Academic Integrity in Education: Importance, Misconduct & Game Project

This report delves into the concept of academic integrity, emphasizing its significance in higher education and its role in fostering a trustworthy and fair academic environment. It highlights the fundamental values associated with academic integrity, such as trust, fairness, responsibility, and honesty, and discusses how these values contribute to the overall brand image of educational institutions. The report also addresses the misconduct of academic integrity, exploring social, moral, and legal consequences like cheating, plagiarism, and the loss of intellectual property. Furthermore, it details the difficulties encountered during the production of a game related to academic integrity using Gibbs' Reflective Cycle as a framework for analysis. The steps taken during the project, including team meetings, task division, and communication strategies, are outlined, alongside the skills learned during the academic year, such as report writing, communication, leadership, and research. The report concludes by reiterating the importance of academic integrity in building a healthy environment within educational organizations and fostering ethical behavior among students.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Importance of academic integrity................................................................................................3
Presenting the misconduct of the academic integrity..................................................................4
Describing the difficulties faced while producing the game.......................................................5
Steps taken while making the project..........................................................................................6
Presenting the skills learned during the academic year and while producing game....................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The academic integrity is consists of two words that is academic and integrity. Academic
is related to the educational institution such as college and school, moreover it the process of
collecting the information from this institution. On the hand, integrity can be defined as the
values that is followed by the individuals or children while pursing their relative study. So,
academic consideration means the moral ethic that is followed by the educational institution in
the areas related to study and research. The individual in the field of academic has to follow the 5
fundamental values such as trust, fairness, responsibility and honesty while working.
The present report will discuss on the importance of the academic integrity in the higher
education, along with these it has covered information related to impact of the misconduct.
Furthermore, the report will also depict about the difficult encountered while producing the game
related to the card i.,e UNO. Along, with this the report will also reflect on the skills that has
been developed during the academic year and its emphasize on producing the game.
MAIN BODY
Importance of academic integrity
The working staff and student represent the brand image of the university in the
competitive market. The academic integrity helps in developing the fairness conduct of the work.
Moreover, it helps to achieve the goals of the organization in limited frame of time by following
the moral values. Furthermore, it plays important role of relatability in the research work as the
researcher can relay on the credible information and build the stable foundation. In addition, to
this, it helps student in learning the discipline in the field of the study. Such as it helps student to
show their honest effort while completing their academic work (Morris., 2018). Hence, it allows
the students and staff to build the innovative ideas for creative work while acknowledging the
other fellow mates work. Thus, it is important for reducing the conflicts related to misconduct in
the timely manner therefore the way it is crucial can be explained in detailed as follows:
1. It helps in gaining the trust of students as they know that the organization act in honesty
and conduct the work in fair method. Moreover, it leads educational institution in
attracting large customer as well as investor. Thus, it develops the good reputation by
being fair, honest and trustworthy. Furthermore, this also helps student to develop good
ethical behaviour habits to be practice in college as well as workplace.

 It also helps in adding the value to the degree as the employers prefer to hire the graduate
those have higher personal integrity (Stoesz, Eaton, Miron and Thacker., 2019).
Presenting the misconduct of the academic integrity
The major consequence of academic integrity is penalties that university can impose on
the students. In addition to this the other consequences include serious issues such as social and
moral concerns.
Social consequences:
It is observed that cheating can have an adverse effect on a student’s integrity and hard work.
Students who often cheat in academic activities will develop a habit of cheating later in life. This
attitude will continue even in the social life, work and family that will affect everyone connected
with them (McKenzie., 2018). Moreover, it will not help the student to grow in the life and
achieve the desired goals.
Wrong Evaluations
Most students of higher education find the submission of academic papers without plagiarized
content quite challenging. They engage in copying deliberately or mechanically from the
internet as it offer them to have access to everything and can search form anywhere. Borrowing
others’ ideas is unavoidable (Brown and et.al., 2018).Along with this, if the student miss giving
right citations and referencing that will result in cheating or plagiarizing. So if the instructor and
maker fails to run a plagiarism test using plagiarism detector they may not able to evaluate the
student’s skills, knowledge and overall performance. And also to check whether the applications
are accurate or not or the students has made the mistake of giving credentials to a wrong person
that will contribute in creating the serious consequences of the workplace Tatum and Schwartz.,
2017).
Legal Consequences
Mostly, the student who works with the live project of the government and business
organizations have to submit their assignment in the own words they cannot copy and paste other
person matters. Any sort of plagiarism, fabrication of data, cheating or falsification can lead to
sponsors cancelling the projects and taking legal actions such as lawsuits, fines and penalties
against the educational institution.

