Document for initial release final Part2.pdf

100

Professor Scott Bowman
Vice-Chancellor & President
CQUniversity Australia
Chancellery Building 1
Bruce Highway, ROCKHAMPTON. 4702
Ph: +61 7 4930 9752
Fax: +61 7 4930 9018
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx

10 December 2014

Dear Professor Saunders

Thank you for your recent letter, dated 24th November 2014, and request for a brief report on
policies and processes in place to promote academic integrity among our students, and to
detect and deal with academic misconduct when it occurs.

CQUniversity’s response is set out below, structured to address the relevant standards of
the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards), with links to relevant
supporting documentation and policies (Appendix). We are happy to provide further
information on any aspect, if required.

Yours sincerely

Professor Scott Bowman
Vice-Chancellor & President

101

PROVIDER REGISTRATION STANDARDS

3.4
The higher education provider’s corporate governing body regularly monitors
potential risks to the higher education provider’s higher education operations
and ensures the higher education provider has strategies to mitigate risks that
may eventuate.

CQUniversity monitors academic misconduct through Academic Board and the Vice-
Chancellor’s Advisory Committee. This includes focus items and regular reporting on
a term-by-term basis (examples: Term 1 2014 reports to Academic Board (28 May
2014).

3.8
The higher education provider’s corporate and academic governance
arrangements demonstrate: the effective development, implementation and
review of policies for all aspects of the higher education provider’s academic
activities including delivery of the higher education provider’s courses of
study by other entities; the maintenance of academic standards, with
appropriate mechanisms for external input, in accordance with international
conventions for good academic practice; and, effective quality assurance
arrangements for all the higher education provider’s higher education
operations, encompassing systematic monitoring, review and improvement.

CQUniversity has rigorous procedures to deal with academic misconduct (Academic
Misconduct Procedures). This policy is reviewed, updated and improved on a regular
basis, with the most recent update being 23 September 2014).

4.3
The higher education provider protects academic integrity in higher education
through effective policies and measures to: ensure the integrity of student
assessment; ensure the integrity of research and research activity; prevent,
detect and address academic misconduct by students or staff, including
cheating and plagiarism; ensure that academic staff are free to make public
comment on issues that lie within their area of expertise; and, ensure that the
awarding of multiple awards, including higher education  awards offered in
conjunction with another entity, protects the integrity of the higher education
awards offered by the higher education provider.

CQUniversity has a three-pronged approach to academic integrity:

1.  Ensuring that students are aware of the importance of academic integrity and
the penalties for cheating.
All students must complete a mandatory component of their initial orientation
(Orientation online – screenshot shown in Appendix, and a video can be viewed by
clicking this link) which includes a video tutorial and quiz on academic integrity –
students must answer all ten questions correctly to proceed. CQUniversity is further
strengthening the effectiveness of this approach as part of our recent merger with CQ
Institute of TAFE to create Queensland’s first comprehensive university and is
102

developing a system where every new student who first logs into Moodle will
automatically complete an online induction program before being able to move on to
their online courses, from term 1 2015 onwards (further details of this innovation can
be provided, if required).

The text-matching service Turnitin is used across all taught courses at CQUniversity,
and all students must submit their work online, to maximise the effectiveness of the
Turnitin system. This is explained to students in the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezLWhBjVKMY). Furthermore,  Academic Board
resolved at its meeting of 6 October 2010 that Turnitin would be provided to all
students when submitting in ‘draft’ mode, to educate students in correct referencing,
and also to deter plagiarism, prior to submission.

