relating to their behaviour within community. This must include honesty, fairness,
responsibility, respect and trust. For the teacher or student this is very essential that they must be
including all these elements within the working so that effective working can be managed and
maintained. Also, academic integrity is the values which are underneath all the things being done
within the university. The main aim of academic integrity involves the fact the both student and
teacher must develop new knowledge by maximising the accuracy and fairness of the working
and learning.
Significance of academic integrity in higher education
Academic integrity is defined as practice of avoiding cheating or any kind of plagiarism
activity that put negative impact on final outcomes of individual person efforts. While studying
higher education, it is quite important for students to consider this concept and conduct practice
accordingly (Abdalla and Abdalla, 2021). It may provide them a lot of benefits in a bulk, for
example, by considering academic integrity practice, learners may provide satisfactory work to
tutors, which may put positive impact on them. It may support them to stay away from non- self-
reliance activities that may affect negatively upon their career growth and success. During higher
education, it is essential for students to avoid plagiarism and make their work reliable and valid,
by using own understanding about any concept or topic. It can be said that honesty of students
about writing their own content without plag may cater the key chances to grow. For example,
they may take benefit of learning career competencies and knowledge that require for further

success. Furthermore, it may create trust between tutors and learners and also provide them
satisfaction of knowing ethical practices that each learner may follow.
Academic integrity is essential to consider for students who are taking higher education,
because it may permit them to build new and creative ideas, better understanding about any
specific subject and creative works during respecting and acknowledging work of other students.
It can be said that academic integrity is not just a problem that impacts on learners (Guangul and
et.al., 2020). It is a kind of fundamental to work of entire academic community, including
learners, tutors and managements. It may provide students chance to experience optimal
intellectual & competencies development, which is not that easy to experience in effective
manner. It may allow them to fulfil the expectations of tutors and all other members of education
community act with trust, honesty, respect, fairness and responsibility. Furthermore, it is also
considered as pursuit of scholarly practice in an honest, open and accountable manner. It is quite
essential for students to conduct academic integrity practice while taking approaches to work
better in academic or professional career. For purpose of avoiding plagiarism, they may
acknowledge where data utilize comes from, effectively citing and collecting the source. When
students conduct this practice they should be penalized in several terms.
Without avoiding plagiarism, they may deal with range of issues for breaching academic
integrity which is usually referred to as education misconduct. It is often considering that learner
rarely get caught. With the help of following this concept and considering in appropriate manner,
they may develop trustworthy relationship with teachers and other board of member, which is
essential to create so (Joshi and et.al., 2020). They may always take ethical decision, ask
questions when a concept is not easy, instead of conducting plagiarism practice, due to which
learners may deal with critical issues such as rustication from education institute, which is not
good for their career progress in any manner.
Implication of academic misconduct
Academic misconduct is being defined as the type of cheating which occurs with respect
to the formal academic exercise. This is not a good practice relating to the working in university
as misconduct is being referred to as the academic fraud and is not good for person to learn
(MacLeod and Eaton, 2020.). The different types of academic misconduct involve cheating,
plagiarism, falsification of data, unauthorised or malicious tempering and others. The implication
of academic misconduct involves the following-

 The major implication relating to academic misconduct involves the inaccurate
assessment. This implies that the student has used some unethical working and learning
pattern and because of this, their academic assessment is not proper. Hence, as a result of
this, the assessment or marks of student will not be providing a clear and true picture.
 In addition to this, another implication of academic misconduct is legal consequences.
This is particularly because of the reason that when the student uses some unethical
practices then this will result in some legal consequence against the student. For instance,
in student has done plagiarism then this will be resulting in some case against the student.
 Along with this another implication of academic misconduct involves the fact that self-
esteem or goodwill of the student will also be reduced. This is particularly because of the
reason that when that student is being caught with academic misconduct then in they
might feel insulted among other students. Hence, this is also another implication of the
misconduct as this will be impacting the working and learning of the student in the
university.
SECTION 2
Reflecting on steps taken and difficulties faced in producing game
With the help of the game of ‘Plaganswer’ I analysed that organizing a game is very
tough task. This is essential for the reason that there are many task being involved in analysing
and evaluating the game. The first step which was taken for the organizing of the game was to
select the idea. This is particularly because of the reason that when the idea of the game will not
be good then this will be attracting more participants to attend the game. This is particularly
because of the reason that when the game will not be interesting then people will not attend it.
Hence, this was the most crucial step in organising the event (Sotiriadou and et.al., 2020).
Further, the next step which was taken was the organising of the resources necessary for the card
game. This was also a necessary step because in case the resources and material will not be in
proper condition then this will be impacting the working of the game. Further the next step was
to ensure proper coordination among all the steps and stages of the game. The reason pertaining
to the fact is that when the coordination will not be there then the game will not be become
successful and proper objective of increasing the knowledge relating to the academic integrity
will not be attained.

