BMP3003 Further Academic Skills: Academic Integrity and Reflection

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of academic integrity, emphasizing its importance in higher education and the implications of academic misconduct. It delves into the five core values of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility, illustrating their significance in both student and faculty contexts. The essay also includes a personal reflection on the challenges encountered during game development for Assignment 2, such as communication barriers, lack of IT skills, and feature creep, along with proposed solutions. Furthermore, it reflects on the skills acquired throughout the academic year, particularly those honed during game production, including decision-making, communication, IT proficiency, and creativity. The conclusion reinforces the significance of academic integrity and its ethical underpinnings in academic pursuits.

BMP3003
Further Academic Skills
Academic Integrity
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Contents
Introduction 01
Section 1 01-03
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
01
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher
education 02
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct 02
Section 2 03-04
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Assignment 2 03
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game 04
Conclusion 05
References 06

Introduction
Academic integrity is the way of studying and teaching in an ethical way where team
members respect the ideas and point of views of each other. Here, the team members
who are working together expects honesty, respect and freedom to express their words
with each other (Sotiriadou and et. al., 2020). This will help to enhance many skills like
communication skill, team working skill and many others. While working together with
more than 4-5 members and following all ethical rules and regulations will help to
complete the task smoothly and it also neglects issues and obstacles while completing
any task. The following file covers detailed description of academic integrity in context of
students and institute, importance of academic integrity in higher education, implication
of academic misconduct, reflection on difficulties faced while designing the game and
how the individual tackle all issues and reflection of skills which is learned by designing
the game.
Section 1
An Introduction including a description of Academic Integrity
Academic integrity describe some ethical rules and regulations which should be followed by
individual or a group of individual while conducting the task (Guerrero-Dib, Portales and
Heredia-Escorza, 2020). It is essential that few ethical practices will be followed by
individuals to achieve their task smoothly and on time. There are five values of academic
integrity which are explained below-
Honesty- It is essential that teacher and students will be honest with each other. In
context of students, they require honesty from their teachers that whatever they are
teaching will be correct and helpful for their future. In context of institute and staff they
expect honesty from students that they will complete their assignments and projects
without copying with each other and by full dedication.
Trust- It is essential that the team which is working together to achieve a single aim
must have trust on each other (Amigud and Pell, 2021). In context of students, they must
focus that in case their teacher trust them to complete the task on time without copying
then they should focus that they will do the same. In context of teacher, in case their
students trust them that they will help them to guide properly then it is the responsibility of
teachers that they will properly guide them.
Fairness- It is also important that the task which is conducting should have fairness.
Students and teachers must communicate well with each others and fairly communicate
what all issues they are facing and the ways to tackle each issue.
Respect- It is also essential that teammates which are working together must respect
each other's work (Ayoub and Aladwan, 2021). For example in case a team produce a game
together, then it is effective that every teammate must respect each others point of view.
Responsibility- Conducting responsibilities in a proper way which will help
the whole team to achieve the objective is essential. While working in a team in case

every team member understand their responsibilities and work accordingly then
there will be no issues of misconduct of any task.
A discussion of the importance of academic integrity in higher
education
It is essential that academic integrity will be followed in higher education. It will help
learn many ethical rules and regulations and the ways of conducting task perfectly by
a student. Students will start their professional journey after higher education.
Hence, it is the last stage where they can learn different skills as much as possible
(Sheeba and et. al., 2019). Communication skill is get improved by students by following
the rules of integrity and communicating well with their team members which is an
important skill in professional life. Academic integrity plays an important role in
higher education because it is essential for a university to create a trust among their
students that their courses and studies will help them to prepare their students for
professional career. Secondly, academic integrity develop the practical knowledge
among students that how they can work under some rules and ethical conditions to
complete their task which is one of the most essential learning by a student for their
career.
Discuss the implications of academic misconduct
Academic misconduct is a unexpected and unwanted practices by the students during the
process of their task conduction. Cheating in exams, copying someone else's assignment,
copying full project from internet sources and many others are examples of academic
misconduct. It is consider as wrong and unethical behaviour from student's side. Hence, it is
essential that the teachers will monitor their students in proper way and must focus
personally on each student's performance and behaviour while teaching them (Awasthi,
2019). There are various kind of causes for academic misconduct and these are explained
below-
Peer Pressure- The student who is involved in academic misconduct will influence
other students also to do the same task. Hence, this will create a huge issue that students
are learning wrong and unethical practice3s which will harm their professional life.
Excuse making- Many times when students are caught cheating or conducting any
other academic misconduct then they directly blame their teachers and professors by telling
that they are providing a burden of assignments on students which is tough to complete on
time. Hence, they have no other option to involve in cheating. There are many types of
issues like exams are not fairly conducting, others students are also cheating, improper time

