Importance of Academic Integrity at University

GAME
This game is to be played in team of three. Two more persons would be required – one,
to keep track of time and other to judge the answers of the teams. Judge shall be the
person who possess the knowledge of academic misconduct.
“Know it better” is a time-based game, designed for students so that they can test and
improve their knowledge of plagiarism and other acts of academic misconduct.
Objective of the game
This game has dual objectives. One, to test the knowledge of the students / players of
the various acts that are considered academic misconduct and second, to teach them
importance of academic integrity i.e., to not indulge in any form of misconduct during
their school or university studies in a fun play-way manner. Additionally, it will also
help players in improving their brainstorming skills in time-bound manner.
Instructions to play game
Preparation for the game
 There will be two people hosting the game – one who will be holding the timer
and another who will be checking the answers as judge.
 Few question cards would be prepared beforehand in a bowl, that will be picked
by one team member to enact to other team members.
 All the students or potential players be divided into teams of three. However, the
game shall be played by one team at a time. Teams have to choose one person out
of three who would be picking card and enacting the question and other two
players would be given sheets to write the answers.
Game Play
 The person who is holding timer will call one member from the team. That
member will have to pick one card from the bowl, which will be containing one
question. The player has to enact that question to other team players within 2
minutes. Players does not need to guess complete question; just key point in the
question needs to be guessed. Successful team would be awarded 20 points and
unsuccessful team would be told the question after 2 minutes. However, they
won’t be getting any answer.
 Once the two team members has question, they need to write as many answers
related to it as they can in the next 3 minutes, separately. Post the completion of
the time, answers would be checked. For every correct answer 5 points would be
awarded. However, if two players have common answers, points would be
awarded only once. All the points will be totalled, representing the score of the
team.
 Same game is to be repeated with all the teams.
Declaring the winner
Team with highest score would be declared winner.
BMP3003 Further Academic Skills
IMPORTANCE OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Integrity inspires to believe and uphold principles and standards that are ethical in societal
conduct. Academic integrity refers to upholding honesty in academic practices. In
academic practices, it includes simple practices of doing your work on own such as writing
your own papers and not cheating in tests, exams or assignments and if using someone
else’s work, it should be properly cited or given due reference to the author. Academic
integrity includes values such as honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility (Ellis
and et. al., 2020). They should be adopted as fundamental value and is capable of acting
paramount to the success of students in university life and further in professional life. It
safeguards reputation of an individual, reflect good practices of university and in the
meanwhile, contribute to the wellbeing of society.
It is very important to observe academic integrity for various reasons. First, it increases
mutual trust and respect amongst scholars and also helps increasing trust worthiness of a
person i.e., the people with whom the scholar deals will be believing that the mentioned
scholar has an honest conduct and therefore, will not hesitate to help. Right belief, right
conduct and right behaviour helps a person go miles in life. These skills and behaviour are
also helpful in professional life and are considered one of the key traits of a successful
leader. Individuals with integrity are able to develop better reputation and are able to earn
long lasting goodwill for the organisation with their honesty, trustworthiness, integrity and
fairness. Academic integrity teaches ethics and inspires development of good ethical habits
during university days so that a person entering the workplace will be having ethical
values to deal with the ethical dilemmas that one has to face most likely while working
(Robinson and Glanzer, 2017).
Second, observing academic integrity provides high value to the degree and credibility to
the organisation. Employers are most likely to give opportunities to work in their
organisation to those students who come from a university or institute which is highly
accredited for its academic integrity as they are most likely to possess high personal
integrity. Organisation prefers investing in those human resource to transform them into
human capital which would have further positive influence on the organisation because
these people are those someone who can be trusted to carry out company’s mission based
on its values.
Finally, academic integrity is crucial and important because it provides peace of mind to
the individual (Ransome and Newton, 2018). Doing something good in the right way
offers peace of mind as it helps reducing unnecessary stress in life which helps a person be
happier, healthier and way more productive than otherwise. When students comply with
rules of the academic integrity, their studies and academic life are saved from being
affected by penalties or termination. Further, it helps them learn new knowledge, improve
their creativity and skills. While not observing academic integrity not only brings discredit
to them but also bring disrepute to the university or institution. There are various manners
under which a student can fail the integrity test such plagiarism, violation of academic
discipline, etc. which not only waste money and time but also takes away the chance to do
something on own that brings light of knowledge and self-confidence on face.
An explanation of why academic
integrity at University is so important
Game Design Skills used to produce the game
 Academic research skills
 Brainstorming skills
 Creativity skills
 Designing skills
 Time management skills
 Organising skills
 Writing skills
 Power-point presentation skills
Name
Academic integrity saves students from academic misconduct. Academic
misconduct is gain or attempt to gain unfair academic advantage during university
time that is likely to undermine scholarly integrity (Chankova, 2020). For
example, it could either be cheating in the exam or taking electronic device in the
exam to attempt to cheat in the exam even after knowing that such devices are not
authorised to be used inside the exam hall. Academic misconduct could be in the
form of:
 Plagiarism – It could be using someone else’s piece of work, ideas,
information, data or any other material without giving due
acknowledgement or if the permission is required to be obtained from the
original scholar, using the information without permission or knowledge
of original author tantamount to plagiarism.
 Contract cheating – This refers to contracting with a third party so that
they can work on the behalf of student and then submit for assessment as
their own work to the professors is also a form of academic misconduct.
 Collusion – It is the form of academic misconduct in the group work.
Under it, one person uses the idea of other persons in the group as their
own idea without giving mention to the original person as inspiration or
influencing other person to use someone else’s idea without
acknowledging also amounts to academic misconduct.
 Impersonating someone or being impersonated – This is academic
misconduct of the nature that someone impersonates and gives exam on
the behalf of someone else.
 Misinterpretation or misrepresentation – This is fabrication of data or
output used by someone in their personal work, research or document
without taking consent from the original person or changing data of
another person’s work under the original person’s name as if it is the
correct and real information amounts to academic misconduct.
 Failure to meet legal, ethical and professional obligations – There is a
protocol that is needed to be followed while conducting a research.
Intentional failure to meet these conducts be it legal, ethical, social or
professional are considered as academic misconduct by university or
institutions.
All the above-mentioned points amount to academic misconduct and it
is the integrity of a person that inspires to not indulge in all the above-
mentioned practices. Getting caught doing any of these acts can lead to
rustication or termination of student which was further long-term effect
by spoiling the image of both student and the institution (Kaktiņš,
2018). Therefore, students shall refrain themselves from indulging in
practices that tantamount to academic misconduct and rather observe