The Summer Series of webinars continues the blog takeover with the fifth pre-webinar blog. The presenters for Workshop 5: Looking back, looking ahead on July 25 discuss some key questions to get you thinking about their session. We hope it will get you thinking about what you have gained from the Summer Series and what you are going to do next.
1. If you could go back and tell your past self one thing about being an academic integrity practitioner that you wish you’d known/ realized earlier in your career, what would that be?
Kelly: So much of this work is about relationship building! When you are trying to affect culture, you need everyone on board. This takes patience, consistency, and intellectual humility.
Amanda: Be persistent and brave as you’re going to have to explain what academic integrity is more often than you had ever imagined but it’s WORTH IT!
Ainsley: Connections are key, and you need to consistently work at evolving and strengthening them. You’ll need to be able to work amidst change and uncertainty, which takes persistence and focus.
Tricia: Be prepared to exercise a disparate set of skills on a daily basis including counseling, problem solving, project management, change management, leadership, policy development, and communication. It’s a dizzying range of capabilities that you have to excel at.
2. When you think about where the academic integrity movement might “go” over the next five, 10, or even 20 years, what do you see as some of the greatest challenges we will face? What gives you the greatest pause?
Greer: Without getting overtly political, it seems fair to say we’re living through a real moment of socio-governmental uncertainty–around the world, yes, but in the U.S. particularly. My hope is that this climate doesn’t cause us just to hunker down or turn against each other and that we can still find ways to collaborate across staff (student affairs, academic affairs), faculty (full-time tenured, part-time contingent), and student (traditional, non-traditional) lines in keeping the work of academic integrity visible and valued.
Allison: Higher ed is getting more and more expensive - tuition, fees, housing. At the same time, students are balancing more and more complex lives beyond their academics. It seems natural that many students are more focused on earning their degree, and as quickly as possible, than on learning. Unfortunately, this focus works against academic integrity. I don't imagine education costs lowering, nor our lives becoming less complicated, so I think it will become even more essential to find ways to engage students in the community of their institution, their classrooms, and their learning.
Tricia: The technological arms race will continue to be a challenge, if not an exacerbated one given the advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence as well as predictive artificial intelligence. We’ll continue to have to resolve tensions between our values like privacy and integrity as we work to secure degree integrity in an automated world.
3. When you think about where the academic integrity movement might “go” over the next five, 10, or even 20 years, what do you see as some of the greatest opportunities we’ll encounter (if we’re lucky)? What gives you the greatest hope?
Kelly: As the consequences of AI tools allowing people to bypass learning and still achieve outcomes unfold, the true imperative for academic integrity will become more evident and appreciated. My hope is that society at large will realize the need for all institutions of learning to demand academic integrity from their students.
Greer: I was saying to someone just recently that the future of academic integrity is community–I really believe that. If we’re going to make it through these threats to the purpose and value of higher education we’re currently facing (see my response(s) to the previous question), the only way out is together.
Amanda: I’d like to see academic integrity embedded into all Canadian and American quality assurance/enhancement activities (like the Australian TEQSA model). This would solidify the unequivocal relationship between the two areas. It would also ensure that educational institutions are intentional about academic integrity and give it the attention and resources it deserves. I believe this will help build a better understanding of academic integrity and further develop a culture of integrity on campuses.
Allison: GenAI tools have brought academic integrity into the forefront for more people. Even more, GenAI tools have compelled many instructors to examine their pedagogy, practice, and assessments, which I think will lead to better teaching and learning (and ultimately more integrity).
Ainsley: I hope that support for academic integrity continues to grow and we continue to reinforce the fundamental aspect of this work in teaching and learning. Generative AI tools have provided recent focus and intensity, but I think it’s important to situate this work in line with social and technological changes of the past and work towards preparing us to be resilient for those to come in the future.
Concluding question for Tricia: What is your “vision” for academic integrity?
I see a world in which integrity and ethical reasoning are at the center of humanity’s existence because they are two human capabilities that can set us apart from the machines. What does that mean for academic integrity? It means that it will no longer be on the periphery or even absent from the conversations and infrastructure of education, as it currently is. Academic integrity will finally be seen as what it is - central to everything we do.
Every university will employ at least one person who has academic integrity as their charge, ensuring that it stays front and center in people’s minds and actions. Every accreditation agency will require institutions to measure their commitment to academic integrity by using something like the Academic Integrity Rating System (AIRS) from the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI). Students, faculty and staff will realize that they all have a part to play in upholding and prioritizing academic integrity.
Faculty will be awarded for their attention to academic integrity, which means their attention to teaching and assessing with integrity, and they will be given time, training and support to do so. Institutional leaders will be proud of their commitment to integrity and they will evaluate their progress on it by comparing themselves to their peer institutions (like they do, now, with athletics, for example). Students and parents will choose institutions based on their commitment to fair, honest and meaningful learning and certification of that learning. Colleges and universities will see that building students’ ethical reasoning and acting skills will be a part of supporting academic, and ultimately, degree integrity, and so they will deploy ethics-across-the-curriculum and enable students to use their real life experiences to learn about ethics and academic integrity.
In other words, I see an integrity utopia. After all, knowledge without integrity is dangerous.
Amanda McKenzie oversees the Office of Academic Integrity at the University of Waterloo. She was one of the co-founders of ICAI Canadian Regional Consortium (ICAI Canada), and an Officer and Board Member of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI).
Ainsley Rouse is the Associate Director, Academic Integrity at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver where she leads the Academic Integrity Hub in the Provost's Office. She is the Provincial Advisor for BC for ICAI's Canadian National Consortium.
Greer Murphy, EdD came to integrity work from a background in applied linguistics, teaching and learning, and writing program administration, and currently serves on ICAI's Board of Directors as Vice President for Strategy and Membership. Professionally, Greer directs the Academic Integrity Office at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Kelly Ahuna served as faculty for 20 years before becoming the inaugural director of the Office of Academic Integrity at the University at Buffalo in 2019.
Allison Riley oversees all educational programs for the Academic Integrity Office at University of California, San Diego - she designs and delivers preventative education and outreach efforts for students, student staff, career staff and faculty as well as required integrity trainings for students with violations (after ed).
Dr Tricia Bertram Gallant is the Director of Academic Integrity Office and Triton Testing Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and Board Emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity.
The authors' views are their own.
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