AIM
Academic honesty is an important aspect and a key focus at Ilmesters. Ilmesters aims to ensure the practice of academic honesty in all natures of work. The responsibility for this lies on all the stake holders of the school community i.e. teachers, students, and parents.
Ilmesters’s mission is to develop its learners as caring and socially responsible citizens. One of the aspect of which is to be principled by recognizing and giving due credit to the efforts of other people.
The purpose of this document is to reflect our understanding and commitment towards observing academic honesty in our environment. Further, it aimed to provide a common understanding of malpractice and related penalties in addition it highlights the roles and responsibilities of all stake holders.
Culture 3.1: The school implements and reviews an academic integrity policy that makes the school’s philosophy clear and is aligned with IB guidelines (0301-03-0100). (Programme Standards and Practices 2018).
KEY TERMS
Academic honesty: The state of being fair, not lying or cheating, and submitting the academic work that is produced by oneself and is not copied or stolen from others.
Malpractice: Malpractice is an act which results or may result in an individual gaining an unfair advantage. It includes:
Plagiarism: taking words, ideas or work, or information of another person as one’s own.
Collusion: helping malpractice by another student. This include allowing other student to copy one’s work.
Duplication: submitting the same work for assessment in different subjects without the consent of all teachers involved.
Unfair practice: any behavior that gains an unfair advantage for the student or disadvantages other student. For example: sharing unauthorized material, changing grades, false citation, stealing exam material etc. Any other behaviour that gains an unfair advantage for a candidate or that affects the results of another candidate (for example taking unauthorized material into an examination, misconduct during an examination, falsifying a CAS record, disclosure of information to and receipt of information from candidates about the content of an examination paper within 24 hours after a written examination).
Falsifying data: creating or altering data which have not been collected in an appropriate way
Exam cheating: communicating with another students, bringing unauthorized material (mobile phones, iPad, iPod etc.) or consulting material (books, referencing material, book reader etc.) to gain unfair advantage during examination.
The presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or diploma requirements is a duplication of work and therefore constitutes malpractice. For example, if a candidate submits the same or a very similar piece of work for history internal assessment and for an extended essay in history, this would be viewed as malpractice. However, it is perfectly acceptable for a candidate to study one aspect of a topic for internal assessment and another aspect of the same topic for an extended essay.
Fabrication of data is a further example of malpractice (refer Appendix-1). If a candidate manufactures data for a table, survey or other such requirement, this will be interpreted as an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in an assessment component. Consequently, the final award committee will find the candidate guilty of malpractice. Using authentic data is a matter of academic honesty.
Many candidates for the Diploma Programme are fluent in two or more languages and are therefore able to conduct their research in more than one language, perhaps with the aid of the internet.
Such candidates must be aware that copying a passage of text, translating this passage into another language, then using the translated text in their work without acknowledging its source still constitutes plagiarism.
A4.2.3 Other forms of academic misconduct include (IB DP Assessment Procedures 2019, pg.37):
- duplicating work to meet the requirements of more than one assessment component • falsification or inventing fictitious data for an assignment
- taking unauthorized material into an examination room
- disruption of an examination by an act of misconduct, such as distracting another candidate or creating a disturbance
- exchanging, supporting, or attempting to support, the passing on of information that is or could be related to the examination
- failing to comply with the instructions of the invigilator or other member of the school’s staff responsible for the conduct of the examination
- impersonating another candidate
- theft of examination papers
- obtaining or seeking to obtain, disclosing, sharing or discussing the content of an examination paper with a person outside the immediate school community either at any time before the start of an examination or within 24 hours after the examination has ended
- use of essay-writing services (ghost-written or purchased essays) offering assistance in writing essays or other assessment materials.
Malpractice most commonly involves plagiarism or collusion. However, there are other ways in which a candidate may commit malpractice and in so doing be in breach of the Regulations. The
following examples of malpractice do not constitute an exhaustive list and refer only to the written examinations:
- taking unauthorized material into an examination room (such as cell/mobile phone, or written notes).
