Presentation for SAIBSA at Edubridge Feb 1, 2014

1. Academic Honesty
in the Digital Age
Mick Purcell

2. This paper investigates academic honesty in the digital age, and offers constructive advice, including tips, skills
and policy guidelines, for international educators. Schools must focus on the promotion academic honesty rather
than the punishment of academic dishonesty. Research shows that the single most important factor in promoting
a school culture of academic honesty is the attitude of the students. If students value academic integrity then
their peers are less likely to cheat or plagiarize. Students must be taught explicitly to value academic honesty
and how to practice academic honesty in the digital age.
Practical tips are given about how to create a culture of academic honesty in the digital age. Students and
teachers should discuss and include academic honesty in their Essential Agreements from a young age.
Teachers must learn precisely how to cite, write bibliographies, use the internet effectively, give references within
presentations, or acknowledge a work of art. Strategies for integrating academic honesty into the curriculum are
presented with examples or vignettes of successful methods, including Academic Honesty in the Primary Years.
The best online tools are presented. Practical strategies are suggested for students, teachers, parents, teacherlibrarians, and administrators. There are tips about how to write a school’s Academic Honesty policy by involving
the school community to reflect the school’s mission.
There is a brief discussion of the importance of academic honesty as the bedrock of academic institutions in free
societies, and the links between academic honesty, Ways of Knowing, the Learner Profile, and internationalmindedness.

3. slides: slideshare.
net/Edubridge
backchannel:
todaysmeet.com/SAIBSA

4. Primary Objectives:
● Learn about AH issues facing educators and schools
● Elevate conversation from details about Plagiarism to
discussion about Integrity and Core Values
● Identify common student mistakes
● Identify common teacher mistakes
● Familiarize ourselves with IB Position on Academic Honesty

5. Secondary Objectives:
● Tips about specific skills to promote Academic Honesty for
teachers and students
● Distinguish between citations, references, Bibliography,
Works Cited, etc.
● Conversation about Wikipedia
● Gain skills in common applications, such as Microsoft Word
or Google Docs

6. The most important learning:
● Promote academic honesty instead of punishing academic
dishonesty
● Move from academic honesty to educational integrity and
relate AH to LP, school values, being principled, etc.
● Begin young with student involvement
● Teach teachers about issues in the Digital Age

7. The importance of including sources first
● Get students to think about how their ideas are influenced
by the ideas of others
● Basic Learner Profile Stuff:
○ inquirers, reflective, communicators, principled, etc.

8. Works Cited
"Acadmic Honesty." Online Curriculum Centre. International Baccalaureate
Organization, 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
"APFEI | Asia Pacific Forum on Educational Integrity." APFEI, 2013. Web. 31 Jan.
2014.
Carroll, Jude. "Academic honesty in the IB." IB position papers. International
Baccalaureate Organiztion, 21 Feb, 2013. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
Nicolson, Malcolm, Personal Interview, 28 Aug, 2013.
Skaar, Havard, and Hugo Hammer. "Why Students Plagiarise from the Internet."
International Journal for Educational Integrity. APFEI, Dec. 2013. Web. 31 Jan.
2014.

9. Asia Pacific Forum for
Educational Integrity

10. blogs.ibo.org
Jude Carroll

11. occ.ibo.org
Academic Honesty Policy

12. “We investigate hundreds of cases of
academic dishonesty each year, and in
the majority of cases the problem is that
the student was not intending to cheat,
but that they were never taught properly
in terms of ATL skills. For example, the
student was poorly taught how to cite,
how to write a bibliography, how to
reference a work of art, etc.”
Malcolm Nicolson,
Head of Development for the IBDP

13. The IB does not report figures on Malpractice.
The IB maintains (without citing evidence) that “the vast
majority of learners are honest” (OWTTE).

14. Håvard Skaar and Hugo Hammer from Oslo and Akershus
University College, Norway (2013)
● investigate secondary school students' plagiarism of internet
sources in essay writing:
○ 75% of students reported plagiarising from online
sources;
○ plagiarism accounted for 25% of the total amount of text.

