Academic Integrity Report: Game Development, Skills and Misconduct

This report delves into the multifaceted concept of academic integrity within higher education, elucidating its core values, such as honesty, trust, respect, fairness, and responsibility. It underscores the importance of upholding academic integrity in fostering a conducive learning environment, ensuring students earn credit for their mastered knowledge, and promoting the creation of new ideas and knowledge. The report further examines the implications of academic misconduct, including penalties and broader consequences like reputational damage. A significant portion of the report details the development of an academic integrity game, outlining the steps taken, the challenges encountered during development, and the skills acquired throughout the process, such as organization, design, creativity, and written communication. The report highlights the game's purpose in assessing students' understanding of academic integrity and preventing plagiarism, thereby enhancing their academic performance and professional prospects. The report concludes by summarizing the importance of academic integrity and the impact of the game in enhancing students' knowledge and skills.

ACADEMIC SKILLS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SECTION 1.....................................................................................................................................3
Description of Academic Integrity..............................................................................................3
Significance of Academic Integrity in Higher Education............................................................4
Implications of academic misconduct.........................................................................................5
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................5
Steps taken in producing the game and the problems encountered.............................................5
Skills learnt during the academic year and after producing the game.........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills include the core skills such as presentation skills, academic writing along
with referencing which helps in underpinning complex skills such as reflective practice and
critical thinking. These skills help in encouraging the students in becoming more efficient
learners. These also provide confidence for participating fully in the various courses which are
valuable also after they receive the specific degrees and go outside (Kalfa, Wilkinson and
Gollan, 2018). The report will shed light on the academic integrity and its significance in the
higher education. It will also highlight the implications of the academic misconduct. It will also
describe the steps in making a game of academic integrity, the problems encountered and the
skills learnt while making the game. Furthermore, the report will also examine the skills which
are learned during the year.
SECTION 1
Description of Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity means to out the values into practice by being much honest in any
academic work done at the universities. This also deals in being fair to others and also taking the
responsibility to learn and follow the conventions of the scholarship. Academic integrity can be
demonstrated by using the information appropriately according to the privacy as well as
copyright laws, acknowledging the place from where the information is taken, not presenting the
work of others as own, conducting the research in ethical ways by considering all the regulations
of university, reporting on the research truthfully, acting in ethical manner in all the academic
endeavours. Academic integrity is considered as the commitment not only in general cases but
also in the face of adversity to the major five fundamental values such as trust, honesty, respect,
fairness and responsibility along with the courage for acting on them in the adversity face. These
are also considered as the five pillars of academic integrity (MacLeod and Eaton, 2020). Honesty
is considered as sincerity which is considered as the basis of all other pillars. Trust is the pillar
which deals in trusting other people and the community which makes the working relationships
easy. Fairness is another pillar which goes hand in hand with trust. The individuals ensure that
they are treated fairly and equally according the some standards in the company. Respect is the
pillar which allows for individual points of view and opinions which are supposed to be shared.
Responsibility deals in acknowledging the agency and accountability in the regular actions and
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in the work. Academic integrity therefore begins with individuals and also influences the entire
quantity positively. It is also considered as the basis of university goals for enabling the
exchange of ideas and developing new knowledge. This also requires that the individual scholars
work with and complete all the tasks by trusting each other. Academic integrity can be promoted
by avoiding the academically dishonest behaviour which includes fabrication, plagiarism and
falsification. On the other hand, when the focus is on the negative behaviours which mean the
place where the academic integrity is absent then the conversations about integrity are more
focussed on suspicion rather than respect, trust and growth. The five pillars mentioned above are
also identified by ICAI which is International Centre for Academic Integrity (Ramdani, 2018).
These pillars help in generating positive conversations about integrity. This is why, it is
considered as commitment to and demonstrating the honest as well as moral behaviour in the
settings of academic such as the institution. This can be observed that academic integrity is the
most relevant at the institutional level as this is related to providing credit to the people when
their ideas are used. This can also be said that academic integrity requires acknowledgement to
the other people’s contributions.
Significance of Academic Integrity in Higher Education
Academic integrity is the most significant in any educational settings for ensuring that the
higher education student achieves the course objectives and meetings. Students become aware of
the fact that they will earn the credit only for the material and the things which they have
mastered or learnt. This can be observed that the genuine as well as hard won knowledge and
respect can only be earned while presenting own work and also acknowledging other’s work.
Academic integrity helps the students and the staff of the higher education students in gaining
freedom for building new ideas, creative works and knowledge at the time of acknowledging and
respecting the others work. When the university makes use of the policies of academic integrity
then the university can easily respond to the academic misconduct in very consistent, fair, timely
and transparent manner (Dawson, 2020). When the students adhere to academic integrity then
this means that others can trust the students. The people with which the students work can rely
on them easily for acting honestly and they will also do what the students say. Furthermore,
academic integrity also provides value to the degree of the student. This does not only helps the
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students till they receive the degree but also when they complete the degree because this can help
in future life.
Implications of academic misconduct
The most important implication of academic misconduct is that the universities can
impose penalties on the students who are offending. These penalties are different in all the
institutions but impact the life of the student negatively. Along with the official university
sanctions, there are also other consequences which include social, ethical, moral and academic
concerns (Sorea, Roșculeț and Bolborici, 2021). The other consequences include loss of
intellectual property, inaccurate assessment, legal consequences, and practical concerns etc. his
can impact the life of the student because the student sometimes will be known by the same in
the future life by some of the people.
