To me academic integrity means being honest when I do my work. It means doing my own work. It means that when I do use other people’s work – like research resources – I document those resources. I make sure that when I use other people’s work, it’s clear what belongs to them. My work is clearly different from the work of others that I use. It means I respect the work of others. I give credit where credit is due. It also means I don’t cheat on homework or quizzes or tests.
After watching the video, one of things that stood out was Chris Herbert’s story about the person who cheated in medical school and didn’t develop all the skills they needed, so that when it came time to do their job and save someone’s life, they couldn’t. This really showed me that academic integrity isn’t just about being honest and doing your own work. When you cheat, you may be getting the work done, but you aren’t learning the material that you need to learn. You may feel desperate to get good grades and do well, but if you aren’t learning the material you need, you will not do well when you finally get a job.
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"Academic Integrity Essay".
Jackson Klinefelter describing academic integrity as not taking advantage of your professors and classmates made me think. I didn’t think of academic integrity that way before, but it makes sense. People should get the credit they deserve for the work they do. If you use someone else’s work, you’re taking advantage of their hard work, and that’s not fair. If you turn in someone else’s work, your professor develops a picture of you that’s not true. They give you credit for work you didn’t do; they think you understand, but you don’t. You hurt yourself, the person you stole from, and the professor. Jackson also calls academic integrity not lying. I thought of academic integrity as being honest but I had not thought of the act of being academically dishonest as lying, but that’s accurate too. Now I think of academic dishonesty as being stealing, lying, and cheating.
I highly value academic integrity. I believe in doing my own work and getting honest credit for it. I would not want someone to steal my hard work and get credit for it. I would not want my professors to think I was dishonest. But I do not think that all of my peers share this belief. I think some of them value it highly; I think some of them don’t think it’s a big deal, like most of the students in the biology test video. I think some of them will do whatever it takes to get good grades and get ahead without thinking about how academic dishonesty hurts so many people. I think my professors value academic integrity, though I feel like sometimes they just say what the administration wants them to say. Professors seem very busy, and trying to make sure that their students are academically honest is another task for them to deal with. I think future employers are very much the same; they agree that it is very important, but they don’t seem to pay attention to it until someone is caught being dishonest. Then they are very loud about how honesty and integrity are important to them. I think the public is the same. They agree it is important, but they don’t pay much attention until someone is caught cheating. Then they seem to get outraged and accuse the school of failing students, which seems unfair. So there are similarities and differences between the groups in some ways.
I like the NAU academic integrity website and that there are different kinds of resources so that people with different learning styles have different ways of looking at the material. I like that they asked students what they thought. I like that the website includes so many links to the different handbooks and documents. I like the biology test video which really forced me to think about how I would act in such a situation. I like that there are videos which share how the administration feel about the topic. I did not like the quiz; I would get rid of that.
