University Academic Integrity Report: BMP3003 Further Skills

This report, prepared for the BMP3003 Further Academic Skills module, delves into the multifaceted concept of academic integrity, elucidating its definition, the core values it encompasses (honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility), and its paramount importance within the realm of higher education. The report meticulously outlines the implications of academic misconduct, including cheating, plagiarism, and falsification, and their detrimental effects on both individual students and the academic institution. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to a reflective analysis of the steps taken and challenges encountered in the development of a game for Project 2, specifically focusing on the creation of a "Spinning Wheel" game designed to address plagiarism. The author reflects on the skills acquired throughout the academic year, such as PowerPoint, writing, organization, and design skills, which were instrumental in the successful completion of the project. The report underscores the critical need for students to uphold academic integrity and the positive impact of these skills on future academic and professional endeavors.

BMP3003 Further
Academic skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................3
Description of Academic Integrity.........................................................................................3
Importance of academic integrity in higher education...........................................................4
Implications of academic misconduct ...................................................................................5
SECTION 2......................................................................................................................................6
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in producing the game for
Project 2 .................................................................................................................................6
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing
your game...............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Education is the most essential part for the individual as it is the pillar of strength for the
students in their future development. An education can be incomplete without basic skills of
reading, spelling and writing. The students who are equipped with these skills find it easier to
undergo their studies and they tend to enjoy the academic success from those who do not possess
such skills (Sotiriadou and et. al., 2020). The academic skills encourage the students to become
the efficient learners and these skills include note taking, critical thinking and many other which
are vital for the success in the career. This report shall deal with meaning and importance of
academic integrity, concept of academic misconduct and reflection on steps taken and difficulty
faced in producing game and the skills which were used when producing the game.
SECTION 1
Description of Academic Integrity.
This concept is a commitment and demonstration of the moral and honest behaviour in
the academic setting. Academic integrity is a basis which enables the exchange of idea and
requires the scholars to trust and work with each other (Bretag, 2018). It is a ethical policy or the
moral code of academia. It supports the enactment of the educational values by the behaviour
like avoiding the plagiarism and cheating as well as maintenance of the academic standards like
honesty in academic and research publishing. In order to mark the academic integrity, there are
five values of it which generate positive conservation in respect of integrity and promotes
support and guidance to learning and the academic work which are narrated below- Honesty- It is also known as sincerity towards the work where the individual who is
honest, takes the stock of its abilities and represent it in their efforts in a fair manner. The
person must be honest about its idea, how its result is obtained. Trust- Working relationships can be made easy if there is trust in other people and the
community. It can be established in the system where the members are doing their work
and their policies and structure are fair and there is equal treatment for all. Fairness- This goes hand in hand with trust and every individual believes that they must
be judged on same standard as other and be treated fairly. The best work can be derived
from the fair system only.

 Respect- There must be respect for the opinion and point of view of other people and this
can shown by listening to others and being ready to meet the deadlines. The individual
must focus on giving its best from their abilities and the instructor must give honest and
full feedback to the people who shared their ideas.
 Responsibility- It involves accountability and acknowledgement in the daily actions and
in their work. Academic integrity begins with itself and helps in influencing the whole
community positively. Every individual invest in their work with the integrity and also
encourages others to work with integrity only (Tatum and Schwartz, 2017).
Importance of academic integrity in higher education.
The person who has the integrity is the one who is honest and at the same time
trustworthy. It is important for the students to have personal values and morals which can reflect
their credibility and character. At higher education, maintaining the academic integrity represents
the true academic accomplishments of a student. The students who have integrity works hard to
earn their degree in honest and fair manner by putting hours in studying and completing their
assignments. This integrity can be compromise during higher education when the student cheats
which also results on diminishing the morals of the individuals (Bultas and et. al., 2017). The
importance of academic integrity in the higher education is illustrated below-
 The academic integrity cultivates the environment which have mutual honesty, respect,
responsibility and fairness as these value promote others to respect an individual and its
work. The students can learn more in such environment and this can foster in their future
development.
 The academic integrity fosters trust among the students and staff as it also supports in
creating the positive learning environment. The students can conduct their research and
also learn with confidence if there is mutual trust and honesty in students and the
environment where they work or study in.
 As academic integrity comes from honesty in research and learning, the genuine and
hard won knowledge of the individual can help the students to present their own work in
fair manner and also result in acknowledging the work of other in orders to create a
positive learning environment.

 Following academic integrity in the higher education can help the institutions in gaining
goodwill as the students are following all the norms and values with full honesty which
will help in maintaining the dignity of the organisation.
 Academic integrity is very important at higher education as it undermines the learning
due to negative or dishonest behaviour and affects the credibility of the institution. An
educational institution which have high standards of academic integrity safeguard their
reputation and contribute in well being of the society and any breach of academic
integrity can diminish the public trust in the academic endeavours (Henning and et. al.,
2020).
Implications of academic misconduct
Academic misconduct is referred to as the action which gains or assist or attempts to gain
or assist the unfair advantage of academics either for oneself or for other member of the
community. It is a type of cheating which occurs in relation to the formal academic exercise and
harms the integrity of academic s and the institution which offers education to students
(Chankova, 2020). The list of academic misconduct is not exhaustive, and includes many other
types of academic misconduct, some of which are discussed below- Cheating- It is referred to as the dishonesty, fraud or deceit practice in the academic
assignment or using any material which are inappropriate or prohibited in relation to
academic assignment in question. These may include copying during exams from others
or in assignment, communicating with other during exams, using unauthorised materials
or notes during exams or taking exam for other person. Plagiarism- It is the use of intellectual material which is produced by some other person
and the usage is without the acknowledgement of the source. This may include
paraphrasing the phraseology, literary or metaphor of other without acknowledgement,
using opinion, insight or views of other without acknowledgement or wholesale copy of
the passages from the work of others into your own work without acknowledgement.
 Falsification- It is the attempt to present evidence, data, citation or information without
informing the concerned authority or changing the information, data, grade report,
academic document, etc. without the authority is regarded as falsification (Hopp and
Hoover, 2017).

