Academic Integrity: Importance, Misconduct, and Game Production

This report discusses academic integrity, its importance to students, universities, and new ideas, academic misconduct and its implications, and steps taken and difficulties encountered in game production. It also highlights the skills learned in the academic year and those emphasized in designing the game.

Academic Integrity

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Section-1..........................................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
What is academic Integrity?........................................................................................................3
Importance of Academic Integrity to students, university and for new ideas.............................4
Academic Misconduct and its implications in an academic setting............................................5
Section-2..........................................................................................................................................6
TASK...............................................................................................................................................6
Steps taken and difficulties encountered in the game production...............................................6
Skills learned in the academic year and those emphasized in designing the game.....................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................9
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................9
Online:.......................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Academic Integrity explains those values which is held in the university. These values
include accuracy, fairness, honesty, respect and responsibility in an academic setting. It reflects
the goal of university to enable an exchange of thoughts and produce new knowledge, and it
needs that individual scholar to work with and build trust on each other (Bortolami and Et.al.,
2021). Academic Integrity is promoted when a student avoid dishonest behaviour, which is
consists with plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, collusion and many more. The report is
divided into two parts- in first part, it describes academic integrity and its value to the students,
university and for new ideas, It also explains academic misconduct and its implications in the
university. In second part, it describes steps which is taken in the production of game as well as
various difficulties encountered in the game. It also overlooks the different skills which is needed
in the production of game.
Section-1
TASK
What is academic Integrity?
Academic Integrity defines the commitment and demonstration of moral, honest and
trustworthy behaviour in the higher education. It explains the moral code of conduct and ethical
values held in the university (Burek and Et.al., 2019). These values include avoiding dishonesty
(plagiarism, collusion, fabrication or falsification) and held values such as honesty, respect or
accuracy in the university. This term “Academic Integrity” was introduced by the late Don
McCabe who is considered to be the “Grandfather of Academic Integrity”. Other prominent
scholars of academic integrity consist Tricia Bertram Gallant, Tracey Bretag, Tomas, Cath Sarah
Elaine Eaton and many more. Academic Integrity assists the enactment of academic values
through behaviours like maintenance of academic values and standards, academic publishing,
honesty in research and avoidance of plagiarism, cheating, self-plagiarism, contract cheating and
many more. This is practiced by majority of academies and universities. This is involved in the
mission statements, honor codes, policies and procedures. It is also taught by the teachers in the
ethic sessions. Also, demonstrate it on the official website of universities which describes what
the term academic integrity means to them (Choi and Lee, 2019). Honor Code helps to build the
trust and honesty among the pupils and give credits to original scholars and advocates who

originally wrote it. It can aid to teachers and learners to develop honor pledge that allows to
have bad consequences to those who have committed misconduct in the university (El Kamari
and Et.al., 2019). Honer pledge is done before the project is assigned and conditionally to be read
over and signed by the educatees This demonstrates that work should be done with honesty and
not violate any kind of rules in the academy. The five pillars of academic integrity are as follows:
 Honesty defines sincerity in the academic work. It is a reflection of being honest and
truthful about ideas produced by own and derived from others.
 Trust smooths the working bonds. It reflects that all members are doing their work in
a best way, where policies and structures are fair and all members treated fairly.
 Fairness is co-relate with trust, where every member should have faith that they will
be treated fairly.
 Respect enables to demonstrate individual viewpoints and ideas to be communicated.
 Responsibility defines the acknowledgement and accountability in routine actions
and in the work.
Importance of Academic Integrity to students, university and for new ideas.
Academic Integrity is chiefly includes the educational values that must be followed by
every person in the academy (Hutton and Et.al., 2020). Values supports the educational learning
and work. Academic Integrity is important for the pupils as it builds their future, It is vital for the
production of new and fresh ideas. Lastly, it adds values to the university.
For Students
When students performs their work and do their assessments with an honest attitude then
it delivers value to them and provides a best chance of success to build their career. This also
helps to avoid bad punishments such as failing in an assessment or expulsion from the university.
It reflects a stepping stone, when student put their time and efforts to attain a degree in the
chosen field. It will be a base of professional knowledge and practice (Why is Academic Integrity
important?, 2020).
For University
The way staff, teachers and students learn and work at the academy affects how the
community look and view the academy (Lupsic and Takács, 2019). It is vital that university must
be trustworthy and true to its values and standards so that it will gain the confidence among
society that students who passed out with degrees are true with their work and the foundation of