15. Håvard Skaar and Hugo Hammer from Oslo and Akershus
University College, Norway (2013)
● ask: what factors correlate to incidence of plagiarism?
○ grades (better grades, less plagiarism)
○ explicit education about plagiarism and methods of
citation (more education, less plagiarism)
○ bibliography (papers with a proper bibliography are
significantly less likelyt to contain plagiarism)
● no significant correlation for gender

16. The past ten years:
From Academic Honesty to
Educational Integrity
Naughties (00s):
Tens (2010s)
Academic Honesty
Educational Integrity
A few students plagiarized
Many students are plagiarizing
Plagiarism was deliberate
Plagiarism is often unintentional
Using plagiarism-detection systems
The systems are flawed
Focus on plagiarism
Art, images, collusion, etc.
Blame on students
Blame on teachers and schools
Reactive punishments
Proactive lessons
Addressed to the individual
Addressed to the School Community
Honesty is assumed as the norm
Honesty is consciously developed

17. Summary of IB Position Paper
(Jude Carroll, 2012)
●
Support learners
○ most important lesson: students need help in this area
●
Policies and procedures need to be especially clear
○ to teachers, too if plagiarism or collusionis suspected
●
Learners need to develop specific skills
○ technology and timetabled lessons
●
Schools should provide detailed guidance to learners
○ MLA, useful sites, etc.
●
Create a local academic honesty policy
○ involve teachers and parents

18. In the PYP
●
Essential Agreements
○ most important lesson: students need help in this area
●
Relate to Learner Profile
●
Involve Parents
●
Age Appropriate Measures
○ promote understanding, not fear
●
Teacher training and Modeling

19. In the MYP
●
Relate to ATLs:
○ Research Skills, Bibliography, Citations, etc.
○ Thinking Skills: is this really your idea?
○ Communication skills
○ Social Skills
●
Early Awareness and Understanding of Consequences
●
Signed Pledge
●
Increasing Stakes
●
Specific Tasks and Lessons
●
Technology Tools
●
More teacher training

20. In the IBDP
●
Very Clear Procedures
●
Technical Terms: Collusion, Malpractice, etc.
●
Guarded Use of Plagiarism Detection Services
○ teach students to submit
●
ToK Discussions: What is Art
●
Signed Pledge

21. Eleven Skills for Teachers
and Students
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Writing a Bibliography using the school’s suggested format
Writing Citations onto Images
Explaining Sources in a Presentation
Using Headings in a Word Processor
Using the Research Tool in Google Docs or the References
Tab in Microsoft Word
Using the Creative Commons Search Engine
Using “Reverse Image Search” in Google
Distinguishing between Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary
sources
Publishing a document with an Open Source License, such as
cc 3.0
Parenthetical Citations, including Page number
Mastering unusual citations, such as films, interviews, lectures,
class discussions, etc.

22. As educators, two of these three factors are
within our control:
Explicitly teaching students about academic
honesty, methods of citation, and ESPECIALLY
about how to write a proper bibliography (in
timetabled lessons) is likely to reduce the
frequency of plagiarism.

23. Educational Integrity
Does a school honor its contracts and commitments?
Do kids cheat or bully on the playground?
Are teachers hired with honest promises?
Does the school have policies to reduce conflict of interests?
Are promotions and interviews conducted ethically?
Is the school’s budget transparent?
Do teachers cut and paste images from the web into their PPTs?

24. “You cannot teach what you do not know”
proverb
Wikimedia Commons
File:Knowledage-Reid-Highsmith.jpeg
retrieved 25 Aug, 2013
Artist is Robert Lewis Reid (1862–1929)
Photographed 2007 by Carol Highsmith

25. Common Mistakes by Students
●
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cut and paste
overdependence on the internet
not citing unusual sources, such as lecture notes
not understanding “collusion”
thinking about “not getting caught”
doing Bibliography last minute
saying mentally “I will cite that later”
not using the Bibliography Database and other Word
Processor tools
● thinking a URL is a reference
● inflating their Bibliographies, or not proofreading them

26. Tips for AH Policy
●
●
●
●
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community ionvolvement, including teachers
the IB definitions of plagiarism, collusion and the duplication of work
appropriate reference to the IB learner profile
guidance on the distinction between legitimate collaboration and
unacceptable collusion
information on what action will be taken by the IB if a candidate is
suspected of malpractice and subsequently found guilty
an extract from the provisions of the Regulations relating to
malpractice.
a link should lead the reader to the IBO AH policy on our drive.

27. Basic Principles
●
Honesty
●
Consistency
●
Using the right tools
The purpose of referencing is
two-fold: Firstly, you should
acknowledge your sources
because it is the right thing to
do – that’s academic honesty.
Secondly, you should let your
reader know where to go for
more information.

28. HONESTY
By far the most important
principle in referencing is
HONESTY. Do NOT:
● Plagiarize
● Cut and paste from the
internet
● Steal other people’s ideas
● Try to deceive the
examiner
●
An example: bloated
bibliographies
CREDIT: Chris Pirillo
http://blaugh.lockergnome.
com/cartoons/061013_internet_citing1.gif
retrieved August 26, 2013

29. The Sydney Opera House is
famous for not allowing
photographers to use its
image. I downloaded this
photo from a Picasa site
which seems to belong to
someone named Zakia
Karmal. I assume she is the
girl in the photograph, but
maybe not -- maybe she is
the photographer, or the
person who owns the
camera, or the person who
owns the boat, or the person
who hired the boat and the
photographer. Copyright law
is complicated. As long as
she is not using the
photograph for “commercial
purposes,” SOH won’t sue
her , but if her photograph
gets a million hits, and she
becomes famous . . . .

30. Writer Sheila Skillman and her Family
scskillman.com

33. Activity 1:
In your groups of six:
Take the handout, a “term paper” by a student
named Orlov.
For each of the 15 arrows, determine whether the
student is correct, or incorrect, and give a reason.
Enter your decision and your reason into the
Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cTYw9DMv0mBj9Vj0v7GpyjDCIlA_9o4JoX08084Sx8/
viewform

34. Common Mistakes by Teachers, Librarians and
Administrators
● focus on punishing dishonesty instead of
promoting honesty
● assuming children understand right and wrong
● oversimplifying the complexity of citing in the
digital age
● the same mistakes student make, especially
thinking about “not getting caught”
● not using the tools properly
● not enough professional development in this area
● overdependence on turnitin
● misreading turnitin

35. Scott Adams: Dilbert
www.dilbert.com

36. Activities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Learn how to use Headings, Contents, the Bibliography Database and
referencing tools in Microsoft Word
Learn how to write a citation directly onto a jpeg using a web-based
photo-editor
Learn how to correct common errors when using MLA to write in-text
citations
Learn how to use the CC search engine and similar tools to find
resources in the public domain
Learn how to embed an image directly into your presentation without
downloading or fussing with image files
We may also discuss:
1.
2.
Setting up a Google Accounts for Education account for your school
Setting up a diigo or Pocket account for your school

37. Adams, Scott. Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel. New York: Harper,
2002. Print.

38. Referencing, and all that
●
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Citations
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
Works cited

39. This comes from the IB
Extended Essay Guide
●
●
●
Reference: the detailed and
exact information about
your source, found in the
Bibliography
Citation: a shorthand
pointer to the reference,
usually in-text, or
“parenthetical”
Footnote: extra information
about a point that will be
interesting to some readers

41. Bibliography or Works Cited?
Works Cited, unless

42. Wikipedia

43. Footnotes or Endnotes?
a matter of style

44. CONSISTENCY
There are others: CSE, AMA, Turabian, etc.
At Edubridge, we use MLA through Grade 10

45. FAQ from students
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How do I reference a book I read online, such
as something from Google Books?
How do I cite a letter from inside a book?
Why did you mark me wrong when I wrote
“Internet” as my source, or, “American, c.f.”?
Should my in-text citation be at the end of the
sentence or in the middle?
How do I cite you?

46. Recommended Online Resources
Hacker and Fister
Purdue OWL
CREDIT: http://www.peanuts.com