2.  Providing staff with information and resources to address academic integrity
within the curriculum, including the design of assessments that deter
plagiarism.
The University’s Learning and Teaching Services unit provides support for academic
staff. Academic integrity is a component of the University’s Graduate Certificate in
Tertiary Education, forming an important component of the unit of study OLTC20002
Assessment for Learning. Learning and Teaching Services also provides resources
to help staff design (‘How to deter plagiarism in coursework assessments’) and uses
academic professional development video presentations to cover aspects of
academic misconduct, including the following examples:

Explaining Turnitin to staff ‘Take 5’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Viv79SyebNo

Professor Steve Mckillup describing an innovative approach to deterring plagiarism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTQbxZrp5Yk&feature=youtu.be

CQUniversity staff are active in researching the scholarship of learning and teaching,
including publishing academic papers on plagiarism, and how it can be deterred.
Examples include:

  McKillup, S., & McKillup, R. (2007). An assessment strategy that pre-empts
plagiarism. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 3(2).
  Roberts, T. S. (2008). Student plagiarism in an online world: an introduction.
Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.: Information Science Reference.
  O'Malley, M., & Roberts, T. S. (2011, August). Plagiarism in science education:
Preventing cheating via online auctions. In Proceedings of The Australian
Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (formerly UniServe Science
Conference) (Vol. 17).

3.  Using a robust system to deal with cheating, when detected.
The University has a team of five professional staff in the academic services unit –
these staff work with academic colleagues to process cases of academic misconduct
through our purpose-designed online Academic Misconduct Database, where staff
103

raise an incident and it is processed via the Deputy Dean for Learning and Teaching
of the relevant School/Unit, with the outcome being recoded within the database.
This is important because the University’s Academic Misconduct Procedures take a
step-wise approach to plagiarism, with penalties of increasing severity for repeat
offences.

Three offences relating to purchasing of assignments were identified and reported
during Term 2 2014 under these procedures. In two of the cases were identified in
the same course and students admitted to academic staff that the assignments had
been purchased. In the third case, academic staff were altered to the student
tendering for the assignment on Freelancer.com and awarding a contract of $105 for
the assignment. As per procedure all 3 cases were referred to the relevant Deputy
Dean Learning and Teaching for application of appropriate penalties (a fail for the
course and required to undertake mandatory counselling on academic integrity).

Academic misconduct is reported regularly to Academic Board, on a term-by-term
basis, to maintain a focus on this aspect of academic activity.  The report considered
by Academic Board for Term 1 2014 is shown as an example in the Appendix.

6.5
The higher education provider identifies and adequately meets the varying
learning needs of all its students, including: the provision of orientation
courses and transition support; and, ongoing academic language and learning
support.

In addition to subject-specific information and guidance provided by academic staff,
the University’s Academic Learning Centre provides information, services and
resources to help students learn appropriate academic practices, including
paraphrasing, citation and referencing. There is also general information on
plagiarism and referencing on the University’s website (see:
http://www.cqu.edu.au/about-us/service-and-facilities/referencing) plus CQUniversity
guides to different referencing styles (http://www.cqu.edu.au/about-us/service-and-
facilities/referencing/which-referencing-style-do-i-use). Academic Learning Centre
staff maintain a Moodle site that covers academic communication, with resources to
assist students learn (screenshot of Moodle site provided in the appendix) – this site
is accessed via a link that is provided in every online Moodle course at CQUniversity.
Academic Learning Centre staff also offer workshops to all students, and individual
support to first years and to any student referred to them by teaching staff for
assistance. Academic staff provide students with details of referencing styles through
the Course Profile for each subject – an example is given in the Appendix) and
discuss the specific requirements of written assessments with students, including
coverage of appropriate citation and referencing. ALC developed videos explaining
referencing are shared with academics for use on their Moodle sites.

Academic Learning Centre staff work with International students to ensure that they
understand the importance of acknowledging the author when presenting of work,
ideas or data of others in their assignments.  This is done by offering rolling
workshops starting before the term begins and continuing throughout the term.
104

Students identified as having accidentally plagiarised are assisted by the ALC to
develop study skills and understanding about this behaviour. The Harvard Guide has
just been rewritten to enable NESB students more easily understand it and the APA
guide will be rewritten in 2015.

105

PROVIDER COURSE ACCREDITATION STANDARDS

3.1
Admission criteria for the course of study: are appropriate for the Qualification
Standards level of the course of study and required learning outcomes; take
account of external benchmarks; and, ensure that students have adequate
prior knowledge and skills to undertake the course of study successfully.

