1. Academic Honor Policy and Grade Appeals System
Ann DelRossi, Academic Affairs Administrator
Office of the Vice President for Faculty Development and Advancement

2. Purpose Introduction to the Academic Honor Policy at FSU
Discuss how we can prevent academic dishonesty from occurring in your class
What should you do if you find someone violating the Academic Honor Policy

3. Charges Plagiarism Cheating Unauthorized group work
Fabrication, falsification, & misrepresentation

4. Charges continued Multiple Submission Abuse of academic materials
Complicity in academic dishonesty
Attempting to commit an offense

5. Graduate Student Issues
Prelims, comps, thesis or dissertation treated as egregious and sent to Step 2
Charging decision made by committee comprised of department chair, outside member, and faculty member appointed by dean

6. Academic Integrity Survey
Conducted in Spring Semester 2003 and 2015 as part of ICAI national survey – 2,179 respondents; 36% faculty response rate, 23% TA response rate, and 13% student response rate.

7. Good News
Students report both cheating less frequently and seeing others cheat less frequently at FSU than in high school.
In 2015, students report cheating much less frequently than they did in 2003.
Students, faculty, and TAs report that they understand and support the policy (and do so at higher levels than in 2003).

8. Academic Integrity Survey
Students today report cheating less than those in 2003, with the exception of one behavior.
What is that behavior?
Plagiarism
Unauthorized Collaboration
Multiple Submission of papers

9. Bad News
Instructors underestimate how frequently students collaborate with others on assignments (when they aren’t supposed to!).
Students said they don’t view working together as serious cheating.
Students report creating course-based Facebook groups and using them to collaborate on homework and/or quizzes.
Taking exams online increases dramatically the level of reported cheating behavior.

10. Online Courses
2015 Survey Results – frequency of reported cheating behaviors (from an average of 5% of all types of cheating during f-t-f exams to 22% collaborating with others, 25% getting unauthorized help, and 62-65% consulting unauthorized materials during online exams).
Resources – Testing Center offers proctored services to students who are both on and off campus:
Support for online course development from ODL at:

11. Facebook 2015 Survey Results
Instructors have discovered instances of students creating course-based Facebook groups and using them to collaborate on homework and/or quizzes.
If you assign individual work outside of class, please articulate your policy regarding collaboration clearly and be explicit about how it applies to study groups on Facebook and elsewhere online. For more information, see:
2015 Survey Results

12. Preventing Academic Dishonesty
How do we make cheating more difficult? What should I do if I suspect someone has violated the Academic Honor Policy?

13. Florida State University Academic Honor Policy (AHP)

14. Preventing Academic Dishonesty
Teaching meaning of plagiarism, esp. paraphrasing versus quoting
“Turn-it-in.com,” “SafeAssign” and other resources – make available
Mutual respect between student and instructor and confident verbal reinforcement
Syllabus:

15. Preventing Test Cheating
Making cheating more difficult
Following through (learn policy)
Have a plan for test-time (verify independently)
Emphasize “Complicity” charge
Confident verbal reinforcement

16. Conclusions and Themes
Today’s students are acting with more integrity in the classroom than those in 2003.
Make clear your expectations regarding unauthorized collaboration, especially between friends (FB or otherwise), who don’t believe that doing homework together is wrong.
Students assume you know more than you do about academic integrity. Learn the policy.

17. Conclusions and Themes continued
Students look to you for cues about whether cheating will be tolerated and don’t want you to!
Students will hesitate to inform you
Prevention is important
Our involvement is critical
Important to address use of social media (esp. FB) and online testing issues

18. Academic Honor Policy By Academic Year (New Policy Effective Fall 2005)
*Through August 15, 2016

19. Cases and Outcomes: 2015-16 Academic Year*

20. Grade Appeals System Also involves integrity
Emphasizes centrality of instructor judgment in grading process
Grade must be imposed in an arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory manner to be overturned

21. Grade Appeals System continued
Starts with evaluation (grading) standards expressed in syllabus
Minimize exposure through consistency

22. Grade Appeals System

23. Resources in your Department
Your supervising faculty member should always be informed about any allegations that arise in your class.
Your department chair should also be informed by either your supervising faculty member or by you.
Either of them can inform you of typical penalties in the department and can sit in when you meet with students.

24. University Resources
Office of Faculty Development and Advancement: under Academics – Academic Honor Policy, Grade Appeals System, annual Important Policies and Procedures Memo, or at (Ann DelRossi, Ameko Dillard, Andrea White) Students should be referred to the Dean of Students Department at

25. University Resources continued
Important Policies and Procedures memo contains important information for instructors. Found on under Academics. ODL resources at: