Academic Integrity: Importance, Misconduct & Personal Reflection

This report provides a comprehensive overview of academic integrity, emphasizing its importance in higher education and the ethical responsibilities of students. It defines academic integrity, highlighting its core values such as honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility, and discusses the implications of academic misconduct, including social, academic, practical, and legal consequences. The report also includes a personal reflection on the challenges encountered during a game development project, focusing on difficulties such as designing a comprehensive game, developing clear instructions, acquiring relevant skills, and bridging the gap between the initial idea and the final product. Furthermore, it identifies key skills acquired during the academic year, including risk-taking, patience, problem-solving, critical thinking, analytical abilities, and multi-tasking, illustrating how these skills contribute to academic and personal success. The report concludes by reinforcing the significance of academic integrity in shaping ethical behavior and fostering a trustworthy learning environment.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
SECTION 1.....................................................................................................................................2
Academic integrity.......................................................................................................................2
Importance of academic integrity................................................................................................2
Implications of academic misconduct.........................................................................................3
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................4
Reflection on steps.......................................................................................................................4
Skills acquired in academic year.................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Academic integrity is a moral code and ethical consideration that must be used within
learning and teaching. It is built on various pillars such as honesty, trust, fairness, respect and
responsibility. Academic integrity helps in avoiding any misconduct in academic areas as well as
avoiding any chance of dishonesty (Sotiriadou, and et.al., 2020). This report deals with the
understanding of the concept of academic integrity along with the implications from any
misconduct. This is followed by a reflection that describes the difficulties encountered while
conducting the processes of the project, along with, the skills that are important in one's
academic life.
MAIN BODY
SECTION 1
Academic integrity
This term refers to the main commitment towards exhibiting complete dishonesty and
behaviour that is moral within any academic setting. This concept is very important at the
university level and is related with the process of giving credit to other people when utilising the
same. It includes acknowledging the contributions put in by other people. Failure of adhere
academic integrity and not acknowledging the referenced work might lead to plagiarism
(Guerrero-Dib, Portales, and Heredia-Escorza, 2020). Academic integrity is a basic expectation
from teachers and students along with all the individuals present in the academic community to
act with honesty, have trust, work with fairness while respecting others and taking
responsibilities. Academic integrity for students includes making strong decisions that are
ethical, while asking questions and following the given instructions. The same is supposed to be
followed even when in difficult situation. In simple words, academic integrity is associated with
being honest and accountable. It includes doing and submitting their work as well as giving
credits to the ones that deserve.
Importance of academic integrity
Academic integrity is a major issue that will influence the work done by students. It deals
with allowing the students as well as staff members with the freedom to have freedom for
building new ideas, developing knowledge and working creatively in the process. This includes
showcasing respect for other individuals involved while acknowledging their work. Following
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academic integrity is important to protect their reputation. Students hold an important part of the
learning community and their actions will affect their reputation for the future. Such as if they
are caught not following the principles of academic integrity, they can be restricted from any
accreditation. Moreover, it helps in protecting from any criminal activities where the students
will impersonate someone's work as theirs, this makes them stand at a risk of blackmail.
Academic integrity comes from being honest and within the learning and research process while
it fosters trust among various members working and learning together. With the help of mutual
trust, one can gain confidence in their learning process (Ramdani, 2018). In addition to this,
academic integrity helps in providing students with many opportunities, involving learning and
career skills along with knowledge that is required for the future success. It is even important for
them to provide satisfaction of knowing and following ethical practices at an early stage in life.
They will develop the habit of being self- reliant while avoiding any serious consequences
coming in the way of their academic dishonesty.
Academic integrity helps in balancing various tasks during some overwhelming times
while being influenced by the school environment. Academic integrity is important for the
reason of gaining the best choice leading to success by performing assessment tasks and with an
honest attitude. In addition to this, it even helps in avoiding getting into any bad consequences
such as failing an assessment or even being asked to leave the University in some cases.
Academic integrity gives meaning to the efforts and time placed in getting into higher education
and choosing field for career as what a student learn is in higher education will pass on in their
professional lives. Academic integrity is important to explore different sources within academic
assessment while helping the students in influencing their ideas and the origin for the same
(Bertram Gallant, 2017). It creates a path for gaining new knowledge while giving proper credit
to the individuals from where the ideas and other content is used.
Implications of academic misconduct
Academic conduct is a bad habit to be followed and is associated with many
consequences. These implications are apart from penalties from the university towards the
offending student. It includes:
Social consequence: Consequences related with cheating includes, following a habit-
forming nature. Cheating is devaluation of hard work, integrity and fairness with a mentality of
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getting away from anything that by continue cheating at work. This attitude is harmful not just
for the offender but also for the other individuals affected from these misconduct actions.
Inaccurate assessment: In the case where an individual is cheating or following
plagiarism related activities, it makes it hard for the instructor to assess the performance of the
student and its knowledge as well as skills within important areas. It might lead to granting
credentials to the student who does not deserve thus, making serious ramifications within the
workplace.
Practical concerns:For the student conducting the act of academic dishonesty, includes
confirming the success within the course and program of study (Bretag, 2018). This will lead to
many problems in the future workplace while jeopardising safety of other people. Moreover, it
will make the student an incompetent graduate that will reflect badly on the future employment
prospects of this student.
Legal consequences: within higher education level, there are chances for attaining external
sponsors that will help in providing student with several opportunities in their work life based on
real problems. Following academic misconduct at this education level will result in having
formal actions against the student along with the university. These legal actions include, big
amount of fines, loss of attaining any future projects from the university or any other
organisation. The consequence associated with these actions might ruin the reputation of the
University and student thus, loosing opportunities to build a good academic career.
SECTION 2
Reflection on steps
In order to complete the development of the game, there are a series of steps that I undertook
and while writing the reflection regarding the steps of producing game, there are a variety of
difficulties which I encountered that can be illustrated as follows:
 Designing a comprehensive game: In order to complete the game and include all the
aspects for fostering of academic integrity and values amongst the students, I had to think
and include all the relevant aspects. This was a difficult aspect because identifying what
all needs to be included in the game covering all the aspects of plagiarism, academic
integrity and instilling ethical values amongst students of the university (Chang, 2019).
There were multiple aspects and I had to ensure that game idea was unique as well as
interesting which made it difficult for me to identify a synthesised and common ground
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for compilation of all these attributes in the game. This forced me to brainstorm several
ideas so that I could identify the most comprehensive solution in the form of game that I
can produce.
 Developing Instructions: In order to clearly explain the rules of the game and give clear
indication, I had to develop a clear set of instructions. This was particularly difficult
because I first identified and developed a clear concept and then the instructions were to
be such that players did not get confused and could easily convey the desired results. I
had to keep my instructions short and limited and yet cover each relevant aspect of the
game. This was difficult because I could not convey clearly the rules (Wain, 2017). The
idea of game was clear in my head but I was not able to write it down in the form of
instructions clearly.
 Inclusion of relevant skills: This was the most difficult amongst all the tasks in particular
because here I had to develop the relevant skills that are necessary to complete the game
development. I was particularly weak in the problem solving skills because I used to get
easily panicked and then rather than developing a solution with cool mind, I often ruined
other steps as well. This was a big difficulty for me because it was reducing my
capability to effectively meet the deadline of developing game and then develop correct
solution. In order to rectify this, I had to work immensely on improvement of my existing
skills and further development of the required skill set so that my working speed and
criteria could increase.
 Gap between perceived idea and actual delivered one: This was another difficult phase
which aroused in the completion of the game where the initial idea that I had thought
related to completion of game did not work in synchronisation because I was not able to
present the idea that I had created (Anderson, 2020). However, ultimately I was able to
bridge this gap sufficiently because although there were certain modifications that I had
to make, I was able to present it in a synchronised manner covering all the major ideas.
Skills acquired in academic year
Working on this project of game developing has helped me in learning and gaining new
knowledge as well as skills. These learning skills have helped me to understand and recognise
the different aspects that are important in my academic life. I have developed risk- taking skills,
as working on game designing requires to take chances and putting the stakes while working
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towards its progress. It can lead to set- backs but taking the risk at the first place is important. I
had to navigate among various unfamiliar territories to understand the unknown while looking
out for safe situations. I have gained the ability to tackle the risks by being calculated and
working on various strategies. Moreover, I have gained patience and perseverance that have
helped me succeed in my academic as well as personal life. Patience helps me to overcome the
challenging situations. I have worked my way till there with the help of trainings that became a
crucial aspect within my project. Designing a game leads to many challenges where I have to
alter my perceptions and make use of different approaches to attain desired success.
My problem solving skills assisted me to have a proper planning, adaptability and
experiment while contributing towards my project. My critical thinking abilities have helped me
to understand and analyse various choices that are made while making the best judgement to
make the project a success. These decisions are supposed to be made in quick amount of time
and therefore critical skills are important to take good decisions. It helped me gain analytical
skills that enables me think and work well during high pressure and stressful situations. If not for
critical and analytical skills, panic decision- making will lead me to some very devastating
situations that will directly my academic life. I am now capable of analysing the current
information and gain insights that are important to move on to next step during solving a
problem. In addition to this, I have improved my multi- tasking skills that are important to finish
my tasks based on its priority of completion. With the development of technology and its
advancements, the tasks within the academic areas have also become much complex. An
intensive form of situational awareness and management is required to improve my ability of
juggling between different tasks while solving any issues. This effective form of multi- tasking
has helped me to become much more productive as well as improve my working performance in
the process.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that academic integrity is an important areas related with the academic
life of a student. It is learned and followed closely in the higher education level of student.
Academic integrity helps in producing many benefits within student’s life and most importantly
marks an ethical path to be followed in their academic life. This concept is associated with the
performing tasks and assessment and not cheating in the process. It helps in building trust and
confidence in the process of learning. Moreover, there are many implications related with
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breaching the principles of academic integrity. The extent of these implications might even
include being expelled from the University.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Anderson, J., 2020. Reflection. ELT Journal, 74(4), pp.480-483.
Bertram Gallant, T., 2017. Academic integrity as a teaching & learning issue: From theory to
practice. Theory Into Practice, 56(2), pp.88-94.
Bretag, T., 2018. Academic integrity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and
Management.
Chang, B., 2019. Reflection in learning. Online Learning, 23(1), pp.95-110.
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.
Ramdani, Z., 2018. Construction of academic integrity scale. International Journal of Research
Studies in Psychology, 7(1), pp.87-97.
Sotiriadou, 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.
Wain, A., 2017. Learning through reflection. British Journal of Midwifery, 25(10), pp.662-666.
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