SECTION 2
Steps taken in producing the game and the problems encountered
The academic integrity game is a game which helps in checking the knowledge of the
students regarding the academic integrity. Academic integrity plays a major role in the life of
students along with the staff. This not only increases the value and reputation of the person but
also the degree which he or she is pursuing. The students face various problems while ensuring
that they adhere to the policies of academic integrity. This is why; I experience a lot of things
while producing the game of academic integrity. I also developed a systematic plan for
producing the game of academic integrity which involved various steps. I also added the
concepts of plagiarism in the game which is basically an example of academic misconduct so if
the students have the knowledge regarding plagiarism then they can adhere to academic integrity
by removing plagiarism (Coffey, Anyinam and Zitzelsberger, 2018).
The planning for the game started with the deciding the topic for the game which is the ultimate
goal. I experienced that the students face lot may problems while adhering to the policies and
procedures of the institutions as well as academics. This is how; I come to know that there
should be something which can help the students in analysing themselves. This can help the
students in not only in co-curricular activities and projects but can help them in all stages of
career as well as in life. I then decided to make this process and the idea of making game into my
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mind. This is how; I got the idea of developing academic integrity game after facing so many
problems of dilemma. The next step in the development of game was to choose the platform
from where the students can access this game and play. Then I analysed that most of the students
of universities are updated on the online platforms. This is why, I chose the platform of play
store from where the students can install the game and then can play it for testing the academic
integrity game. Here I faced the problem of taking the permissions from supervisor and also the
government. Then the next step which I followed was to choose the competitors with which the
students can play the game. This is how, I decided that the competitors can be the students from
the same university or they can also be the students from another university. Then, the process of
registering was chosen and integrated in which the students need to enter their name and email
addresses for registering themselves. I also integrated the framework which does not require any
personal information of the student like the contact number, address etc. I faced various
problems to make the information of students confidential so also developed some important
questions regarding plagiarism (Simola, 2017). I also planned that if the students just need to
answer the questions, they will not be attracted by the game. So, I added some graphics and also
some characters by tapping on which the questions will be appeared and then this will increase
the interest of the students to play the game. The students need to answer the questions and those
students who will reach 200 points will be winner as 20 points are given for each correct answer.
This is how, the game was developed for the students to play and test their academic integrity
skills. I encountered various problems in various stages of developing the game such as
designing as when the design was decided, some things were according to the expectations while
the other things were. Also, I faced problems in choosing the questions which can analyse the
overall knowledge of the students regarding academic integrity. This is how, the game of
academic integrity was developed by making use of various skills, knowledge and resolving the
problems and issues.
Skills learnt during the academic year and after producing the game
I learnt various skills during the complete year and I realised that I have implemented those
skills in developing the game of academic integrity. During the game, I used the power point
skills, organisation skills, design skills, creativity skills, written skills and many more. The
organisation skills were used when I made the pages of the game such as registration page, main
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home page of game etc. The design skills were used in the complete game for deciding and
integrating the best design for the game which can attract majority of the students (Bretag, 2020).
I also learnt about various creativity skills which helped me in making the game more creative
through integrating characters, graphics, sound etc. The academic course also enhanced my
written skills which I used in making the questions and completing their formatting. Therefore,
in these ways various skills of mine were enhanced and used in the game of academic integrity.
The complete academic course taught me to take the initiative by making use of established
skills and with the eagerness to learn new skills. Due to this, I took the initiative to develop and
innovative game which can facilitate many number of higher education students.
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CONCLUSION
The report concluded about the academic integrity in the institutions. This was followed by
highlighting and describing the importance of academic integrity in the colleges and
organisations. The report also shed light on the consequences or implications of academic
misconduct which can ruin the career and life of the student. The second section of the report
focussed on a specific game which is known as academic integrity game. It laid emphasis on the
reflection regarding the steps for developing the game. There were various steps followed in
order to develop the game and to aware the students for playing the same in order to check their
knowledge and experience regarding the academic integrity. The problems encountered while
doing the same was mentioned along with the skills gained during the academic course and
developing the game.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bretag, T., 2020. A research agenda for academic integrity. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Coffey, S., Anyinam, C. and Zitzelsberger, H., 2018. Meaningful engagement with academic
integrity through a focus on context and relationship. New Directions for Community
Colleges. 2018(183). pp.15-23.
Dawson, P., 2020. Defending assessment security in a digital world: preventing e-cheating and
supporting academic integrity in higher education. Routledge.
Kalfa, S., Wilkinson, A. and Gollan, P.J., 2018. The academic game: compliance and resistance
in universities. Work, Employment and Society. 32(2). pp.274-291.
MacLeod, P.D. and Eaton, S.E., 2020. The paradox of faculty attitudes toward student violations
of academic integrity. Journal of Academic Ethics. 18(4). pp.347-362.
Ramdani, Z., 2018. Construction of academic integrity scale. International Journal of Research
Studies in Psychology. 7(1). pp.87-97.
Simola, S., 2017. Managing for academic integrity in higher education: Insights from behavioral
ethics. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. 3(1). p.43.
Sorea, D., Roșculeț, G. and Bolborici, A.M., 2021. Readymade Solutions and Students’ Appetite
for Plagiarism as Challenges for Online Learning. Sustainability. 13(7). p.3861.
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