- leaving and/or accessing unauthorized material in a bathroom/restroom that may be visited during an examination
- misconduct during an examination, including any attempt to disrupt the examination or distract another candidate
- exchanging information or in any way supporting the passing on of information to another candidate about the content of an examination
- failing to comply with the instructions of the invigilator or other member of the school’s staff responsible for the conduct of the examination
- impersonating another candidate
- stealing examination papers
- using an unauthorized calculator during an examination, or using a calculator when one is not permitted for the examination paper
- disclosing or discussing the content of an examination paper with a person outside the immediate school community within 24 hours after the examination.
If the final award committee decides that a case of malpractice has been established, no grade will be awarded in the subject concerned. (No lesser penalty for malpractice is available to the final award committee.) In the case of a Diploma Programme candidate, the consequence is that no IB Diploma will be awarded to the candidate. However, Diploma Programme course results will be awarded for other subjects in which no malpractice has occurred.
If a candidate is found guilty of malpractice in the production of one (or more) of several assignments required for a component, the candidate is not eligible for a mark based on his or her performance in the remaining assignments for the component; no grade will be awarded for the subject. For example, the internal assessment requirement for a subject may require a portfolio of four separate assignments. If a candidate is found to have plagiarized all or part of one assignment, a mark for his or her internal assessment will not be based on the remaining three assignments: no grade will be awarded for the subject.
Culture 3.2: The school clearly describes in its academic integrity policy the rights and responsibilities of all members of the school community, what constitutes good practice and misconduct and the actions that are to be taken if there are transgressions (0301-03-0200). (Programme Standards and Practices 2018).
Acceptable Collaboration vs. collusion
While for the most part students produce assessed work independently with support from the subject teacher, there are occasions when collaborative work (group/pair work) is encouraged at Ilmesters Academy. Nevertheless, the final work must be produced independently even if based on the same data.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Teachers- subject and teacher-librarian
All teachers are responsible for supporting students in the preparation of their work for assessment and for ensuring that all submitted work complies with the IB requirement.
– Discuss the academic policy with students and promote learners to adopt practices. – Themselves should model required practices and be observant in managing all issues of malpractice in a timely manner.
– Teach the proper way to cite any source used for the work and also make students aware of what constitutes plagiarism.
– Speak to students regularly at the time of drafting of work and question them about their work to ensure originality of work.
– Explain the disadvantages of copied work and emphasize on acknowledgement of work. – Take students through referencing practice with examples in first week of teaching to develop understanding of referencing and citation.
– Ensure that the task sheets contain clear instructions for referencing and citation and the consequences for plagiarized work.
All MYP-DP assignments submitted must be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin feedback studio, it is integrated with Managebac.
If in case the work is found to be plagiarized, on the first instance, teachers are required to give warning and a chance to the student to redo the plagiarized work if he/she is found to submit plagiarized work, admin and parents are to be informed.
After first offence zero is awarded to the work without given the chance to re-do the assignment. Parents and admin to be informed of every instance. For all ePortfolio/course work/ IAs, PP and EE, teachers will be required to sign academic honesty form where applicable to validate authentication of the work submitted.
“Authentication is an assurance from the teacher that, to the best of their knowledge and belief, the work being submitted has been undertaken by the candidate.” (IB DP Assessment Procedures 2019, pg. 38)
Students
Students are responsible to behave and act according to the guidance of the policy.
– Get familiarized with different citation and referencing format and practice APA referencing in all work.
– Ensure honesty of all work and not get involved in any malpractice.
– Understand and differentiate between academic dishonesty, intellectual property, plagiarism and authentic authorship.
– Produce original work, mention collaborators and acknowledge whenever using work/word/ideas/pictures/information produced by someone else.
