Academic Integrity: Importance, Implications of Misconduct, and Reflection on Game Development

This report covers academic integrity, its importance in higher education, implications of academic misconduct, and reflection on game development. It discusses the fundamental values of academic integrity, the importance of honesty and ethical behavior, and the consequences of academic misconduct. The report also reflects on the steps taken and difficulties encountered in producing a game for Assignment 2, and the skills learned in the academic year. Course code: BMP3003, Course name: Further Academic Skills.

Business Management with Foundation
BMP3003
Further Academic Skills
Academic Integrity
Contents
Introduction p
Section 1 p-p
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
p

A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher
education p
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct p
Section 2 p-p
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Assignment 2 p
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game p
Conclusion p
References p

Introduction
The commitment to perform the roles with honest behavior and the adherence to moral
principles and ethical values comes under the basics of Integrity. Adopting integrity in
oneself makes a person go long way in any sector of life. Academic means learning and
understanding various issues and topics related to the field of education. Academic
Integrity is thus a very important principle which should be followed by all to be on a
consistent and uncompromising agenda (Hu and Zhang, 2021). If a person fails in
Integrity at the academics he also fails in moral behavior which is very essential at the
academic level. Uprightness is a must for the overall growth of an individual in this
sector. Academic integrity is a sincerity in following fundamental principles and values
which translate into good behavior. This report will cover in detail about the academic
integrity its description in detail, its importance in higher education and the implications of
academic misconduct.
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
Complete honesty in work is what is known as Academic integrity. There is no
plagiarism or cheating involved in any of the academic writing. All the members of
academic community like students, teachers and staff are all expected to be
responsible in their behavior in aspects of truth, honesty and fairness. Most
importantly a student should learn this behavior to get succeeded in life. Academic
integrity can be inculcated in behavior by timely work submissions, citing, referencing
and acknowledging the sources of information that is used, abiding by the academic
policies, keeping in mind the copyright and privacy laws while using any information
and behaving ethically in difficult situations as well. Behavioral norms and values is
the point on which a individual should built his academic behavior. Practicing these
integral values while you are academically involved is a must which involves being
fair to others in every aspect (Glanville and Vasconcellos, 2021). An honest attitude
makes the self assessment successful in academics and the time and effort which is
put in the work becomes worthy.

A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher
education
It is important because this principle leads to development of new knowledge and
helps in reaching the goals of academics which are teaching and learning. It helps in
the development of ethical environment in higher education. Identification of
behaviors which embrace this and prohibition of those who go against it is what is
practiced in the college culture. The fundamental values included in academic
integrity are Truth, honesty, respect, fairness, courage and responsibility, these lead
to a credible behavior (Shane, Carson and Edwards, 2018). It is an important
concept to inculcate in higher education because it will reflect the true academic
accomplishments. Because students will be fair and honest in their work and
assignments if they observe integrity in their behavior. When cheating and
dishonesty is observed by a student during exams it leads to compromise on the
moral values of an individual which is a big no for academic integrity. If this value of
integrity is compromised at the higher education level it badly impacts professional
goals of a individual and their level of commitment in that work.
In the workforce environment, this lack in credibility badly affects the
individuals performance because good behavior is learnt at the academic level and if
there only the person compromises on integral values then that stops a person from
growing and becoming independent in future. Thus it is important to be academically
honest for a positive behavior to reflect in later stage of life. Students and teachers
also act as a reflection of their university and if they practice cheating or dishonesty
at a workplace it badly damages the reputation of the university.
The major objective of any institution at the higher educational level is not just
transmission of useful information or knowledge which are essentials for learning but
also producing a workforce which is skilled and useful with high moral and ethical
principles. Consistency and trustworthiness in the standards of behavior provides
confidence to individuals. Because a true sense of individuality comes from the right
and wrong perception of moral regulations. So an individual so practice honesty and
integrity, because dishonesty disrupts the cooperative environment of a academic
institution. Students flourish in their academics at the higher education level when
they behave with integrity (Pethrick, 2020).

Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
Cheating or practicing fraud in academics or violating the policies of college is known
as Academic Misconduct. The various forms of academic misconduct are plagiarism,
cheating, falsification, deceit, etc. The most obvious effects are penalties on students
and the other various implications of it are-
 Becomes Habitual- Bad habits are inculcated in the behavior faster than the
good habits which is why if an individual practices dishonesty and cheats in
an exam he becomes habitual in doing that thing again and again which is
negative academically.
 Workplace mismanagement- Learning misconduct at the higher educational
level leads to a person messing things at the workplace where he will work in
the future. He shall position himself as a person who doesn't have integrity in
behavior and thus his colleagues wont trust him for any work.
 Falling grades- Cheating, fraud and dishonesty can feel beneficial for a
shorter term but it is not beneficial in the longer run. It leads to fall in the
grades of a student when he doesn't gain knowledge and tries to clear exam
by being dependent on cheating.
 Disciplinary actions- The heads of the institution can take disciplinary
actions against the person for the misconduct and can thus penalize them for
their actions which damages the reputation of the individual and can lead him
towards stronger punishments (Sopcak and Stewart, 2021).
 Degrading quality of graduates- The students who are not credible in their
work don't gain information or knowledge which impacts their learning
potential making them graduates with no real knowledge of anything and thus
it degrades their qualities.
 Production of low knowledge in individuals- Plagiarizing content or not
giving credit for other's work or copying somebody else's work might seem
really nice and easy but it doesn't make a person work on themselves and
their knowledge which is required in the longer run.
 Expulsion- These behaviors can sometimes have serious implications which
can lead to an individual's expulsion from university and college. This can
make it difficult for that person to take admission anywhere else due to the
bad characterization of them.