Whether as a student, instructor and teacher it is possible to remove the plagiarism by using the
free online tool or anti-plagiarism software as it give the detailed report of the similar and
rephrased paragraph information (Ransome and Newton., 2018).
Loss of intellectual property: In the academic institution the issues such as plagiarism is very
common that is equivalent to stealing the other person property such as original work such as
writing and design (Ahmed., 2020). So in order to protect this the educational institution has
made norms related to it as well as it helps in protecting the other person right.
Describing the difficulties faced while producing the game
Gibbs reflective cycle is a management tool that help individual in to examine the
different experience that they gone through during the particular activity or specific task. This
model is compromise of six stages such as description, feelings, analysis, evaluation and
conclusion (Gibbs' Reflective Cycle.,2021). Moreover, this models help in analysing the situation
and drawing out the conclusion.
Description: I have gain experienced through the task that as the part of personal
development planning the whole class was given the specific project of creating a game. The
game need to be based on the Academic integrity and its importance it plays major role in
developing the character of the students. Along, with this the game need to outline the
consequences related to the misconduct of the academic integrity such as the legal and social
consequence (Kaktiņš., 2018) Moreover, the task was relatively easy and every student was
given the chance of choosing their group of 2 or 3 people.
Feeling: During the task I came across various feeling such as I was very disappointed
due to new members in the group as I feel more comfortable while working with known people.
Moreover, I felt annoying because there was no communication between the team members and
due to that many things was negated and decision-making was hard. However, I also felt very
stress because it was very difficult for the team to bring the innovative ideas. Furthermore, I also
felt happy as every body was assigned with the particular task and no one has to depend on each
other for the completion (Marsh and Campion., 2018). In addition, to this I feel very proud
because I was selected as the leader of my team. Thus, it helps in boosting my self -confidence.
Evaluation: Throughout the task I have evaluated that the idea of the game was good and
it has covered all the important aspect that was required while making the game. Along, with this

the group work was easily done without any communication barrier. Moreover, I have evaluated
that there was problem in technical process because one the members was not able to complete it
tasks in the limited time frame (Young, Miller and Barnhardt., 2018). I have investigated that the
final product was of great quality and the team worked very efficiently.
Analysis: During the task I have analysed that the communication problem has adversely
affected the group members and has created the stressful environment. Although, the team
meeting was held solve these problems and members was told to follow up the rules made in the
meeting. In addition, to this I have also examined that the new member in the team was very
much supported by the senior and that has increased their motivation. Lastly, I have inquired that
the team has completed their project on the time with good result (Tran, Huynh and Nguyen.,
2018).
Conclusion:
I have concluded that team work is very necessary for achieving the desire result on the given
frame of time. Moreover, I have summarized that academic integrity play major role in
educational institutional as it allows student to work in good faith (Fass-Holmes., 2017).
Steps taken while making the project
First step: I have conducted the team meeting with colleagues so that we can discuss and
further explore the innovative ideas. In the meeting the team has discussed on the rules and the
procedure as well as the important quotes that have to be written behind the card (Kwong, Wong
and Yue., 2017).
Second step: In this step the task was further divided into small part so that everyone can
easily understand their duty regarding the project. In addition, to this card structure was decided
such as 5 cards in each deck that will be of questions and there will be a pamphlet in each box
that will describe the rules of the game.
Third step: This step was important as it will decide the agreement of the date when the
task will be completed. And I have to decide the appropriate method of direct communication to
reduce the chaos and conflicts that has occurred between the team members (Click., 2017).
Furthermore, in the last stage it was found that there was lack of capital and for fulfilling this gap
I have decided to cut down the operational cost of task.

