October 31, 2016

Honesty and integrity in the classroom

UOW academic awarded for efforts to stop cheating before it starts.

In the era of 'Dr Google' and instant answers on the internet, a UOW academic is leading the way in helping students understand that getting an education is about more than passing a subject.

Dr Ann Rogerson, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and a representative on the University’s academic integrity steering committee, was recently awarded the winner of the Global Innovation Awards, higher education category, in the Australia and New Zealand region.

She was also runner-up in the worldwide Global Innovators category.

The awards are run by Turnitin, a globally recognised supplier of software tools that support teaching and learning.

The award program recognises educators, technology administrators, and students from around the world who have demonstrated excellence and commitment to academic integrity and excellence in learning through the innovative and effective use of Turnitin and other educational approaches.

She believes passionately in teaching and developing critical thinking and writing skills, and as a teacher of organisational behaviour and leadership, understands the importance of integrity and feedback.

“I have three degrees from UOW and I worked very hard for them and firmly believe that people should not get through without doing the work,” she said.

“If you cheat on the small things in life you’ll cheat on bigger things. You are setting yourself up to fail later in life.”

Dr Rogerson gives a presentation to every class about the impact of plagiarism on personal integrity, best and worst academic practices, and the importance of learning how to write and use Turnitin to improve, and is recognised on campus as a Turnitin subject matter expert.

“You need to talk about academic integrity,” she said. “It’s not something to be hidden ... It’s also about teaching people about judgement skills and the impact of cheating on their personal integrity.

“It’s reassuring to the honest students that we take academic standards seriously and for those who are inclined to want to cheat, it puts them on notice that we are aware and watching.”

Dr Rogerson regularly presents on topics ranging from ethics and integrity to contract cheating all over the world at various academic conferences, sits on the committee for the Asia Pacific Forum for Educational Integrity (APFEI) and is a reference group member on the OLT project 'Contract Cheating and Assessment Design'.

A true innovator in the academic community, Dr Rogerson is helping the University move away from thinking about plagiarism as something to “catch” and towards open discussions about academic integrity.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, the saying goes.

“I’m very open when I discuss cheating with the students,” Dr Rogerson said.

“I know the websites that sell essays are there, they’re not going to go away so I have a conversation about them and make it known that we will follow through if we suspect they’ve been using those sites.”

The 2016 awards received 500 nominations from nearly 50 countries.

Winners and finalists were selected through a series of interviews and reviews by an international panel of academics and previous award winners who chose finalists across seven regions in three categories: academic integrity, student engagement, and writing improvement.

In addition, she is presenting a paper called Being Academic Integrity Aware,a framework for discussing and managing academic integrity issues at the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency and HECQ Forum to be held in Melbourne in November.