Academic Integrity Policy Analysis of Alberta and Manitoba Colleges

Authors

  • Sarah Elaine Eaton University of Calgary https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0607-6287
  • Lisa Vogt Red River College Polytech
  • Josh Seeland Assiniboine Community College
  • Brenda M. Stoesz University of Manitoba

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/cpai.v6i1.76901

Keywords:

academic integrity, Canada, policy, college, community college, artificial intelligence, GPT-3, ChatGPT, polytechnic, contract cheating, post-secondary, higher education, Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity

Abstract

Dealing with matters related to academic integrity and academic misconduct can be challenging in higher education. As a result, students, educators, administrators, and other higher education professionals look to policy and procedures to help guide them through these complex situations. Policies are often representative of an institution’s culture of academic integrity. For these and other reasons it is therefore important that policies and procedures are reviewed regularly and updated to ensure that they align with current educational expectations and societal context. In this presentation, we share the results from our policy analysis of 16 colleges in the Canadian western provinces of Alberta and Manitoba. Data extraction and analyses were performed using a tool developed based on Bretag et al.’s five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy. Our results showed inconsistencies in college polices in terms of the intended audience for the documents (e.g., students, faculty, administrators), varying levels of detail, inconsistent definitions, or categories of misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) and little mention of contract cheating. We compare the results of this study with previous academic integrity policy research in Canada for colleges in Ontario (Stoesz et al., 2019), as well as universities (Miron et al., 2021; Stoesz & Eaton, 2022). We also discuss the recent increase in the use of artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and GPT-3 and what this could mean in the context of academic integrity policy. We conclude with recommendations for policy reform in the Canadian college context. Our findings may be useful to those working in community colleges and polytechnics elsewhere.

Author Biography

Sarah Elaine Eaton, University of Calgary

Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a full-time faculty member in the Werklund School of Education and the Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity, at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary. She specializes in research on academic integrity in higher education. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity and the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Educational Integrity (BMC Springer Nature).

References

Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., James, C., Green, M., East, J., McGowan, U., & Partridge, L. (2011). Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian higher education. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 7(2), 3-12. https://doi.org/10.21913/IJEI.v7i2.759

Miron, J., Eaton, S. E., McBreairty, L., & Baig, H. (2021). Academic integrity education across the Canadian higher education landscape. Journal of Academic Ethics, 19(4), 441-454. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-021-09412-6

Stoesz, B. M., & Eaton, S. E. (2022). Academic integrity policies of publicly funded universities in western Canada. Educational Policy, 36(6), 1529 - 1548. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904820983032

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Published

2023-07-31

How to Cite

Eaton, S. E., Vogt, L., Seeland, J., & Stoesz, B. M. (2023). Academic Integrity Policy Analysis of Alberta and Manitoba Colleges. Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.11575/cpai.v6i1.76901

Issue

Section

Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity