Introduction to Fostering Integrity

To meet institutional expectations around academic integrity, students need a sound understanding of what academic integrity means and why it is important. They need an opportunity to acquire the skills and to put these skills into practice.

Taking time in class to explore this topic with students signals to them that academic integrity is important to you and to the institution. Defining, discussing and modelling academic integrity at the outset and throughout your course may significantly reduce the time spent reporting and dealing with incidents of academic integrity issues over the term.

In the following sections we provide examples of how to help students develop their understanding of academic integrity in general and in a discipline specific manner. We provide tips on how to model academic integrity as well as methods to support students in preemptively identifying and developing strategies to deal with the social and personal factors that may lead to academic misconduct.