Browsing by Author "Crossman, Katie"

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    Academic Integrity in Canada: An Annotated Bibliography
    (2019-04-02) Eaton, Sarah Elaine; Crossman, Katie; Edino, Rachael
    Purpose: This report documents research and related materials related to academic integrity in Canada to inform and guide future work in the field. It provides an overview of the literature up to and including 2017 relating to academic integrity in Canada. Methods: Two research questions guided this literature review: 1. What scholarly, research, and professional literature showcases Canadian scholarship relating to academic integrity? 2. What major themes emerge from scholarly and research literature about academic integrity in the Canadian context? To this end, a methodical search of databases was undertaken, relevant research was compiled, and articles were summarized and categorized. Results: Our review and search of the literature resulted in 68 sources, which we organized into 7 categories: (a) Attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions; (b) Academic integrity in professional programs; (c) Understanding and supporting international students; (d) Pedagogical implications: Instruction and prevention; (e) Focus on technology; (f) Institutional considerations: Policy, law and case management, and (g) Methodological considerations: Plagiarism research. We found that academic dishonesty in Canada, as in other countries, is widespread among students and faculty, while policies and their implementation are often inconsistent. Calls for clearer guidelines and greater support for students and faculty resound as a consistent theme in the literature. Implications: Academic integrity research in Canada has been slow to develop, but is now experiencing significant growth. As more stakeholders become aware of the scope and complexities of academic integrity, many researchers are making recommendations for policy, policy implementation, and support through technology, education, and intervention programs. Additional materials: 72 References Keywords: Academic integrity, academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, plagiarism, cheating, Canada
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    Academic Integrity: Faculty Development Needs for Canadian Higher Education - Research Project Brief
    (2019-05-28) Crossman, Katie; Eaton, Sarah Elaine; Garwood, Kim; Stoesz, Brenda M.; McKenzie, Amanda; Cepuran, Brian; Kocher, Rose
    This collaborative project includes researchers from four Canadian universities (University of Calgary, University of Guelph, University of Manitoba , University of Waterloo), as well as partners from D2L. This is the inaugural project associated with the D2L Innovation Guild. The purpose of this research is to understand faculty perceptions and needs related to academic integrity in Canadian higher education. This mixed-methods study will include a survey to be administered to faculty at four Canadian institutions. The survey designed for this research project will be informed by previous research (i.e. McCabe, 1993). The first stage of this project includes a detailed literature review on faculty perceptions of academic integrity in Canada and globally. This literature review is meant to inform the development of a survey tool and the research methods. The survey tool will be designed to capture qualitative and quantitative data based on the faculty responses about academic integrity in Canada. The goal of this research is to explore and better understand how faculty members in Canadian higher education institutions support academic integrity. Key words: academic integrity, faculty, plagiarism, post-secondary, higher education, Canada
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    Engineering Integrity: Using text-matching software in a graduate level engineering course
    (2019-04-18) Crossman, Katie; Paul, Robyn; Behjat, Laleh; Trifkovic, Milana; Fear, Elise C.; Eaton, Sarah Elaine; Yates, Robin Michael
    Academic misconduct is an unfortunate reality for many post-secondary level educators across disciplines; however, there is currently a paucity of Canadian research on Academic Integrity (Eaton, 2018). This study describes an inter-disciplinary project to investigate the potential for text-matching software to prevent and avoid plagiarism by graduate level engineering students. Conceptual/Theoretical Framework: Our study was informed by the potential for text-matching software to help students understand and avoid plagiarism (Zaza & McKenzie, 2018) and faculty identify instances of plagiarism in an engineering course (Cooper & Bullard, 2014). Although text-matching software has been commercially available since the 1990s, its acceptance within academic contexts is uneven. Reasons for this are manifold, but the most commonly expressed concerns are about a) the punitive nature of the software use; b) the potential for it to be used as a tool for cheating students to “beat the system”, and c) privacy concerns (Savage, 2004). Methodology / Approach: In this project, approved by the institutional REB, assignments submitted in a graduate-level engineering communication course were analyzed using text-matching software, Ithenticate. The first phase of the study involved collecting baseline data from students enrolled in a graduate-level Engineering course (N=132). As per REB protocol, individual results were not shared with the professor or teaching assistants and sharing of aggregated results is not permitted until after February 15, 2019. In our presentation, we share baseline results, as well as outcomes of the second phase of the research, in which the research associate revealed the deception, explained the study, and solicited consent from students to have their next assignment harvested and analyzed. The research associate also introduced the software and provided a workshop on academic integrity including strategies for avoiding plagiarism, such as paraphrasing. Subsequent to these workshops, assignments written by consenting participants were analyzed with Ithenticate to determine whether a reduction in textual similarity occurred. Results / Findings: The results of this study indicate that text-matching software can be useful to students and educators to prevent and identify academic misconduct. This study will add to the growing body of empirical research about academic integrity in Canada and in particular, in engineering contexts.
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    Quantity and quality of uptake: Examining surface and meaning-level feedback provided by peers and an instructor in a graduate research course
    (Elsevier, 2019-01) Dressler, Roswita; Chu, Man-Wai; Crossman, Katie; Hilman, Brianna
    We examine the quantity and quality of uptake of surface-level and meaning-level feedback provided by peers and an instructor on writing assignments in an online graduate-level research course at a North American English-medium university. In this study, the instructor and peers (9 graduate students) endeavored to provide feedback that was timely, specific and embedded in writing (Wolsey, 2008). Students integrated this feedback on their writing assignments approximately 84.89% of the time, with the rate of uptake for instructor-provided feedback slightly higher than that of peer-provided feedback. This study also found that students addressed surface-level feedback focusing on writing mechanics, more frequently than meaning-level feedback, which focuses on argumentation, flow, and content. Overall, instructor surface-level feedback was most likely to be taken up, peer meaning-level feedback items was least likely. These results reveal the need for student training in the provision and uptake of feedback in online graduate contexts and beyond.