Academic Integrity and Game Development: A Project 2 Reflection

This report provides an overview of academic integrity, defining it as the ethical practice of honesty and morality in academic settings, and emphasizes its importance in teaching, learning, and research. It discusses the five pillars of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. The report highlights the significance of academic integrity in higher education, including preventing penalties for academic misconduct, fostering the development of new ideas, and creating a healthy teaching and studying environment. It also addresses the implications and causes of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and cheating, and their consequences, including grade reduction and legal repercussions. Furthermore, the report reflects on the steps taken and difficulties encountered in producing a game called 'Plag Play,' designed to educate students about academic integrity and plagiarism. The reflection also includes the IT, creative, and critical thinking skills learned and emphasized during the game's production, underscoring their importance in both personal and professional growth.

Academic Integrity

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity............................................1
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education...........................2
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct.................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in producing the game for
Project 2..................................................................................................................................3
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing
your game...............................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
References:.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Academic Integrity refers to the ethical practice in which there is the commitment and
manifestation of honesty and morality in the academic setting (Eaton, 2021). In the academic
practices there are three segments teaching, learning and research and in all these three segments
it is very essential to have incorporation of the integrity in work in order to excel as a good
person. Basically, academic integrity in a student it is all about developing and submitting
assessments in a fair and honest manner. The present report on the academic integrity will
discuss the meaning of academic integrity, its importance in higher education and implications of
academic misconduct. Further in the report there is the reflection of difficulties encountered in
the game and skills learned and emphasized during game designing are reflected.
TASK 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
Whenever there is discussion about the academic courses, higher education or academic
activities there is one essential concept of academic integrity that must be incorporated
effectively in order to have fair and ethical engagement in studies (Dawson, 2020). Academic
Integrity simply means fair, value based and honest action when working for academic activities.
Academic integrity is the basis of educational goals to be exchanges truthfully and also to
develop new knowledge. As per the International Centre for Academic Integrity the concept of
Academic integrity is dependent on the 5 pillars in order to have positive communication of
integrity that are discussed below:
Pillar 1: Honesty: the term which means sincerity all the other pillar rely on this factor as to
represent fair and real abilities of an individual it is very necessary to be honest with ourself and
with others.
Pillar 2: Trust: the term which means one person can easily rely on other which is useful to ease
the relationship when working collectively (Chankova, 2020). In context of academic integrity
trust is useful in establishing the fair policies, structure and also all are treated equally.
Pillar 3: Fairness: The fairness comply with trust. In order to act with integrity the fairness in
the work is very important and also the education system must be fair to everyone because the
best work is achieved through this.
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Pillar 4: Respect: understanding and paying attention to each others view point and perception is
the form of respect that students give in the academic setting. Listening attentively to others
opinions, ideas and also to share the same provide a best performance in the academic course.
Pillar 5: Responsibility: the capability of acknowledging and taking accountability of the ones
work and actions is the essential (Fatemi and Saito, 2020). This bring positive influence on
someone's work and also on encourage others to act with integrity.
Thus, collectivity of all the above attributes in an individual engaged in the academic activities
delivers a work in respect of academic integrity.
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher education
After understanding the concept of the academic integrity it is analysed that academic
integrity is important for a person performing in educational setting, the several importance of
academic integrity are discussed bellow:
Prevent penalties of academic misconduct: by demonstrating the academic integrity in the
work an individual can be prevented from the guilt and punishments of the academic
misconduct. As the penalties for academic misconduct can lead to downfall of future career such
as suspension, failing in assessment task etc. thus, academic integrity will promote excellence
and positive personality as an student for future growth (Parnther, 2020).
Development of new ideas: when every individual fairly work without indulging into coping or
paraphrasing. Then, the in the academic setting the academic integrity allow an individual to
have freedom of thoughts, ideas and also to foster the creativity. Thus this is important in
developing one's knowledge and also to acknowledge the self ideas.
Healthy teaching and studying environment: with the compliance of academic integrity the
teachers and students both are involved in fair system with set rules and regulations. This factor
helps to increase the productivity, happier working environment and also work is accomplished
more transparently in timely manner (Latopolski and Bertram Gallant, 2020).
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
Academic misconduct refers to the unethical activities in which a student or a teacher are
involved in the practices like plagiarism, stealing of someone else's work, cheating, fabricating
etc. when a student breach the values, principles and the believe of academic integrity then it is
undermined to be involved into the academic misconduct and there are implications of academic
misconduct (Sotiriadou and et. al., 2020).
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Causes
 Due to academic peer pressure some students involve themselves into the unethical
practices as there is pressure of gaining higher grades similar to the other people of the
class (Hiebert, 2021).
 The another cause of academic misconduct is the burden of assignments on the students.
sometimes when students are not able to meet the deadlines of the assigned tasks they
indulge themselves into practices like cheating, copying etc.
 Performance anxiety is also one of the reason of academic misconduct as when some
students are unable to performance better in some task and has attitude to be remain bets
in their assignments and other task. Therefore in order to stay at first and competitive the
students mistakenly include themselves into academic misconduct (Cliplef and et. al.,
2021).
Consequences
 Reduction in grade or the failure in assignment is one of the major consequences if a
student is caught in act of academic misconduct. As every institute have strict policy