Students may request to redo the work if the work is found to be plagiarized for the first time. However, if student is caught in this act regularly then ZERO is awarded to the student for the plagiarized work submitted.
For all ePortfolio/course work/IAs, PP and EE, all students will be required to sign academic honesty form where applicable to validate authentication of the work they submit.
Parents
Parents should be aware of the academic integrity policy and should speak to their children regarding academic dishonesty and malpractice.
– Understand the importance of acknowledgment.
– They should also explain regularly about the importance of academic honesty with their children.
– Ensure and discouraged the child from copying work from fellow students. – Themselves must also be careful while guiding their child in with homework and must avoid doing the work for them.
– Encourage the child to approach teacher/s for any guidance anytime.
Coordinator / Administration
Leadership team should support the implementation and ensure that academic policy is understood by all stakeholders of the school. The importance should be explained time to time. Any malpractice or academic dishonesty should be dealt in an open and fair way.
Students who are not academically honest will face academic and disciplinary consequences, which may include suspension, expulsion and/or exclusion from the IB Diploma.
PROCEDURE TO FOLLOW
Reporting
All MYP-DP teachers are required to check all submitted assignments through Turnitin, it is integrated with Managebac. In case if work is found plagiarized teachers are required to warn student and allow to redo the work. If the event reoccur, admin must be informed and a note to parent must be sent.
Recording
Teacher must keep a record of number of times the child has found to submit plagiarized work.
Monitoring
The authenticity of the work is monitored using Turnitin feedback studio. All MYP-DP students are expected to submit summative work especially research work on ManageBac. Only exception being the ones carried out under test conditions in the class.
Any problematic case shall be referred to the Coordinators/Principal for further investigation.
Flow diagram to be followed for non-examination components (IB DP Assessment Procedures 2019, pg.39)
ACCEPTABLE REFERENCING FORMAT
At Ilmesters the use of APA format for acknowledgement of sources is encouraged for all the assignments and assessments.
Further guidance and examples on APA referencing and citation can be sought from: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
ACCEPTABLE SIMILARITY LEVEL
AT ILA, 10% or lower in the Turnitin report is considered as acceptable similarity level. However, it depends on the material and teacher’s professional judgement. The emphasis should always be on zero similarity index.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY REVIEW
Academic Integrity Policy is a working document. The policy is reviewed and revised annually. Changes are implemented if and when needed.
Every year an email is sent out to parents giving them an opportunity to comment on the policies. At the end of the year in May, teachers from PYP-MYP review and discuss policy documents in groups. The changes/suggestions that are put forward by a group of teachers and received from parents are then discussed as one large group of all staff, Coordinators, and Head of school. Final relevant changes are then noted, the amendment is done by the coordinators.
COMMUNICATION OF THE POLICY TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS
The Ilmesters Academy’s Academic Integrity Policy is made available in the school library, with school secretary and on school’s website with the other school policy documents for parents and students to view.
Excerpts of this document are also included in the yearly MYP Parent-Student Handbook and in MYP/DP subject assignments’ task sheets. The copy can be sought for reading from the office on request.
Teachers have access to the soft copies of all policy documents on shared Google Drive and through the library.
REFERENCES
Academic honesty in the IB educational context. (2014, August). Retrieved April, 2017, from http://www.ibo.org/globalassets/digital-tookit/brochures/academic-honesty-ib-en.pdf
Academic honesty-principles into practice. (2014, October).
Academic honesty Policy. (2017).
https://www.skagerak.org/uploaded/Policies/SIS_Academic_Honesty_policy_FINAL_2017.pdf
Diploma Programme Academic honesty. (2009, August).
MYP Academic honesty Policy. (2014, December).
https://www.bloomfield.org/uploaded/Parents_Students/IB/MYP_AcademicHonestyPolicy.pdf
Purdue online writing lab, (2017).
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
APPENDICES
Appendix-1 (Academic honesty in IB educational context 2014, pg. 12, 16)
