Academic integrity

Academic integrity is the foundation for credible academic practice including research, verifiable qualifications and sound scholarly practice. All staff and students at Monash are expected to maintain academic integrity. Doing so successfully involves developing an understanding of what academic integrity is, as well as mastering an array of skills that allow us to interact effectively with the ideas of others, while presenting our own ideas appropriately.

Academic integrity is a set of values and practices that expect us to act with honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility (TEQSA, 2021) as a part of the Monash community. While academic integrity is commonly expressed as a set of academic conventions (such as referencing and citations) or through reference to dishonest practices (such as plagiarism and collusion), the practice of maintaining integrity in academic, professional, personal and research domains is much broader.

The academic integrity strategy at Monash is underpinned by three core dimensions which recognise that academic integrity is complex and multi-faceted. Select the plus icons to learn more about each dimension.

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Tips for upholding academic integrity View

Academic integrity doesn’t just happen! Like all learning, we need to scaffold students’ knowledge development and model the appropriate behaviours for students. Here are a few things to bear in mind.

"Academic integrity relates to a set of values and practices situated within disciplinary and professional communities of inquiry and practice…we cannot expect students to act in ways that are respectful of academic integrity if we don’t explain what it is, why it is so important, and teach in ways that reflect its importance." (Sefcik, Striepe & Yorke, 2020, emphasis added)

Remind students where they can learn more about academic integrity. Send them to the student academic integrity modules.
Evidence shows that students are less likely to cheat when they feel connected to, and supported by, their educators (Bretag et al., 2018).
Tell students that you want them to succeed; that you want to see what they are capable of, and have designed the assessment to help them consolidate and demonstrate their learning - to you and to themselves. You have put the time in to developing the task and will spend a lot of time marking their submissions - they owe it to you and to themselves to share their own learning and skills in their submission - not someone else’s.

3 - Outline your expectations

Design assessment for academic integrity. Provide clear information about the format, content areas and timing of the task, as well as example questions. Clarity reduces anxiety.
Don’t allocate many marks for academic language use, or citing and referencing unless these are key learning outcomes in your unit.
Marks may be allocated for selection of and reference to relevant and clearly identified sources, but should not be given for mechanics of citing and referencing itself.
Explain submission points, drafting processes and support students in using Turnitin to improve their understanding of academic integrity.
Provide a space for your students to ask questions anonymously. They might not want to show that they are still confused about an academic integrity concept, but it is crucial they have the opportunity to seek help if they need to do so. Moodle discussion boards can be set to anonymous postings, or a Padlet board or Google Form can achieve the same aim.
Make sure students know how they can contact you directly for advice or information, if they don’t understand what you have already provided. If a student has posted on a forum and received a response they don’t understand, they may not follow up in the same space. Advertise your virtual (Zoom/Chat) office hours and make sure students have an easy guide to booking an appointment with you.
Monash provides free services which give students appropriate support and help them to develop and maintain their integrity.
- Students can book in for a one-on-one session with a Learning Adviser
- Virtual Zoom appointments (Monash Malaysia Library)
Remind students that sites offering assistance with researching, writing or editing assignments (especially in exchange for money) are usually really providing services to help students cheat - though they often won’t word it that way. These sites often advertise via social media (including Facebook, WeChat, Twitter), and sometimes even target or message students directly in response to key words used in posts or tweets.
Encourage students to speak to each other about this topic, and to encourage their friends to seek help or advice from trusted, reputable sources (such as through your discussion forum or through learning advisers) if they get stuck, rather than searching on the wider internet.
Link students to special consideration policies and where to submit, and give them information and links to easily access.

Action to avoid	Type of breach
Asking someone else to complete a task, or part of a task, for them (whether that person is paid or not).	Collusion or contract cheating
Completing a task for someone else (whether paid or not).	Collusion or contract cheating
Completing a task as a group (including a virtual group) when it is supposed to be completed alone.	Collusion
Sharing questions or answers to a quiz, test or exam with others.	Collusion, unauthorised distribution of course-related materials or scheduled final assessment misconduct
Accessing questions or answers to a quiz, test or exam from other students, including those in previous years or other tutorial groups.	Collusion
Submitting work that has been prepared by someone else, even if that person is an ‘adviser’ or ‘tutor’ for an online ‘help’ site.	Plagiarism
Submitting text, code, compositions, designs or other ideas that have been published or shared by others, without clearly indicating who the originator was, and which aspects are the originators work.	Plagiarism or fraud
Resubmitting work that has already been submitted for assessment at Monash or elsewhere, in any unit - unless your assessment is structured in such a way that this is appropriate (e.g. staged tasks where Part B builds on Part A).	Self-plagiarism

10 - Encourage conversations about academic integrity

The proportion of students self-reporting contract cheating varies from 3.5% (Curtis & Clare, 2017) to 8% (Foltýnek & Králíková, 2017). Everyone is NOT doing it!
Of 54 assignments purchased online, 52% of them failed to meet the standards for a passing grade, even though several were ‘premium’ level. Many were also delivered late, and failed to include aspects requested by the purchasers (Sutherland-Smith & Dullaghan, 2019).

Education Performance Standards Framework

You can use the tabs on the left-hand side menu to navigate between the sections or click on the links below:
1. The How-to section provides you with instructions and/or strategies to implement in your teaching.
2. The Related technologies section highlights some relevant tools and applications.
3. The Supporting your students section provides you with key strategies for creating a good learning experience and a list of resources to share.
4. The Related resources section provides you with additional resources.
Bretag, T., Curtis, G., McNeill, M. & Slade, C. (2018) Academic Integrity in Australian higher education: A national priority (infographic) (workshop video) (workshop slides)
Bretag, T., Harper, R., Burton, M., Ellis, C., Newton, P., Rozenberg, P., Saddiqui, S., & van Haeringen, K. (2019a). Contract cheating: a survey of Australian university students. Studies in Higher Education (Dorchester-on-Thames), 44(11), 1837–1856. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1462788
Bretag, T., Harper, R., Burton, M., Ellis, C., Newton, P., van Haeringen, K., Saddiqui, S., & Rozenberg, P. (2019b). Contract cheating and assessment design: exploring the relationship. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(5), 676–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1527892
Charles Sturt University (2021). Designing for academic integrity. https://www.csu.edu.au/division/learning-and-teaching/home/assessment-and-moderation/assessment-resources-and-information/designing-for-academic-integrity
Collège La Cité (2020). Promoting Academic Integrity. https://view.genial.ly/5f04fcc482b1a40d91c3ad3a/presentation-promoting-academic-integrity
Curtis, G.J., & Clare, J. (2017). How Prevalent is Contract Cheating and to What Extent are Students Repeat Offenders?. Journal of Academic Ethics,15, 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-017-9278-x
Dawson, Philip (2021). The remote proctored exams dilemma. https://www.slideshare.net/PhillipDawson3/the-remote-proctored-exams-dilemma
Dawson, P., & ProQuest. (2020). Defending Assessment Security in a Digital World Preventing e-Cheating and Supporting Academic Integrity in Higher Education : Preventing e-Cheating and Supporting Academic Integrity in Higher Education. Routledge.
Dawson, P. & Sutherland-Smith, W. (2019). Can training improve marker accuracy at detecting contract cheating? A multi-disciplinary pre-post study, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(5), 715-725, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2018.1531109
Dublin City University (2021) Academic Integrity Principles for Assessment Design. https://www.dcu.ie/teu/academic-integrity-principles
Ellis, C., van Haeringen, K., Harper, R., Bretag, T., Zucker, I., McBride, S., Rozenberg, P., Newton, P., & Saddiqui, S. (2020). Does authentic assessment assure academic integrity? Evidence from contract cheating data. Higher Education Research and Development, 39(3), 454–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1680956
Foltýnek, T., & Králíková, V. (2018). Analysis of the contract cheating market in Czechia. International Journal of Educational Integrity, 14 (4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-018-0027-8
Harper, R., Bretag, T., Ellis, C., Newton, P., Rozenberg, P., Saddiqui, S., & van Haeringen, K. (2019). Contract cheating: a survey of Australian university staff. Studies in Higher Education (Dorchester-on-Thames), 44(11), 1857–1873. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1462789
Morris, E. J. (2018). Academic integrity matters: five considerations for addressing contract cheating. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 14(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-018-0038-5
Sefcik, L., Striepe, M., & Yorke, J. (2020). Mapping the landscape of academic integrity education programs: what approaches are effective? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(1), 30–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1604942
Sutherland-Smith, W. & Dullaghan, K. (2019). You don’t always get what you pay for: User experiences of engaging with contract cheating sites, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(8), 1148-1162, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2019.1576028
TEQSA (2022) What is academic integrity? https://www.teqsa.gov.au/what-academic-integrity

Your feedback matters

Let us know how we can improve this resource.

Supporting academic integrity in your teaching

In this MEA module, you will learn effective ways to teach students about using information in an ethical and responsible manner.

Structuring and designing assessment for security

Read this blog post around the 5 myths of assessment and watch Phillip Dawson’s webinar recording on how to structure and design assessments for security.

Crack down on contract cheating services!

Read about the new government legislation passed on September 4 2020 around contract cheating.

For themselves	Reduced learning, limited or zero marks, conditions on enrolment, suspension or exclusion, notes on permanent record which could affect job applications and future prospects, professional practice implications, contract cheating sites blackmailing students in the future.
For other students	Reputational damage to Monash devalues everyone’s degrees.
For staff	Investigating breaches takes time away from other students, and from their families; reputational damage indirectly affects their jobs

The Education Performance Standards identify the expectations of education practice at Monash – See the Education Performance Standards for more details.
Impact on student learning				Impact on educational knowledge		Impact on educational environment
Effective teaching and learning	Responsive program design	Student- centred orientation	Professional learning engagement	Pedagogical content knowledge	Education research performance	Education innovation	Education leadership
✓	✓	✓	✓
You could address marking and grading across these Practice Elements by providing evidence of how you: Educate students on academic integrity Design assessment tasks to minimise breaches of academic integrity Align your practice with the Academic Integrity Procedure Respond to student breaches in an educative manner Keep your learning about academic integrity up to date Lead your colleagues to integrate educational practices around academic integrity and address alleged breaches

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