Dennis
Nullet

ACADEMIC HONESTY

The vast majority of online students are honest workers who either prefer the alternative format or find it difficult to attend traditional classes for a variety of reasons. To protect these students, and to ensure that the online format will continue to be available, I, and other instructors, must aggressively defend the integrity of required coursework. This issue is especially critical in Internet classes simply because it is easier to cheat than in a traditional classroom setting.

All expectations of academic honesty that apply in traditional classes also apply in Internet classes. The line between honest work and dishonesty is very clear. Directly copying all or part of any document and calling it your work is plagiarism. Having another person help you when taking quizzes is cheating.

The response to academic dishonesty is firm, "if you cheat, you're out." I have already expelled several students for both plagiarism and for having others help them take quizzes (dishonest work is extremely easy to identify). If I even suspect a student of cheating, they will be required to complete all future work under supervised conditions at their home campus. If cheating is proven, in addition to being expelled, cheaters may face broader sanctions including expulsion from their college, a permanent mark on their academic record, and inclusion in a list of Internet cheaters to be shared with other instructors.

Identifying and dealing with dishonesty is a very unpleasant task and I hope never to have to do it again. For those few who would cheat, please read the open letter below from an expelled student addressed to their class.

"I am sorry that I cheated for my writing assignment by copy and pasting off the Internet and it was stupid and wrong. I hope that all of you can forgive me. It is very easy to let yourself do so don't ever be tempted to do it. It isn't worth it. It takes more time to cheat than to do the right thing. It was lazy and wrong. I feel really bad and I can't believe I let myself lose my pride and integrity this way. Cheating is not worth it don't ever do it. Now I am getting kicked out and receiving an F. I am sorry to all of you who worked so hard in this class to get a good grade."

Academic Dishonesty, Cheating, and Plagiarism (From the Kapi'olani Community College Catalog under Student Regulations)

Academic dishonesty cannot be condoned by the University. Dishonesty includes cheating and plagiarism; is is a violation of the Student Conduct Code and may result in expulsion from the University. Cheating includes but is not limited to giving unauthorized help during an examination, obtaining unauthorized information about an examination before it is administered, using inappropriate sources of information during an examination, altering the record of any grades, altering answers after an examination has been submitted, falsifying any official UH record, and misrepresenting the facts in order to obtain exemptions from course requirements.

Plagiarism includes but it not limited to submitting any document, to satisfy an academic requirement, that has been copied in whole or part from another individual's work without identifying that individual; neglecting to identify as a quotation a documented idea that has not been assimilated into the student's language and style, or paraphrasing a passage so closely that the reader is mislead as to the source; submitting the same written or oral material in more than one course without obtaining authorization from the instructors involved; or dry-labbing, which includes (a) obtaining and using experimental data from other students without the express consent of the instructor, (b) utilizing experimental data and laboratory writeups from other sections of the course or from previous terms during which the course was conducted, and (c) fabricating data to fit the expected results.