March 2023
- Written by Jennie Miron
The pandemic served as a catalyst for change around the world and across many different sectors. The educational sector was dramatically affected and required us to rethink our long-standing pedagogies and organizational structures. Just as it seemed we were settling into our new normal, artificial intelligence exploded onto the scene and served to play perhaps even a larger role as a disruptor to our set practices across the educational landscape. The initial panic associated with artificial intelligence is slowly being replaced by an appreciation and understanding of the incredible opportunities we have as educators, researchers, and leaders, to positively impact the educational experience of our students.
Both the pandemic and artificial intelligence have created circumstances that require us to combine our intellectual resources and capacities to evolve and be relevant with our effort to support student learning and the work of academia. The 2023 International Center for Academic Integrity’s (ICAI) Conference afforded us the opportunity to congregate both in person and virtually to share ideas, best practices, current research, and common interests. Rich discussions and networking opportunities resulted from the conference. Perhaps one of the pearls from the ICAI conference (current and past) was the formation of Consortiums organized by geographic location or practice specialty, which allowed attendees to collaborate on academic integrity matters specific to their nuanced interests. A recent change that has allowed just such cooperation and collaboration, is the newly developed Canadian National Consortium (ICAI Canada), which originally started as the Canadian Regional Consortium. The original group was founded by three Canadians in 2014 (Amanda McKenzie, Troy Brooks, and Jo Hinchcliffe). The impetus for the re-development came from a discussion at the Canada Day at the ICAI 2022 conference where attendees expressed an interest in recognition as a national rather than a regional group, more regular meetings, a more active presence on the ICAI webpage, and a repository for Canadian content. Terms of reference, governance positions, and terms for these positions were described by a small governance working group that was spearheaded by Amanda McKenzie and formed after the 2022 meeting. It is important to note that the governance working group heralded from 4 different provinces, and represented several different higher educational roles (faculty, academic integrity specialists, librarians, center for teaching and learning experts, and researchers). The working group membership was formed to ensure a robust and thoughtful approach to the work of growing ICAI Canada.
Canada stretches over 2500 miles from east to west coast, and 2300 miles from north to south. As such a large country it has become important for us to connect, share, and collaborate around academic integrity issues. It is hoped that ICAI Canada will promote these connections. Currently, we have 8 of our 10 provinces holding positions as advisors on the board, and will continue our efforts to ensure all provinces and territories have a voice at the table. The inaugural meeting will take place in the spring of 2023 when we hope to have a discussion about our way forward in keeping with our original purpose to “serve as an education and evidence-informed resource for Canadian universities, colleges, and other educational institutions working to create cultures of integrity. This group aspires to be bilingual in honor of the two official languages in Canada (English and French)”. While we have a lot of work ahead of us, we are energized by the commitment and enthusiasm of our executive, advisory board, and membership. If you would like more information about ICAI Canada or how we worked through and organized our group please feel free to reach out to any one of the executive board.
Jennie Miron, Chair ()
- Written by Jennie Miron
Student group work is intended to support and enhance creativity, productivity, and collaboration between students. The skills associated with successful group work are considered transferable to the workplace and are highly valued by employers across industries (Grizmek et al., 2020). Given the nuances of our new work worlds and the realities that our graduates will be likely to face complex problems that require them to navigate and negotiate solutions in teams, group work remains a worthwhile endeavour. But the merits of group work are not limited to student work.
Artificial intelligence has exploded across the world, creating tremendous opportunities, and many questions about its ethical use and deployment in different settings. In the educational sector, it has served to be a disruptor that is challenging us to approach our teaching and assessment practices differently. In Ontario, Canada one group of higher education professionals considered how to tackle some of the issues and questions that were unfolding about artificial intelligence in real-time. Members of the Academic Integrity Council of Ontario (AICO) came together to create an information sheet for faculty that began to outline some strategies and opportunities for artificial intelligence in higher education learning settings, along with practical tips for working with these applications in an ethical manner that then support and protect academic integrity across academic work.