knowledge are based on truth and respect. Academic misconduct is a very serious issue in the
university that is why it has bad consequences if anyone does their work with dishonesty.
For New Ideas
In the university, it is very important for the students that they find the relevant sources of
their work as it allows the person marking the assessments and see where the students get
influenced of their work. It also enables the student to develop new ideas and knowledge and
gives accurate credit to the original writers whose data have been used in the assessments.
Academic Misconduct and its implications in an academic setting.
Academic misconduct explains those actions or attempted actions that may raise an issue
of unfair benefit of academy for oneself or an unfair advantage or disadvantage of academy for
any other individual of the academic community (Pyzhev, Gordeev and Vaganov, 2021). This
contains a wide range of behaviours such as plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, falsification or
misrepresentation of data, helping a friend with an unfair academic advantage, altering academic
documents, gaining access to materials before they are supposed to be available and many more.
Every existing and former student is expected to acknowledge and abide by rules of behaviours
which especially disallow the academic misconduct at the university.
Cheating
Cheating is explained as deceit, fraud or dishonesty in the academic assessment, or using
materials or helping others in using materials that are inappropriate and prohibited in the context
of the academic assessment. For example, sharing answers with each other while attempting an
exam.
Plagiarism
It defines the use or attempt to use of intellectual material created by another person
without giving a proper credit to them (Vogel, 2020). For example; use of thoughts, opinions
without any acknowledgement.
Falsification, Fabrication or misrepresentation of data
It includes an attempt to demonstrate distorted of fictitious information, references, in-
texting, citations or knowingly make use of information.
Implications of academic misconduct in the higher education- Social consequences: The moral implications of cheating containing the “habit-forming”
nature of cheating or cheating's devaluation of integrity, hard work and fairness. This

indicates that pupils who cheats or attempts to cheat in their assignment and think that
they can get away with it continue to cheat in family life, work and other aspects of life.
This will not only harm that person but everyone relates to that person gets affected. Inaccurate assessment: When pupils plagiarize or cheat in the assignment, teachers
cannot evaluate their performance accurately about skills or knowledge which are very
essential in their career (Wee Yeong, 2020). As a consequence, the university may grant
credentials to those students who don't deserve them, which can have severe
ramifications in the organisation.
 Legal consequences: At times, teachers give projects to the students which is sponsored
by outsiders (government agencies, businesses or professional companies) with
opportunities to dealing on real-life circumstances. If students falsify, plagiarise or cheat
in such assignments then sponsors can take legal actions against the university. These
actions include loss of future projects, fines or lawsuits. As these actions have severe
consequences, university take this concern on a very serious note.
Section-2
TASK
Steps taken and difficulties encountered in the game production.
Now a days, the educational competition is increasing day by day which leads to
academic misconduct and students more often go with plagiarism, cheating or falsification in
their work. To avoid such actions in the university, I came up with a game plan which was based
on the academic misconduct. The main goal of the game production was to let students to
understand the value of academic integrity and bad consequences of academic misconduct. The
game was based on the plagiarism which could be conducted by the students in their
assessments. With the help of game plan, I wanted to protect the students from various legal
consequences. In the game production, I have researched various tools and techniques which
could help me to build strategies to avoid the issue of plagiarism in the academic setting. The
game was required to be downloaded in the computers so that students could access and every
questions in the game was different with different options so that no one could be able to cheat in
the game. Whatever the students answered in the game, all data were copied from word and paste

in the software in order to detect the plagiarism. This software helped me check the plagiarism
very well.
The very first difficulty I faced while designing a game was the selection of game. As the
game was produced with a purpose of raising issue of plagiarism in the academy, I had went
through several games to select the most appropriate. The second difficulty was to select the
software tool that could help me to detect the plagiarism. As this game was also based on the
technicality, I had to understand the features of software so that I could be able to use it. Also, to
make it understandable by the students, I had to learn graphic designing through which the game
looked attractive and interesting.
Skills learned in the academic year and those emphasized in designing the game.
While producing a game of academic integrity, I've noticed that my majority of skills get
improvised which further aid me to grow in my personal and professional life. The skills and
capabilities which developed in the game production are mentioned below: Creativity: Creative skills are very important for the game production. I believed that
designing a game is not enough if it does not catches the attention of audience or until it
is interesting no one wants to play. Hence, I have developed creative skills within me
which delivered a great experience, which also help me in future. Technical skills: Without technical knowledge or expertise, I could not able to develop
the game. When I developed technical skills within me, it helped me to shape the game
steps, it also offered me with easiness that represent my thoughts in front of others which
is based on the academic integrity (Zhu and Et.al., 2021). Decision-making skills: I have realized that before the game production I was not able to
make good decisions regarding the use of resources or materials which serves benefits.
This game production helped me to develop such skills which is essential in the career
development that is to make the quick and right decisions. Therefore, taking different
types of decisions in the game production helped me to get motivated and I also
overlooked how my decisions affects the my team.
 Communication skills: I was a very shy and introvert person, communicate with others
was out of my zone. While producing the game, I had to talk with teams, my experts to
sharing my thoughts, taking their opinions so that the results will be best. This game
enhanced my communication skills through which I could communicate with others.

CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that academic integrity delivers the fundamental value to the
students, universities and for fresh knowledge. It helps students to complete their work with
academic integrity and to avoid any kind of academic dishonesty such as cheating, plagiarism or
falsification in the assessments. The university take the issue of academic dishonesty very
seriously so if any student do so shall be punished with fines. The game production requires
certain steps such as selection of game, research about tools and techniques and many more. It
also necessitates with certain skills so that purpose can be fulfilled.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Bortolami, G. and Et.al., 2021. Seasonal and long-term consequences of esca grapevine disease
on stem xylem integrity. Journal of Experimental Botany, 72(10), pp.3914-3928.
Burek, M. and Et.al., 2019. Hypoxia-induced microRNA-212/132 alter blood-brain barrier
integrity through inhibition of tight junction-associated proteins in human and mouse
brain microvascular endothelial cells. Translational stroke research, 10(6), pp.672-683.
Choi, U. and Lee, C. R., 2019. Distinct roles of outer membrane porins in antibiotic resistance
and membrane integrity in Escherichia coli. Frontiers in microbiology, 10, p.953.
El Kamari, V. and Et.al., 2019. Lower pretreatment gut integrity is independently associated
with fat gain on antiretroviral therapy. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 68(8), pp.1394-
1401.
Hutton, J. S. and Et.al., 2020. Associations between screen-based media use and brain white
matter integrity in preschool-aged children. JAMA pediatrics, 174(1), pp.e193869-
e193869.
Lupsic, B. and Takács, B., 2019. ANALYSIS OF THE EGNOS IONOSPHERIC MODEL AND
ITS IMPACT ON THE INTEGRITY LEVEL IN THE CENTRAL EASTERN
EUROPE REGION. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing &
Spatial Information Sciences.
Pyzhev, A. I., Gordeev, R. V. and Vaganov, E. A., 2021. Reliability and Integrity of Forest
Sector Statistics—A Major Constraint to Effective Forest Policy in
Russia. Sustainability, 13(1), p.86.
Vogel, L., 2020. How can the scientific community ensure the integrity of COVID-19 research?.
Wee Yeong, B. X., 2020. ANALYSIS OF CORROSION RATES ACROSS VARIOUS
WATER DEPTHS IN MALAYSIA TOWARDS THE IMPACT OF INTEGRITY ON
OFFSHORE STRUCTURE.
Zhu, M. and Et.al., 2021. Assessing the effects of cascade dams on river ecological status using
multi-species interaction-based index of biotic integrity (Mt-IBI). Journal of
Environmental Management, 299, p.113585.

Online:
Why is Academic Integrity important?, 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home/study_with_integrity/
why_is_it_important>