CQUniversity’s entry requirements for programs are reviewed as part of the five-
yearly review and reaccreditation process – this process involves a panel that
includes at least one member from another Australian university and another panel
member from the relevant industry, with specific requirements for benchmarking
against other programs.

3.2
The higher education provider ensures that students who are enrolled are
sufficiently competent in the English language to participate effectively in the
course of study and achieve its expected learning outcomes, and sets English
language entry requirements accordingly.

Students who have English as a second language need to meet English Language
Proficiency Requirements at specified levels in order to be eligible for entry to any
program offered by CQUniversity, whether Foundation Studies, Diploma, Degree,
postgraduate coursework programs, or research higher degrees.

Minimum levels for admission to a program are determined by Academic Board.
Competence needs to be at least equivalent to IELTS (Academic) 6 (with no band
score or less than 5.5) for undergraduate or postgraduate coursework programs,
however higher levels may be approved for an individual program. Each student is
assessed individually, and other equivalent English preparation, or combinations of
English preparation, will be considered, but students may be required to undertake
further communications and language studies.

4.4
The higher education provider has effective mechanisms to identify and
support students who are at risk of not progressing academically.

In relation to academic misconduct, cases are identified and raised by academic staff
through the Academic Misconduct Database. All students who are subsequently
found to have committed academic misconduct are required to repeat the initial
compulsory training in academic integrity from their orientation program and are
referred to the Academic Learning Centre for assistance and further support, if
required, aiming to provide a balance of opportunities for students to learn the
principles of academic integrity with appropriate sanctions for those who choose to
cheat.

CQUniversity is committed to monitoring the academic progress of its students to
ensure student success and uphold the credibility of its offerings. The Monitoring
Academic Progress (MAP) policy and procedures provide a framework describing
how the university identifies and engages with students who are not achieving
106

satisfactory academic progress and therefore may be at risk of not achieving their
academic goals. CQUniversity seeks to identify students who may require additional
assistance as early as possible in their study program. Targeted academic skills and
personal programs, as applicable, are offered to assist with satisfactory learning
outcomes.

CQUniversity has scrutinised its monitoring of academic progress procedures during
2014 and included some proactive early intervention based strategies, including
partnering with Hobson in Term 2 2014, and reviewing student policy as part of
activities following the merger of CQUniversity and CQ TAFE in July 2014.

Outcomes from projects undertaken by CQUniversity point to the importance of
establishing positive staff-student communication to strengthen students’ sense of
‘connectedness’ to the University. An in-house system (Early Alert Student Indicators
or EASI) has been developed and deployed during 2014 to make it easy to teaching
staff to track student engagement within online courses, and to proactively connect
with students who might be ‘at risk’ of failing. The system provides teaching staff with
a near real-time estimate of success for all students based on descriptive data from
the Student Information System, and behavioural data from the Learning
Management System. The system also provides mechanisms by which interventions
by teaching staff can be monitored and evaluated throughout the term. The data from
EASI is also shared with Hobson’s who have been engaged by CQUniversity to help
identify potential support opportunities associated with students in their first year of
study at university.

5.1
Assessment tasks for the course of study and its units provide opportunities
for students to demonstrate achievement of the expected student learning
outcomes for the course of study.

CQUniversity’s, Learning, Teaching and Assessment Framework Policy ,
Assessment of Coursework Procedures and Grades and Results Procedures
describes the relevant governance processes for assessment and grading. The
guiding principle for assessment is that it will be “aligned with learning outcomes,
providing students with the opportunity to demonstrate achievement in real world
scenarios and professional contexts.” To ensure this, staff map all learning
outcomes against assessment tasks as part of course/subject development – this
alignment is then made visible to students as part of the course profile (link to
screenshot). In many cases, aspects of academic integrity form an important
component of the assessment criteria, for example, in relation to appropriate citation
and referencing, thus further reinforcing the need for students to follow appropriate
academic practice when referring to the work of others.

