Skills Development: A Project Report on Academic Integrity

This report delves into the concept of academic integrity, its importance in higher education, and the implications of academic misconduct. It includes a reflection on the steps taken and issues faced during a game development project designed to promote academic integrity among students. The reflection utilizes Gibbs' reflective cycle to analyze the experience, highlighting both positive and negative aspects, skills learned (such as writing, communication, IT, creativity, and designing), and an action plan for future improvement. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of academic integrity in maintaining discipline and dignity within the academic world and the importance of teamwork in achieving project objectives. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Further Academic skills
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Section 1...........................................................................................................................................3
About Academic Integrity......................................................................................................3
Importance of academic integrity in higher education...........................................................4
Implications of academic misconduct....................................................................................4
SECTION 2......................................................................................................................................5
Reflection on the steps taken and issues faced while developing project..............................5
Reflection on skills learned at the time of academic year and in game development............7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
The term is introduced by Don McCabe who is also known as the father of academic
integrity. It supports the validation of values in education through avoiding cheating, plagiarism
and contract cheating(Bretag, 2018). On the other hand it promotes honesty in academics and
academic publishing. The importance of Academic integrity is that it allows the students and
the mentors to work with freedom for instance freedom to present new ideas and creative
thinking by acknowledging the work of others also.
MAIN BODY
Section 1.
About Academic Integrity.
It is the expectations from the teachers, students and researchers to work with great
honesty, trust and fairness and also with respect and responsibility to others. If some one
breeches the academic integrity then the conduct will be known as Academic Misconduct and
Dishonesty(Burgason, Sefiha and Briggs, 2019). The academic integrity is demonstrated by
using appropriate information according to the patent laws, copyright and privacy laws, by
acknowledging the work of others and not copying the work of others. The term is used to check
the demonstration of moral behaviour of the people associated with academics. It is a scholarly
activity to check the honesty. It provide the base to frame the principles to main the discipline in
academic world. If any individual violate the code of academic integrity then it sates that he is
breeched the fundamental principles so the act will be punished according to the rules the
academic program and office in student conduct. The term academic integrity supports that a
person has worked hard so he deserves to get acknowledged for this rather than watching that his
work is been stolen.
The term has a wide scope it holds the issue like grade assignment that an educator
should not be biassed while grading the students, the administration should be dishonest while
framing the policies for the faculty and students that later contradict the academic ethics and last
but not the least is cheating the assignments and assessment is also violate the code of academic
integrity.
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Importance of academic integrity in higher education.
The term academic integrity is important for an individual, for university and to preserve
new ideas. It gives a chance for a person to do his best with honesty to complete the task. If a
person follows academic integrity in his academics career then it reduces the chances of failing
and being asked to leave the university(Fatemi and Saito, 2020). The cheating while studying a
degree in which an individual invest so much time and money will be so disgraceful so to reduce
the chances academic integrity code is important.
With reference to universities, the academic integrity is important for the university to
maintain its image and value in academic world. The way in which the students gains and
practice the knowledge and the mentors and staff study and work frames the mind set and
perception of other to view the university(Sotiriadou, et. al., 2020). Also when a person graduate
from a particular university he or she should feel proud of gaining a high standard knowledge
and the learning is based on the foundation of trust and respect also the degree will be
respected.
Academic Integrity supports learning opportunities, options like cheating and plagiarism
takes always the development opportunities from the students. When the work is not done by the
students then they lose the opportunity to get the feedback which is important to enhance their
skills and for their further learning journey(Parnther, 2020). The respect of leaning is also starts
with academic integrity. The academic dishonesty in school also leads the dishonesty in work
place. So it is important to maintain academic integrity in work place, university and every
where, where learning process is going on.
Implications of academic misconduct.
Academic misconduct is a improper act which creates advantage for other students in
relation to assessment and creates unnecessary disadvantage for others. It can be done with
intentions and accidentlly. The term includes but not limiting to the terms such as plagiarism,
cheating, collusion, fabrication and misrepresentation.
Some academic misconducts are briefed below.
Plagiarism: The term states that using someone else's idea or copying some one else's
work without acknowledging them.
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Fabrication: It means using someone else's work like own and work as if it is real.
Fabrication is a term used when an individual add the data in someone else's work and
mentioning data that has never gathered or running of experiments.
Falsification: The changing or omission of actual results and adding information which
is not relevant for the research. It also considers manipulation of data and adding too much
between the lines which is not important.
Implications of misconducts
 The who have done this act will have to face some social consequences. As the habit of
cheating is harmful for the long run as well as short run and it can also affect the person
who is involved in act in any way.
 The academic misconduct leads to loss of intellectual rights which is a loss of money for
the individual who data is been stolen.
 Students suffer with low self esteem as the person who have cheated or fabricated the
data can be happy at once but he suffer with low self esteem later as it will not increase
his knowledge.