management, burden of work, teachers are not able to explain the subject properly and
many others.
Consequences of academic misconduct are explained below-
Student's self esteem- In case a student is caught cheating in exams or an any other
academic activity then they feel guilty and have to suffer from low self-esteem (Ali, Sultan
and Aboelmaged, 2021). This will impact in decreasing low confidence and motivation level
of students.
Social consequences- By conducting cheating in academic activities most
the students develop their behaviour to continue cheating for longer period of time.
Hence, this is harmful for them and when they become habitual to involve them self
in cheating practices then they set their mind that they are not conducting any
unethical practice and whatever they are doing is accepted.
Section 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in
producing the game for Assignment 2
There are various types of difficulties which is faced by me while designing the game. I tries
well and mainly focus that I will complete this task will least difficulties and obstacles. Few
of the difficulties which I have faced are explained below-
 Lack of proper communication with team mates- Due to different skill of my team
members I am unable to express my point of view and make them understand how
my innovative ideas will help the whole team to design this game properly. I can
handle this issue by presenting my idea in front of whole team and also add the
advantages and disadvantages of opting my idea in the group. This will help in
clarifying the concept of my idea for my whole team.
 Lack of IT skill- I am the student of management hence, I am lacking behind to cover
the technical area for designing this game (Click, 2017). Hence, to handle this issue I
mostly take the help of IT experts.
 Lack of innovative ideas- I am unable to provide some better innovation in my game.
Most of the other students also choose the same ides to design this same game.
Hence, I need to adopt something different in this game but I am unable to adopt
due to my limited knowledge about game design. Hence, I can sort out this issue by
studying well about various ideas to develop a game before starting developing my
own game.
 Feature creep problem- At starting I decided to design a game which are having
many features of identifying plagiarism but at the end I finish my game with only one
single feature which is totally unattractive. Hence, this issue is my one of the biggest
issue while design any game that I develop a good idea but I implement it differently
which is not good as I expected before. Hence, this issue can be sorted by making a
proper plan of game designing on a sheet of paper where it cover every single step

of designing each feature in a game. I can also take the advice of experts of game
designing. It is also helpful if I strictly follow this game plan.
 Not targeting the right audience- After designing the game, it is essential to
target the audience who can play the game effectively (Kaktiņš, 2018). I am
lacking behind analyse those audience who are having interest in playing
such games which is designed by me.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those
emphasized in producing your game
While designing the game I noticed that my most of the skills get improved which further
help me to develop my personal and professional life. The skills and capabilities are
mentioned below which I have developed during designing the mentioned game.
Decision making skill- Before designing this game I am unable to make good decision
that how could I manage my available resources in such a manner which will provide me
benefits. While designing this game I have to make many decisions and it is also essential to
make quick decision. Hence, taking various type of decisions while designing this game and
in context6 of right and effective decision I get motivated and learn how my decision
impacts the whole team.
Communication skill- It is tough for me to communicate with those people who are
having different skills and different attitude (Sotiriadou and et. al., 2020). While designing
this game I have to communicate with many people like IT experts, my team mates and
many others who provide good idea to complete this game. I also learned that
communication skill does not include only to convey one's idea to the audience but it also
include to listen carefully what others are conveying. Hence, I listen what my team mates
and game design experts suggest me and analyse the advantage and disadvantage of
adopting a particular option.
IT skills- I am a management student hence, my IT skills are weak as compared to any other
skill. It is essential for me to learn IT skills to design the following game. Hence, before
starting this project I choose to prepare myself for IT skills by taking coaching. Secondly, I
can also search a IT student and invite him to the team of designing the game will further
help me to understand some computer codes.
Creativity skill- This is one of the biggest issue in designing a game. It is very tough
to find a innovative idea and implement it properly to design that game which is not
played before (Emmanuel, Fielden and Miller-Rosser, 2021). Gaining the attraction of
audience is also essential and this can be done by introducing new and innovative
game. Hence, I can develop this skill by analysing all games which are designed
before and try to develop new game by combining the features of two or more
games and introduce something new.
Conclusion

From the above information it is concluded that academic integrity are some ethical
ways to conduct an academic task. There are five factors of academic integrity like
fairness, trust, responsibilities, honesty and respect. It is essential to have academic
integrity in higher education because in universities students can gain ethical ways of
conducting a task which is beneficial for the student to manage their professional life.
Academic misconduct is the way of following unethical activities during academic
years of studying. This is very harmful for student who involve themselves in
cheating. It is also concluded that there are many issues and challenges faced by an
individual while designing the game like lack of IT skills, lack of proper
communication skill, lack of skills to target correct audience to play game and many
others. An individual also learn many skills while designing the game like innovative
skills, decision making skill and many others.
References
Ali, I., Sultan, P. and Aboelmaged, M., 2021. A bibliometric analysis of academic misconduct
research in higher education: Current status and future research
opportunities. Accountability in research, pp.1-22.
Amigud, A. and Pell, D.J., 2021. When academic integrity rules should not apply: a survey of
academic staff. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(6), pp.928-942.
Awasthi, S., 2019. Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct: A Systematic Review. DESIDOC
Journal of Library & Information Technology, 39(2).
Ayoub, M.I. and Aladwan, K., 2021. The relationship between academic integrity of online
university students and its effects on academic performance and learning
quality. Journal of Ethics in Entrepreneurship and Technology.
Click, A.B., 2017. Stress, adaptation, growth: International students' approaches to scholarly
research and academic integrity. Proceedings of the Association for Information
Science and Technology, 54(1), pp.642-644.

Emmanuel, E., Fielden, J. and Miller-Rosser, K., 2021. Why should we care about academic
integrity in nursing students?. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 11(5),
pp.46-53.
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.
Kaktiņš, L., 2018. Contract cheating advertisements: what they tell us about international
students’ attitudes to academic integrity. Ethics and Education, 13(2), pp.268-284.
Sheeba, R.P. and et. al., 2019. Nursing Students' Perception and Practices Related to
Academic Integrity. International Journal of Nursing Education, 11(3).
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.
Online
Academic Dishonesty Definition and Types (2021). [Online] Available through:
<https://www.niu.edu/academic-integrity/faculty/types/index.shtml>