Presenting the skills learned during the academic year and while producing game
During the academic year I have learned various skills such as report writing in the
formate of academic style. In addition, to this its has helped me in improving the writing the
effective notes of particular subject. Moreover, the debate and speech competition has allowed
me to learn assertive skills likewise, I can speak for myself in assertive manner that is not talking
assertively and passively (Essential skills., 2021). Along, with this I have learned the skills of
displaying the honesty and integrity in every aspect of my life so that I stay committed to my
goals even when the situations are challenging.
Skilled emphasized during the project:
 Leadership skills: I have developed these skills while leading the team in that I have
divided the main task into various small task so that I can keep an eye on the individuals
that are working efficiently or not. Moreover, this skill has helped in enhancing my
personality development.
 Communication skills: This was one the major skills that has helped in communicating
the goals and objective of the task (Royal and et.al., 2018).Along, with this I was able to
present my task to the audience clearly and that has contributed in the success of the
project.
 Research skills: With the help of this skill I was able to collect the relevant information
that was used in the task. Furthermore, it has helped me identify the future threats and
address them in appropriate way.
 Time management: This has helped me in meeting the deadlines especially regarding
the task and help me in dividing the responsibility to the team members.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the academic integrity is set of moral
values that helps the organization in building the healthy environment by following the norms
such as honesty and fairness. The report also summarizes about the importance of the academic
integrity for the high school such as it helps in building the trust among the students and allow
them to put their honest efforts in the project. As well as it will help the university in making the
better student and develop the character of respecting the other person. Furthermore, the study
has also depicted about the implication of the misconduct such as penalties on the serious issues
such as plagiarism and the other consequences such as wrong evaluation and legal consequences.

Along, with this the report has also shed light on the skills required for the producing the game
such as creative skills, team working and decision-making for fruitful results.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahmed, K., 2020. Academic integrity: Challenges and strategies for Asia and the Middle East.
Accountability in research. 27(5). pp.256-270.
Brown, T and et.al., 2018. Exploring similarities and differences among the self-reported
academic integrity of Australian occupational therapy domestic and international
students. Nurse education today.(70). pp.13-19.
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.
Fass-Holmes, B., 2017. International Students Reported for Academic Integrity Violations:
Demographics, Retention, and Graduation. Journal of International Students. 7(3).
pp.664-669.
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.
Kwong, T., Wong, E. and Yue, K., 2017. Bringing abstract academic integrity and ethical
concepts into real-life situations. Technology, Knowledge and Learning. 22(3). pp.353-
368.
Marsh, J. D. and Campion, J., 2018. Academic integrity and referencing: Whose responsibility is
it?. Journal of Academic Language and Learning.12(1).pp.A213-A226.
McKenzie, A. M., 2018. Academic integrity across the Canadian landscape. Canadian
Perspectives on Academic Integrity.1(2). pp.40-45.
Morris, E. J., 2018. Academic integrity matters: five considerations for addressing contract
cheating. International journal for educational integrity. 14(1). pp.1-12.
Ransome, J. and Newton, P. M., 2018. Are we educating educators about academic integrity? A
study of UK higher education textbooks. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education.43(1).pp.126-137.
Royal, K and et.al., 2018. Using a modified bookmark procedure to help identify reasonable
consequences for academic integrity violations. Journal of veterinary medical
education. 45(1). pp.43-50.
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Stoesz, B. M., Eaton, S. E., Miron, J. and Thacker, E. J., 2019. Academic integrity and contract
cheating policy analysis of colleges in Ontario, Canada. International Journal for
Educational Integrity. 15(1). pp.1-18.
Tatum, H. and Schwartz, B. M., 2017. Honor codes: Evidence based strategies for improving
academic integrity. Theory Into Practice.56(2).pp.129-135.
Tran, U. T., Huynh, T. and Nguyen, H. T. T., 2018. Academic integrity in higher education: The
case of plagiarism of graduation reports by undergraduate seniors in Vietnam. Journal
of Academic Ethics.16(1). pp.61-69.
Young, R. L., Miller, G. N. and Barnhardt, C. L., 2018. From policies to principles: The effects
of campus climate on academic integrity, a mixed methods study. Journal of Academic
Ethics. 16(1).pp.1-17.
Online
Essential skills., 2021 [Online]. Available through <https://www.clarke.edu/campus-life/health-
wellness/counseling/articles-advice/essential-skills-for-college-students/>.
Gibbs' Reflective Cycle., 2021. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-
reflective-cycle>.
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