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Increase academic integrity

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The University of Toronto is committed to the values of independent inquiry and to the free and open exchange of ideas. Visit U of T’s Academic Integrity website for further resources and the university’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters.

Our Faculty’s Academic Integrity Office ([email protected]) can also support your efforts. For example, if you notice work posted to online services such as Chegg, they can facilitate a request to have those materials removed and then investigate the use of those materials.

General considerations for academic integrity

To help promote academic integrity in general, you could:

  1. Include an academic integrity question as the first question of your assessment.
  2. Consider having an open and honest discussion with your students in your course that outlines your expectations, personalizes the importance of acting with professionalism and integrity, and describes in general terms how you will be monitoring and acting upon academic integrity concerns.

If the rest of your quiz is auto-graded, make sure you select an auto-gradable question type for you Academic Integrity question (e.g, Yes/No) or you’ll have to manually mark each one.

How to implement

  1. Create an AI page in your Quercus course and place it in a prominent location (e.g., home page). View an example of an Academic Intregrity Course Page in a sample course template for Quercus.
  2. Integrate AI discussions throughout your course. For ideas on how to inform, prepare and discuss AI topics with your students please read Classroom Strategies: Talking about academic integrity.
  3. See how others have done it. The International Center for Academic Integrity has hosted three webinars, Going Remote with Integrity, related to addressing academic integrity in an online environment. The second session, Going Remote with Integrity 2.0, is likely most related.

Looking for a quick guide on Academic Integrity in Remote Unproctored Exams? See E-CORE's guide that provides recommendations on how to reduce academic misconduct on remote exams (including high-stakes quizzes and tests) without using online proctoring tools. Proctoring (for both online and in-person exams) creates a significant barrier to misconduct; without proctoring, extra care is required to maintain academic integrity. See E-CORE's Resources section for additional resources on assessment, proctoring, and more. To continue the conversation on this topic, visit the Academic Integrity in Remote Unproctored Exams Discussion Forum thread.

Quercus technical considerations for academic integrity

To help promote academic integrity when delivering an exam through Quercus, you could:

  1. Randomize your quiz using questions groups, banks, and answer shuffling. Question banks work best if you are authoring your own questions; if you are using pre-existing questions (e.g. from a textbook), these questions can be shared online.
  2. Create a unique assessment for each student (see how do I assign a quiz to an individual student?)
  3. Limit the date/time students are able to access the assessment (keep time limits brief but realistic; scroll to "set quiz options" and you can also give them extra time as needed)
  4. Add in a required “Explain your thinking?” question for which they would have to provide a text response (e.g., not handwritten)
  5. Review all Quercus Quiz settings to see if any apply to your assessment
  6. Moderate your students during a quiz (once it is published)
  7. While Quercus does not provide any type of browser lock down (limiting access to certain things on a device), you can select quiz settings to maximize security without hindering student learning.

Suggestions for addressing common student concerns*

*These suggestions are sourced from E-CORE's Quick Guide to Remote Proctoring for Instructors. See the Assessment Guidebook for more helpful tips.

Visit CTSI's guide Academic Integrity is a Shared Experience to learn more!

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