Further there was also many kind of difficulties being faced while organizing and
continuing the game. The most common difficulty outlined in the project was issue of
coordination among the people working on game. This was the major difficulty as the game
involved many different types of people and there was issue in coordinating the work. Hence, as
a result of this, the coordination among the people was not good. This, eventually resulted in the
conflict among the people and the working efficiency of the people was affected.
Along with this another, key difficulty being encountered at time of the organising of
game was the time management issue. This was another crucial issue which was faced at the
time of organising ‘plaganswer’. This is particularly because of the reason that when too many
people work on single project then this affect the time to complete the project. In addition to this,
there was also an issue relating to the communication within the people (Ellis and et.al., 2020).
The reason pertaining to the fact is that as many people work together then this can lead to
miscommunication and it will impact the working of the game to a great extent.
Reflecting on skills learned and in producing game
The academic life is very essential as in this, the learning is very high and student gets the
opportunity to enhance their skill and knowledge. The reason pertaining to the fact is that when
the student study in university then they interact with many people and as a result of this, their
skills are increased. In the present case, the game for project 2 and the whole academic year was
assistive in learning good skills.
With the experience of game and academic year I felt that academic integrity is very
essential and in that the most essential aspect is the avoiding of plagiarism. This is necessary as
copying the as it is same data is not allowed in university. Here I learnt that skill of rephrasing
and evaluated that this is very essential for the effective student learning. this is necessary
because with help of this, any type of content can be written and included in the project and we
just have to rephrase it.
Along with this, with help of game and learning I evaluated that having a good
communication skill is very essential in the academic career (Morris, 2018). The reason
underlying this fact is that in case the communication will not be good then this will affect the
learning. hence, for the effective academic learning it is very essential for the student that they
must have good communication skill so that they can communicate with any person without any
hesitation.

Further, I also evaluated that the team working skill need to be good and effective while
participating in game. The reason underlying this fact is that when the team will not be
coordinated then they cannot attain the team goal (Sefcik, Striepe and Yorke, 2019). Hence, with
the evaluation it was seen that I need to be improve the team working skill a little bit.
With further analysis, I evaluated that for working and learning in highly competitive
environment it is necessary to possess effective time management skill. This is necessary so that
the work can be accomplished before time and it can be reviewed and checked again. Also, I
analysed that I am good in managing the project on time and results in effective attainment of the
objective. With this I also analysed that the use of effective leadership skill is necessary while
working in a team. But when actual work was undertaken then I analysed that the use of
leadership skill is lacking in me and I need to develop in proper and effective manner.
With the analysis of the complete game, it can be concluded that the game was very
assistive in effective management and learning relating to the plagiarism. With this I analysed
that I am good in some areas and need to improve in some others. Hence, it is necessary for me
to have effective action plan so that skills can be improved.
For improving the team working skill I need to understand the team dynamics and also
the way in which I can interact with other people present in team. Along with this, I need to also
improve my interpersonal skill so that I can interact with other team members in proper and
effective manner (Stoesz and et.al., 2019). In addition to this, for improving the leadership skill I
need to work on practicing discipline because in case there will be proper disciplinary work from
my side, then this will motivate others as well to work in better and effective manner.
CONCLUSION
The above study concluded that academic integrity is very important to be managed as
this provides more effective learning. The discussion inferred that academic integrity is essential
for the fact that it assist in proper academic learning. Further it was highlighted that there is
different implication of academic misconduct like inaccurate assessment, legal implication and
others. In the end the learning of skills from Plaganswer was evaluated like communication, team
working and many others.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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).
Ellis, C., and et.al., 2020. Does authentic assessment assure academic integrity? Evidence from
contract cheating data. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(3), pp.454-469.
Guangul, F.M. And et.al., 2020. Challenges of remote assessment in higher education in the
context of COVID-19: a case study of Middle East College. Educational assessment,
evaluation and accountability. 32(4). pp.519-535.
Joshi, O. and et.al., 2020. Benefits and challenges of online instruction in agriculture and natural
resource education. Interactive Learning Environments, pp.1-12.
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.
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.
Morris, E.J., 2018. Academic integrity matters: five considerations for addressing contract
cheating. International journal for educational integrity, 14(1), pp.1-12.
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.
Stoesz, B.M., and et.al., 2019. Academic integrity and contract cheating policy analysis of
colleges in Ontario, Canada. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 15(1), pp.1-
18.