related to academic penalties and among the one is this.
 When there is academic misconduct where one student attempt someone else's
examination then person faces a consequences in the form of lawsuits and also become a
be in jail under the criminal acts (Sanni-Anibire, 2021).
TASK 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in producing the game for
Project 2
I have designed game names as Plag Play which is a one hour game and is designed to
educate the students of the university about the importance of academic integrity and
consequences of the plagiarism. While the idea generation and the development of the game I
came across multiple many challenges and difficulties that acted as a barrier to my smooth
development of an game. For the development of game I have taken multiple steps that are
discussed below:
First step was to create a team for the game development and to discuss about the blueprint of the
game in order to construct a real one. The next step was to assign the task to each individual
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according to their skills and mutual decision making. This was done to divide the game
dve4lopment into small parts so that it can be achieved timely in effective manner. In the next
step there where meeting and open discussion about the progress of work, to decide final date of
submission, difficulties in work etc.
At this step I encountered the many difficulties I have4 faced during the creation of Plag play
game that are discussed below:
 Lack of technical skills: the major difficulty that I came across was that I have very least
amount of technical skills regarding the development of game. This difficult slow down
my process of development and also due to this there where flaws in designing of game.
 Incomplete information of academic integrity and plagiarism: during the time of
making questionnaire related to the academic integrity and misconducts for the game I
analysed that I have incomplete knowledge about this topic and other sub topic related to
it. This difficult made it difficult for me to decide the topic for the game on which player
will demonstrate their creative thoughts and words.
 Lack of decision making skills: during the mid stage of the development of game there
was delay in the work as per the time table as the decision making process was slow. I
analysed that I have very poor decision making skills which was consistently delaying the
other steps of game development.
 Not able to find right players at the time of testing: when I was required to test my
game before the final submission I was not able to find the right 5 students of the same
age group and course. This made me think and feel about my future growth of game as
the lack of audience will lead to the failure of my game.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing
your game
While the designing a game related to the academic integrity I have learned several skills
that has helped in personal and professional growth and has also improved the designing,
functioning and working of my game. The skills that I have learned during this academic year
and those are also emphasized in producing my Plag Play game are discussed below:
IT skills: the It skills are the technical skills related to the computer software, coding of game,
internet access and login id's. For the designing and development of the game IT skills are
essential which I have learned during this year. As the part of IT skills I have gained the
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knowledge about different coding languages that are useful to me in designing the game. The IT
skills also helped in updating the technologies related to the game and also to develop the
accounts and login process. Thus, these skills will be useful to me in mitigating the technical
errors of the game. These skills were also useful to me keeping my game organised and complied
as an appropriate game.
Creative skills: In order to make the game attractive and eye catchy it is very essential for me to
have creativity skills. In the current year I have learned the creative skills which included the
knowledge of designs, structure of game, colours to be used etc. By learning 6these skills I was
able to develop new thoughts and ideas related to the presentation of game, and also innovation
was drawn during the game designing. The creativity skills helped me in deciding the name,
colour of game, logo of the game in order to keep the audience engaging in the game and also to
keep game recognisable and presentable. The creativity skills will be also useful to me in future
development of games and also add features to my next games.
Critical thinking skills: In order to decide the each stage of game, its looking, pattern etc. it is
very important for me to have excellent critical thinking skills. Therefore, in the this academic
year I have learned the critical thinking skills. This skills are useful to think out of the box in
order to diversify my thoughts and also to generate new ideas and to solve any problem in the
game quickly. The critical thinking skills which I have learned are also useful to me in deciding
the some good topics during the game. Thus, the critical thinking skills has highly overlooked in
my game. Thus through this I am able to open my thoughts in different areas and also my
capability to expand my knowledge in different academic areas have increased.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that for a student in an academic setting it is
essential to follow the academic integrity in order to proper the future growth in employment and
career. The academic integrity not only help an student to develop itself as a better competitive
candidate for future jobs but also make a good person. Thus it is concluded form the above report
that consequences of the academic misconduct can lead to spoil of future of a student. Thus
every university must incorporate a game of academic integrity in there system in order to have
fair, honest and misconduct free submission of assignments. For the effective and impactful
game development one must contain the IT skills, Creative skills and deep knowledge of
academic integrity and misconduct.
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References:
Books and Journals
Chankova, M., 2020. Teaching Academic Integrity: the Missing Link. Journal of Academic
Ethics. 18(2). pp.155-173.
Cliplef, L and et. al., 2021. Championing academic integrity in academic
development. Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity. 4(1). pp.140-140.
Dawson, P., 2020. Defending assessment security in a digital world: preventing e-cheating and
supporting academic integrity in higher education. Routledge.
Eaton, S.E., 2021. Plagiarism in higher education: Tackling tough topics in academic integrity.
ABC-CLIO.
Fatemi, G. and Saito, E., 2020. Unintentional plagiarism and academic integrity: The challenges
and needs of postgraduate international students in Australia. Journal of Further and
Higher Education. 44(10). pp.1305-1319.
Hiebert, R., 2021. Building academic integrity using student centered strategies. Canadian
Perspectives on Academic Integrity. 4(1). pp.138-138.
Latopolski, K. and Bertram Gallant, T., 2020. Academic integrity. DM Waryold & JM Lancaster
(Ed, 2nd edition). Student Conduct Practice: The Complete Guide for Student Affairs
Professionals. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Parnther, C., 2020. Academic misconduct in higher education: A comprehensive review. Journal
of Higher Education Policy And Leadership Studies. 1(1). pp.25-45.
Sanni-Anibire, H., 2021. A student perspective of academic integrity. Canadian Perspectives on
Academic Integrity. 4(1). pp.135-135.
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.
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