My name is Alina Zahid and I recently started my role as an Academic Integrity Assistant with the Office of Academic Integrity (OAI), where I’ve learned a lot!
Before, I thought integrity just meant things like “don’t use your phone during an exam”, “don’t copy and paste an essay from ChatGPT” or “follow Policy 71!”. But there’s so much more to the topic. For example, not knowing how to cite properly can accidentally lead to plagiarism; using AI without considering how accurate the information is can result in misrepresentation; and pasting intellectual property (IP) that isn’t yours without permission into Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) counts as IP theft. The worst part is that students often don’t even intend to commit misconduct. That’s why it’s important to treat academic integrity like any other subject we face and learn from it!
Some amazing resources I’ve discovered are the online self-register Academic Integrity 101 module and the Introduction to GenAI for Students module which are in Learn. Both do an excellent job of delivering relevant content for students without all the long and confusing readings.
In particular, the Academic Integrity 101 module is concise, practical, and covers what integrity is, what misconduct looks like, and how to avoid it. As part of the module, there’s also a great interactive online workshop run by the Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) that dives into citations, summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. I found it super engaging and was able to finish it in one sitting.
On the other hand, the Introduction to GenAI module for Students provides a strong foundation for understanding generative AI without shutting down the conversation or discouraging use. Rather, the online module helps students understand when AI use is acceptable and how to optimize prompts to get better results. There’s even a fun interactive game called Assignment Dilemma which is like the game Life is Strange, where your choices affect the outcome of an academic integrity crisis.
Both modules combined took me around 6 hours to complete, and already I feel more confident about submitting my work and using AI responsibly. The line between integrity and misconduct is finally no longer a blur!