Five AICO members in teaching, leadership, and academic integrity specialist roles came together online through three writing sessions to create a draft document that provided an overview of the issue, a definition of artificial intelligence, stakeholder considerations for the ethical use of artificial intelligence in higher education, discussion about assessment issues, opportunities for the use of artificial intelligence applications, points about the limitations of artificial intelligence, and discourse related to citation/acknowledgment considerations. The draft was then edited and revised by seven separate higher education professionals. The resulting document is titled Supporting Academic Integrity: Ethical Uses of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Information Sheet and is available through the AICO website Academic Integrity & Artificial Intelligence. The document has a creative commons license, is intended to be a fluid document, and will be updated regularly due to the reality that changes to artificial applications will continue to unfold.
Completing this work as a group provided us the opportunity to tap into each group member’s expertise, and allowed us opportunities to debate, critically think, and work together toward a common effort. It also created stronger networks, relationships, and bonds between the working individuals and across the AICO membership since a concrete piece of work was completed in a collegial manner. The group work and its results (the information sheet) have spurred the creation of other group activities within organizations and across organizations in Ontario. It is important to remember that the very reasons we encourage group work with students are why we should be collaborating in group work to meet and support academic integrity efforts across our educational landscapes. Successful group work can serve as launching pads for new and effective groups as the skills and positive experiences foster the transference of these benefits. The labour associated with creating such a document was less daunting through our group efforts. This work has reminded all of us about the value of working together on important tasks.
References
Grizmek, V., Kinnamon, E., & Marks, M.B. (2020). Attitudes about classroom group work: how are they impacted by students’ past experiences and major? Journal of Education for Business, 95(7), 439-450.
- Written by Courtney Cullen
The ICAI annual conference is just around the corner! As I have been planning which sessions to attend and looking forward to connecting with peers from across the globe, I cannot help but to reflect on how previous conferences have impacted my own practice by helping develop programs, initiatives, and providing support. Here are three ways the ICAI conferences have influenced my office:
- Online Academic Integrity Modules
In 2019, at the New Orleans conference, Jennifer Wright from the University of Central Florida presented on their new online module. This interactive module helped students understand step-by-step positions that the student and the instructor found themselves in. It also explained the expectations of the university. The module appeared engaging and thought provoking for students – instead of just a rules based program it could help prime students to make moral decisions. After the conference, my office met privately with Ms. Wright to understand more of the modules ins and outs. We adapted this storytelling format for our own policy and programs, creating three scenarios of academic misconduct and following Ms. Wright’s recommendation to make it just cheesy enough to keep students engaged.
- Remediation Programming
The new remediation program at our institution was inspired by several different conferences and presentations. At the 2020 conference in Portland, Kelly Ahuna and Loretta Frankovitch gave a presentation on how the University at Buffalo was approaching remediation after students were found in violation. Then, at the virtual conference in 2022, Sharon Dzik and Katie Koopmeiners presented on Academic Integrity Matters (AIM), a program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Using information from both of these presentations, including meetings with the presenters and further communication, we styled our own program for students at our institution. One where students can restrict their records by engaging in restorative justice practices to re-enter the university community.
- Student Training
Student training for our academic honesty panelists, student ambassadors, and remediation peer educators have been influenced by many presentations over the past four years. Blaire Wilson and Jason Ciejka from Emory have led sessions, Tricia Bertram Gallant and her students have developed presentations, the list could continue for a very long time. Every nugget of wisdom that can be adapted and transformed to fit our institutional context, we attempt to incorporate.
In short, the conference provides a glimpse into the a future where academic integrity is culturally embedded into our institutions. By learning from each other, we can make our programs stronger. Further, by building connections and bridges between institutions, we can find ways to help students in every institutional context.
I hope to see you – virtually or in person – in Indianapolis. If I don’t get that chance, I hope to at least connect and continue building a culture of honesty.