Canadian Open Digital Distance Education Universities and Academic Integrity

Abstract

This chapter highlights aspects of open digital distance education universities (ODDUs) that pose particular challenges for academic integrity promotion and academic misconduct prevention. It also provides insight into how these important issues might be addressed. This topic is especially relevant in light of the global shift to online instruction, in part, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the 4M Model as a framework, this chapter describes how the macro and micro levels of the university need to work together to promote academic integrity. We provide evidence from the literature that demonstrates that academic integrity issues and solutions are more similar than different between ODDUs and traditional, campus-based institutions of higher learning. Although the context of this book is Canada, much of our discussion applies globally because academic integrity and the move to online education is a growing, global phenomenon.

Faculty Perspectives of Academic Integrity During COVID-19: A Mixed Methods Study of Four Canadian Universities

“…Variations in faculty experiences and beliefs can contribute to discrepancies between official university policies and enactment of them, including misconduct reporting practices. Faculty may avoid reporting academic misconduct if they feel a breach was unintentional or caused by personal stress (Paterson et al, 2003;Wolsky & Hamilton, 2022) or if they perceive penalties as too lenient or too harsh (Hunter & Kier, 2022;MacLeod, 2014).…”

“…We framed the current study within systems leadership theory, expressed as the 4M framework as applied to teaching and learning contexts (Eaton, 2021;Hunter & Kier, 2022;Kenny et al, 2016;Poole & Simmons, 2013;Simmons, 2016), and similar framings have been applied in previous academic integrity scholarship . The 4M framework is derived from general systems theory (von Bertalanffy, 1968) as a way to explain complex and dynamic teaching and learning systems.…”

Conclusions and Future Directions for Academic Integrity in Canada

“…In this volume, contributors share empirical findings (see deMontigny, 2022; Garwood, 2022;Hamilton & Wolsky, 2022;McNeill, 2022;Packalen & Rowbotham, 2022;Peters et al, 2022;Rossi, 2022), as well as conceptual and other forms of scholarly expertise and insights (see Christensen Hughes & Eaton, 2022a, b;Crossman, 2022;Eaton & Christensen Hughes, 2022;Foxe et al, 2022;Hunter & Kier, 2022, Miron, 2022Teymouri et al, 2022, Watson Hamilton, 2022 and perspectives from leadership and professional practice (see Kenny & Eaton, 2022;Morrison & Zachariah, 2022;Morrow, 2022;Penaluna & Ross, 2022;Thacker & McKenzie, 2022). Of particular note are the chapters that broaden understanding of academic integrity beyond the questionable behaviours of students, to include that of faculty, administrators and the history and cultures of institutions of higher learning, as well as those that extend the dialogue around the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) (see Bens, 2022;Kenny & Eaton, 2022;Hamilton & Wolsky, 2022), signalling that academic integrity inquiry can fit within SoTL when the focus is on learning and teaching.…”

A Phenomenological Study on Academic Cheating behaviors Exhibited by Visually Impaired College Students

“…al., 2019). The administration can provide the required resources to ensure academic integrity (Hunter & Kier 2022). A low percentage of students engage in cheating indicated by recent studies (Curtis & Clare, 2017).…”