Academic Integrity Council of Ontario Semi-Annual Meeting | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

by Amy Lin, the Teaching & Learning Centre

in the December 2018 issue

On November 16, 2018, Seneca hosted the semi-annual meeting of the Academic Integrity Council of Ontario (AICO). AICO provides a forum for academic integrity representatives from Ontario post-secondary institutions to share and discuss topics of interest related to academic integrity, and to promote best practices. More than 50 representatives from 20 Ontario colleges and universities attended the meeting.

John Paul Foxe, the Director of the Academic Integrity Office at Ryerson University, was the keynote speaker. In his presentation, “Creating a Culture of Academic Integrity,” John Paul spoke about the processes at Ryerson for handling academic misconduct and the movement away from a punitive approach towards a teaching and learning approach.

At the Inspire Sharing session of best practices, five institutions participated. University of Waterloo talked about their mobile app that was created to introduce and engage students on academic integrity. York University shared how they used design thinking principles to develop online modules on academic honesty for incoming students. Brock University presented their new system for tracking academic misconduct and their staged process from point of suspicion to penalty assignment. Conestoga College talked about their centralized, online reporting system used to collect data and support faculty and students. Kathryn Klages and Amy Lin presented their Teaching & Learning course on Promoting a Culture of Academic Integrity at Seneca.

The AICO committee reported on their work on contract cheating and provided time for AICO member sharing. The afternoon session included a panel discussion on evaluation, data sharing, best practices, and measurements of success. Panelists include Allyson Miller (Brock U), Danielle Palombi (Sheridan College), and Lisa Devereaux (University of Toronto Mississauga). Amanda McKenzie from the University of Waterloo moderated the panel session.

The day was successful in facilitating conversations on academic integrity and sharing of ideas that promote cultures of academic integrity in post-secondary environments. Many thanks to Pina Marinelli-Henriques and the organizing team for their hard work on this event.

To learn more about academic integrity at Seneca, visit the website.

View the December 2018 issue of the Academic Newsletter.