CATCH THEM, SCOLD THEM, AND PUNISH THEM? UNDERSTANDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN RELATION TO TODAY’S COHORTS AND ALIGNING IT WITH INSTRUCTIONAL OUTCOMES AND UNIVERSITY POLICIES

The recent ethical controversy surrounding two hundred students from the University of Central Florida who were accused of cheating in a senior-level business class and New York Times’ startling revelation that “In surveys of 14,000 undergraduates over the last four years, 61 percent of undergraduates have admitted to some form of cheating on assignments and exams” revisits the age old question in the world of academia: What does cheating really mean to students and how do we, as instructors, prevent it (Berrett, 2010; Gabriel, 2010)? In my experiences as a composition instructor both at the two-year college and university levels, I’ve come to realize that while some students do shamelessly copy other student’s work or find information from the internet and present it as their own, most instances of student plagiarism stem from either their lack of citation skills or genuine ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism. Irrespective of the citation style integrated at college and university campuses, proper in-text and end-text citations is a skill that needs to be taught across the curriculum and not only in the context of mandatory writing courses. When instructors take an active decision to work with students (rather than against them) in understanding that academic integrity is a process which needs be learned, practiced, and integrated throughout their academic careers, then plagiarism becomes an issue of instruction versus professors squandering countless hours “googling” student sentences in an effort to police who is and is not plagiarizing. This presentation will begin by discussing recent cases of plagiarism and why they were ethically debatable in relation to contemporary student attitudes toward academic integrity. I will then discuss the need for all instructors, irrespective of their discipline, to incorporate classroom lessons and activities that emphasize student honesty and responsibility in scholarship. By discussing academic integrity in relation to contemporary cohorts and the approach instructors take toward students who plagiarize, this presentation will provide numerous practical strategies to help students understand plagiarism so that they fulfill instructional outcomes and do not waver outside of university guidelines.