5.3
Course management and coordination, including moderation procedures,
ensure consistent and appropriate assessment.

107

CQUniversity has effective moderation procedures and practices, support by
documentation (Moderation of Assessment Procedures) and academic governance,
with a three-stage quality assurance process at (i) course/subject, (ii)
program/qualification, and then (iii) Higher Education Division levels. Our most recent
AUQA report (2011) stated: “The Panel recognises the robustness of the chosen
moderation processes across the University that support an equivalence of learning
outcomes across the different campuses of the University”.

108

Appendix

109

ACADEMIC BOARD

Half-Yearly Academic Misconduct Report
Meeting Date:
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Sponsor:    Rob Reed
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching)
Action required:
For discussion

Recommendation:
That Learning and Teaching Committee of Academic Board discuss the attached Academic Misconduct Report.

Issue:
Academic Misconduct statistics for Term 1 2014.

Background:
This report is prepared in accordance with the Academic Misconduct Procedures which state:
‘The Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching), or nominee, shall provide a report to the Vice-Chancellor’s
Advisory Committee and Academic Board of academic misconduct cases twice yearly.’

Rationale:
N/A

Consultation:
For level 1 and 2 offences relating to plagiarism in assessments other than examinations, the assessor, in
consultation with the Course Coordinator, determines if academic misconduct has occurred.
For all other forms of academic misconduct, the Deputy Dean (Learning and Teaching), in consultation with the
Course Coordinator, may determine if academic misconduct has occurred.

Conclusion:
The Term 1 2014 Academic Misconduct Report is provided. The issue of ‘minor indiscretions’ should be
discussed.

Attachment:
  Academic Misconduct Report Term 1 2014

Communication of Outcomes:
  N/A

110

Term 1 2014 Student Academic Misconduct Statistics
Academic Misconduct
For Term 1 2014, the Higher Education Division investigated 98 cases of cheating in exams:
  69 students were given First Indiscretion with a warning as most of them either had their
phones switch on (which rang through exam time), had phones in their possession, apple
wrist watch but wasn’t in use, talking to other students and continued writing after end of
exam time.
  1 student was given a Simultaneous First Indiscretion as the student wrote significant
amount of notes during perusal in one exam and the other exam the student’s phone was
ringing.
  1 student was cleared with a warning as the confiscated notes were not considered to be
relevant to the exam.
  1 student was also cleared with a warning as there was no evidence for the Deputy Dean
(Learning & Teaching) to consider. Student had notes written on their person but the
invigilator didn’t record them on the form.
  13 students were given a Fail for the course, and were ordered to undertake a session on
academic integrity with the Associate Dean Academic on their campus.
  11 students were ordered to undertake a session on academic integrity with the Associate
Dean Academic on their campus.
  1 student was expelled from the University, as they committed academic misconduct
cheating in previous exams and this was their 3 offence.

Number of cases by school:
Business & Law – 61
Engineering & Technology – 29
Nursing & Midwifery – 3
Human, Health & Social Sciences – 1
Medical & Applied Sciences - 4

Number of cases by campus:
Brisbane – 6
Rockhampton – 2
Sydney – 56
Melbourne - 28
Flex - 6
Plagiarism
For Term 1 2014, the Higher Education Division recorded 138 incidents of plagiarism in the Academic
Misconduct database:
  1 student was given First Indiscretion and required to undertake relevant training on
academic integrity.
111

  133 students were identified as Level 1 offences, and were penalised by only achieving
marks for the non-plagiarised sections of their work.
  3 students were identified as Level 2 offences, and were given a grade of Fail for the course.
  1 student was identified as Level 3 offence, a written warning with reprimand and failed the
course.

Number of cases by School:
Business & Law – 55
Engineering & Technology – 46
Human, Health & Social Sciences – 15
Medical & Applied Sciences – 5
Nursing & Midwifery – 10
Education & The Arts - 7

Number of cases by campus:
Bundaberg - 4
Brisbane – 24
Melbourne – 40
Mackay – 4
Noosa – 3
Rockhampton – 5
Sydney – 31
Flex - 27

112