All these come under the umbrella of academic misconduct but this list is not exhaustive
and involves many other aspects which are regarded as academic misconduct. This not only
harm the reputation of the student or the institution but also affects the learning of the student
and its future development. The consequences of academic misconduct can be serious and
possibly include expulsion or suspension from the organisation. It is also the violation of the
academic integrity and the student is charged with misconduct. It is implied in the institutes that
the morals, ethics and norms of the school or college creates a positive learning environment for
the students and any violation of it may result in harm to reputation of institute and also creates
a negative impact on the society and students (Biagioli and Lippman, 2020).
SECTION 2
Reflect on the steps you have taken, and difficulties encountered in producing the game for
Project 2
In today's era, when the education have taken a great importance in the lives of others, it
is important to protect the academic integrity of it so that there is harm to the reputation and
dignity of the academics. In the present time, there is a huge impact on the academics due to
increase in academic misconduct which involves especially the plagiarism. In order to cope up
with this and maintain the4 academic integrity in the institutions, I came with some idea in order
to contribute in protecting the academic integrity. The idea which I analysed was to produce a
game which can contribute in preventing the academic misconduct. After analysing my idea, I
decided to produce the game which can prevent plagiarism in academics. In my perspective, this
idea is efficient as it is a game to prevent to plagiarism which can assist students to know the
importance of academic integrity which students can enjoy and also contribute in preventing
such misconduct.
When the idea was finally decided, I move to produce the game which is easy on one
hand and efficient on other. Then after this, I screened to figure out the advantages of academic
integrity so that I can motivate others to move forward towards academic integrity and avoid
misconduct. The game which I produced is called the Spinning Wheel plagiarism game. It is
designed to assess the knowledge of the player in respect of plagiarism and the academic
misconduct. It contains different coloured cards which will have questions with the grid answers
on its back and each card have its points and the person who gets the first 100 points, wins the

game. My aim to produce the game was to spread the awareness to prevent plagiarism and
importance of academic integrity.
While I was producing the game for plagiarism, I faced my difficulties which involves
the following-
 The main problem which is faced while producing the game was to sketch the structure
and design of the game. I wanted to have the design which on one side attracts the people
and on other side describes the whole concept in order to fulfil its aim.
 Another problem which I faced was relating to framing the questions. I wanted to keep
the questions which are at average level so that every individual can enjoy the game and
understand its purpose.
 The third issue was to assemble the game and make it in such a way that the importance
of academic integrity is reflected in the game. I wanted to convey the message to prevent
the plagiarism in the academics so that students can learn the importance of integrity for
future development.
Reflect on the skills you have learned this academic year and those emphasized in producing
your game.
When I was producing the game, I came across to identify the skills which I already
possess and I also got the opportunity to inculcate new skills in me while producing the games.
Some of them are illustrated below- Power point knowledge- During my initial college days, I used to make many power
point presentations but during the production of this game, I came across to develop more
knowledge about power point which helped me in presenting my idea in more effective
manner. Written skills- While producing this game, I have to frame various questions so the
written skills got sharpened while this process I learnt about various tricks and techniques
to write questions. Organisation skills- When I was producing this game, I did not adequate knowledge to
organise my work and the resources so I learned to organise them and work within time
frames which helped in showing my best capabilities.

 Design skills- Initially I did not possess any knowledge of designing but I learned to
develop this skill as I got involved in designing my game which is attractive and
informative both at the same time.
 Imagination and creativity- When I was producing the game and sketching its idea, I got
the opportunity to develop creativity skills which helped me in designing my game in an
attractive manner and broaden my scope to make the game more effective.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that education plays an important role in the future
development of the child so it is important that a student must have the knowledge and
importance of the academic integrity so that it can become an honest and trustworthy person. The
concept of academic integrity is important as it helps in maintaining the goodwill of the institute
and also contribute in creating the positive learning environment. Academic misconduct harms
the concept of academic integrity and includes plagiarism, cheating, falsification and many other.
This report also involves a game to prevent the plagiarism and explores the importance of
academic integrity in the students.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Biagioli, M. and Lippman, A. eds., 2020. Gaming the metrics: Misconduct and manipulation in
academic research. Mit Press.
Bretag, T., 2018. Academic integrity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and
Management.
Bultas, M.W., and et. al., 2017. Crossing the “line”: college students and academic integrity in
nursing. Nurse education today, 56, pp.57-62.
Chankova, M., 2020. Teaching Academic Integrity: the Missing Link. Journal of Academic
Ethics, 18(2), pp.155-173.
Henning, M., and et. al., 2020. Development of the Cross-Cultural Academic Integrity
Questionnaire-Version 3 (CCAIQ-3). Journal of Academic Ethics, 18(1), pp.35-53.
Hopp, C. and Hoover, G.A., 2017. How prevalent is academic misconduct in management
research?. Journal of Business Research, 80, pp.73-81.
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.
Tatum, H. and Schwartz, B.M., 2017. Honor codes: Evidence based strategies for improving
academic integrity. Theory Into Practice, 56(2), pp.129-135.