SECTION 2
Reflection on the steps taken and issues faced while developing project
In order to reflect on the overall steps taken and the issues which I faced while developing
the game related to academic integrity, Gibbs reflection cycle is used. It is define as a self-
reflection as well as management tool which assist an individual to think systematically and
clearly about experiences which has gone through by conducting particular activity. The steps
taken and difficulties face at the time of game development is discuss below:
Description
I was assigned with the group project which is based on academic integrity along with its
significance. In addition to this, the main objective of game development is to make aware and
participate students so that they can understand regarding the value and significance of academic
integrity. Moreover, it also consist of information about how to play game and its basic elements
as well. I along with my team members have enough time to complete the assignment due to
which we are able to develop unique game. Furthermore, the game which is chosen by us is a
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card game that includes questions related to academic integrity. The game is effective and
attractive because of which students take interests to play it.
Feelings
Before the event: Before starting the project regarding academic integrity, I was excited
as with the help this I am able to learn about academic integrity and misconduct. Along with this,
I am also able to improve skills that is creative and presenting skills. One of the main concern
that is coordination among the team members as perception of people is different because of
which sometime issues has raised.
During the event: At the time of developed, I was concerned related to time management
and for this we are communicated with every team member with the objective to complete the
activities on the set time period. Moreover, I lack because of technical skills but with the help of
my team members I am able to learn and improve it as well.
After the event: After the completion of project, it is analyzed by me that the overall
activities were finished in a proper and timely manner. Furthermore, it is determined by me that
coordination among team members can be improved which will further leads towards attainment
of positive results.
Evaluation
Positive aspect: It is analyzed by me that one of the best part of group assignment is
knowledge of team members and their skills because of which we are able to develop unique and
creative game. In addition to this, the knowledge regarding academic integrity and academic
misconduct help me to know what is bad and what is good in academics that will further help to
gain good marks and grades.
Negative aspect; One of the negative aspect that is coordinating and communicating with
the team members in order to develop an effective game. By the assistance of this, I am able to
gain insight about importance of team working that will be helpful in my future.
End of the experience: After the completion of project, it is analyzed by me that team
coordination is one of the area that requires immediate response so that higher growth and
success can be attained in future. Apart from this, Knowledge, competencies and skills of
different team members is the strength that assist to achieve good results.
Analysis
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The experience that I gained due to developing this project is creativity skill, technical
skill, time management, team coordination and so on. Because of effective creativity skills as
well as individual efforts of every team member assist in completion of project in a timely
manner. Along with this, I was able to enhance different skills that assist me in development and
growth in future.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is concluded that academic integrity is important for a
student as it help in learning, gaining higher grades, improving skills and knowledge, develop
image and so on. Furthermore, it is concluded that team is vital in order to execute activity and to
achieve objectives.
Action Plan
In order to improve the skills and the area I lack, there is need to action plan so that it can
be improved and better results can be achieved. The action plan is given below:
 To focus on communicating with every individual so that I can be easily coordinate and
work with others.
 To conduct team sessions and discussions so that activities are implemented in a proper
manner.
 To cooperate and coordinate with team members so that skills of every group member is
utilize to gain the best results.
Reflection on skills learned at the time of academic year and in game development
In this assignment of game development, I am able to gain and develop different skills that
consist of both soft and hard skills. Along with this, it will help me in development in future and
also help me to achieve my goals. The skills learned is given below:
Skills developed
Writing & communication skills: During the project, I am able to develop my
communication as well as writing skills that help me in writing instructions of the game in an
effective and understandable manner. In addition to this, my communication skills is also
enhanced during the overall project.
IT skills: This skill was enhanced by me at the time of completion of project as it includes
us of software and storing of data.
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Creativity: I was able to enhance my creativity skills at the time of assignment as it
consists of development of new fame in context to academic integrity and misconduct. By the
help of this, I was able to come up with creative and new idea as well.
Designing skills: At the time of conducting this project, I am able to effectively develop
my designing skills as it consists development of attractive and effective new game. Moreover,
With the assistance of this assignment I gained knowledge regarding designing aspect of game
development.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that strong the academic background an individual
need to stop academic misconduct and work with academic integrity. The word academic
integrity holds a very important place in the academic world as it was necessary to maintain
discipline and dignity in academics. The academic integrity holds a wide scope, it includes many
activities such as reducing the use of plagiarism, stopping fabrication and falsification of data,
unauthorized interference and other misconduct from the side of students, staff and universities.
Academic misconduct is also an offensive activity from the side of students and mentors which
can hamper their performance for the long term and also hazardous for the image of the
institution as through these things others view the universities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bretag, T., 2018. Academic integrity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and
Management.
Burgason, K.A., Sefiha, O. and Briggs, L., 2019. Cheating is in the eye of the beholder: An
evolving understanding of academic misconduct. Innovative Higher Education, 44(3),
pp.203-218.
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.
Parnther, C., 2020. Academic misconduct in higher education: A comprehensive review. Journal
of Higher Education Policy And Leadership Studies, 1(1), pp.25-45.
Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A. and Guest, R., 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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