Stanley L. Olsen
Chair of Moral Values

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Augie Values

1999-2000

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Academic Integrity in the Internet Age

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2000 10:00 am

3-in-1 room, Augustana College Commons

Have students' perceptions about the importance of Academic Integrity changed as technology has made it easier to share and "borrow" information? Is our society more concerned with the end product than in the process of developing the product, i.e. are grades more important than learning? How can Augustana demonstrate and share a clear commitment to Academic Integrity?

Please come and be a part of a campus-wide discussion sponsored by Arlen Viste, Chair of Moral Values, and Ann Smith, Public Services Librarian, on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 10:00 am in the 3-in-1 room of the Commons. Our discussion will be coordinated by Ann Smith and led by a panel including Michelle Bartel, Jim Bies, Sharon Gray, Dick Hanson, and students Matt Jensen and Heidi Schmidt.

Refreshments will be served.

Are there degrees of plagiarism? Is plagiarism clearly definable and recognizable? Is there any room for ambiguity?

If knowledge is built on shared ideas, does protecting intellectual property ever get in the way of building knowledge?

Please come and participate in a campus-wide discussion sponsored by Arlen Viste, Chair of Moral Values, and Ann Smith, Public Services Librarian, on Thursday, Mar. 16 at 10:00 am in the 3-in-1 room of the Commons. Jim Bies will begin with some provocative introductory reflections. Dick Hanson will introduce topics for small group discussion. The majority of the 50 minutes will be spent in small group conversation and reporting to the larger group.

To prompt your thinking, reflect on the degree of integrity and appropriateness of each of the following activities, and suggest examples of your own:

1. A student asks her roommate to read and comment on an essay that she is writing for a course.

2. A student asks a departmental tutor to suggest corrections and improvements in a lab report for a science course.

3. A student gives a word processing file on disk (first draft) to a senior History and English major and hires her to edit, improve, and print out a paper assigned in a History course.

4. A student asks several upper level students for copies of their papers, submitted in previous years for a particular course. All of these students earned a grade of A or A- on the requested paper. The student wants to improve her writing style.

5. A student is applying for admission to medical school, and asks several people (students and faculty) to read her essay and suggest improvements.

6. A student is applying for admission to medical school, and collects application essays from students admitted to medical school in previous years.

7. A student purchases term papers from a site on the Internet. The site claims that these papers earned a grade of A at the university where they were originally submitted.

Refreshments will be served.

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