Academic integrity an issue
Chris Dart & Travis Lowry
Issue date: 10/19/04 Section: News
According to a recent nation-wide study, cheating has reached epidemic proportions at Canadian universities, with 73 per cent of students admitting to cheating on a written work.
It was these findings, put out by Canadian members of the Duke University-based Center for Academic Integrity, combined with recent controversies over anti-plagarism tool Turnitin.com, that convinced members of the Brock University committee to strike a taskforce on academic integrity and conduct an internal survey to find out how widespread cheating is at Brock.
Nick Brown, vice president of university affairs for Brock University Students' Union (BUSU), is one of three student representatives on the Academic Integrity Taskforce.
"The Academic Integrity survey is designed to measure specific feelings and experiences with academic integrity," said Brown. "[A question like], is working on an assignment with someone else something that they do? Is this OK? Is this not OK? ... that type of thing. It's a national survey that came out of the States ... and is being used in a number of universities down there and a number of Canadian universities. It allows universities to get a perspective on their students' feelings and experiences with academic integrity."
According to John Mitterer, a professor with the department of psychology and taskforce member, the idea to bring the survey to Brock originated with concerns over the use of Turnitin.com being brought up at a university senate meeting.
"There was a case ... at McGill where objections were raised about some of the presumptions of guilt that are made when plagiarism-checking software's use is required," Mitterer said.
"So, one of the local Student Union members or ombudsmen ... raised it as a concern here ... and the Brock University Senate struck a sub-committee whose job was to look at the whole question of the use of Turnitin.com," said Mitterer.
"I was on that sub-committee, and we argued that this wasn't just about Turnitin.com or plagiarism on essays, or presumptions of guilt, but in fact was about academic integrity in general," he said.
It was these findings, put out by Canadian members of the Duke University-based Center for Academic Integrity, combined with recent controversies over anti-plagarism tool Turnitin.com, that convinced members of the Brock University committee to strike a taskforce on academic integrity and conduct an internal survey to find out how widespread cheating is at Brock.
Nick Brown, vice president of university affairs for Brock University Students' Union (BUSU), is one of three student representatives on the Academic Integrity Taskforce.
"The Academic Integrity survey is designed to measure specific feelings and experiences with academic integrity," said Brown. "[A question like], is working on an assignment with someone else something that they do? Is this OK? Is this not OK? ... that type of thing. It's a national survey that came out of the States ... and is being used in a number of universities down there and a number of Canadian universities. It allows universities to get a perspective on their students' feelings and experiences with academic integrity."
According to John Mitterer, a professor with the department of psychology and taskforce member, the idea to bring the survey to Brock originated with concerns over the use of Turnitin.com being brought up at a university senate meeting.
"There was a case ... at McGill where objections were raised about some of the presumptions of guilt that are made when plagiarism-checking software's use is required," Mitterer said.
"So, one of the local Student Union members or ombudsmen ... raised it as a concern here ... and the Brock University Senate struck a sub-committee whose job was to look at the whole question of the use of Turnitin.com," said Mitterer.
"I was on that sub-committee, and we argued that this wasn't just about Turnitin.com or plagiarism on essays, or presumptions of guilt, but in fact was about academic integrity in general," he said.