 Possibility of criminal charges- Serious criminal charges can be put
against the person for not following the policies of college and not behaving
with integrity and honesty.
 Impacts reputation of institutions- The reputation of the institution is also at
stake for the bad behavior of the student. Bad news about anything spreads
faster than anything which can prove to be harmful for the image of any
university or college.
 Low self esteem in students- The academic misconduct can lead in
students to develop low self esteem due to the feeling of guilt and loss of self-
respect.
Section 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Assignment 2
Academic integrity plays a vital role in maintaining honest level of academics
in the world. But the increasing use of academic misconducting activities has
damaged and is continually damaging the trust of society on the related topic.
Considering the importance of the honest academic studies and the misconduct that
is being happening in the world, me and some of my friends has decided to build a
game that can help in avoiding the use of these misconducting activities (DiPaulo,
2021). For building a game that can have a strong role in minimizing the academic
misconducting activities which can be easily used by people and provide them real
and effective results, we have taken several steps. There were also many difficulties
that were faced in the process of building the game. Some of important steps taken
by us with the difficulties faced in producing the game are mentioned in the following
points :
 Finding concerned individuals – being a student it was nearly impossible
for me to build a game alone. So the moment I decided to take a step for
avoiding misconducting activities practiced in the world, I worked in finding
the individuals that were too concerned for the related topic. Being a
student, I was not having money to hire employees. So the chosen

individuals are mostly my friends and some were my batch mates in the
college.
 Identifying model of the game – There are many related types of games
found online or in the market. It was one of the crucial and hard process to
identify the model of the game that can be easy to use and provide effective
results.
 Collecting needed resources – There are several type of resources such
as software, computers and strong internet connection that essential needs
in building a relative type of game. Being students, we analyzed and used
resources that were free or needed minimal investments due to the lack of
money.
 Maintaining consistency – The process of producing the game complex
and needed days or even weeks of hard work. The consistency is a very
important elements in mostly process of accomplishing anything. There
were exams and certain assessments of me and my team mates provided
by the college to us. But we considered the importance of building the game
and were consistent in the process which was a very hard task.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game
There were many different types of skills that were developed by me and my team
mates in the academic year and the process of producing the game. Some of the
basic skills developed by us are concluded in the following points :
 Communication skills – This skills tells about the effective of a person in
communicating his / her topic, information or concern to other people. It is a
very common type of skills that can highly help an individual. In the process of
producing the game, I and my team mates were needed to deeply
communicate with each other to share their ideas and work as a team. This
highly helped all of the included people to develop this skill of our (Willey,
2021).
 Creativity - This skills help a person to view things differently and produce
innovative ideas. In the above process of making the game, I and some other
included people motivated all the team mates to put their ideas forward and

practice group discussions to find different solutions and contents. The
members were also given their individual space to deeply think and find
something innovative. The game helped all the team mates to develop their
creativity skill.
 Problem solving – This is the ability of solving the problems that comes as
hindrance with full of efficiency to get related benefits. In the related task,
there were many types of problems that were faced by me and my team
which were needed to be solved efficiently. All the team worked as a team
and found the most efficient solutions for the problems faced.
Conclusion
From the above report it has been concluded that academic integrity is the
process of maintaining honest and fair manner in the academic practices. This is a
very important topic that highly helps and has several different positive impacts on
the students and the society. Where as, there are some type of activities that are
practiced by students, teachers or other related community with the motive of
achieving academic advantage through using incorrect ways, this is known as
academic misconduct. Some types of academic misconduct that are commonly
followed are – cheating, plagiarism and fraud. There are some games that help in
avoiding the misconducting activities.
References
Hu, J. and Zhang, C., 2021. ESL Student Perspectives on Problems and Solutions
for Academic Integrity. Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity. 4(2). pp.36-37.
Glanville, D.G. and Vasconcellos, M.B., 2021. Academic Academic Integrity at CCT:
A Student Partnership Approach.
Shane, M.J., Carson, L. and Edwards, M., 2018. A case study in updating academic
integrity policy and procedures. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2018(183),
pp.83-93.
Pethrick, H., 2020. Academic Integrity Week Programming for Faculty Members: An
Environmental Scan. Online Submission.
Sopcak, P. and Stewart, A., 2021. Restorative Practices as a Tool to Affect Peer
Influence on Academic Integrity and Misconduct. Canadian Perspectives on
Academic Integrity. 4(2). pp.51-51.
DiPaulo, D., 2021. Academic Integrity Among Pre-Service Teachers (Doctoral
dissertation, Cabrini University).
Willey, A.J., 2021. Exploring Nursing Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding
Academic Integrity: Perceptions of Severity (Doctoral dissertation, Teachers College,
Columbia University).