Academic Integrity

To foster a culture of integrity that supports both faculty and students, changes were made to the Academic Offences tab in the Employee Portal at the beginning of Spring Term 2024.  These updates provided consistent wording aligned with other Academic Offences policies and procedures, encourage consistency when navigating and filing academic incidents, and allow for equitable penalty application when an Academic Integrity Violation (AIV) has occurred.

These updates included:

1. One Warning Per Student Record: Students can receive only one warning on their academic incident record. If a student has received a warning, or received an offence for their first AIV, faculty will only be able to select an offence for any subsequent AIV..

• This update encourages a progressive and incremental approach that is consistently and fairly applied to each incident.

2. Disclaimer Before Filing: This disclaimer encourages procedural fairness when navigating the academic integrity procedure.

• Faculty are required to acknowledge that they have followed the proper academic integrity procedure.

• The update is to dissuade procedural irregularity and mitigate invalid appeals.

3. Adjustments to the ‘Add Supporting Documents’ Section: Faculty can “hide” certain document uploads so that students cannot view them in their Student Portal.

• This update eliminates the possibility of students downloading and sharing confidential information (e.g., screenshots of testing materials, other student identifiers, etc.).

4. New Email Template for Student Document: The Academic Integrity Office developed a comprehensive document with email templates to students, which faculty can utilize when communicating with students during the investigation process.

• This update provides faculty with greater efficiency in the communication process.

5. Name Change of Tab: The Employee Portal tab was renamed “Integrity Violations.”

• This update ensures consistent wording with other Academic Integrity documents.

For more information, please contact Cory Scurr, Manager of Academic Integrity.

On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, Turnitin introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) detector tool. This tool will automatically be available with students’ Similarity Reports accessed from eConestoga. Please note that students cannot see their AI score/report. This specific feature is only visible to faculty members.

Like any tool, there are always limitations to its abilities. Turnitin’s AI Writing Detection is recommended for paragraph assessments written in English. It is not recommended for assessments using lists, outlines, code or poetry due to concerns of false positives. As always, we recommend that Turnitin’s AI Writing Detection feature be used as one piece of evidence for any academic incident investigation process.

For faculty, please review our Guide to Evidence of Generative AI.

For students, please review Generative AI Skills.

For further information, the Academic Integrity Office encourages you to read and review the details on the Turnitin Website.

Conestoga Library & Learning Services are thrilled to announce the completion of our “Generative AI for Students” LibGuide. This resource empowers students with knowledge about generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications. Generative AI Guidance for Conestoga Students

The Academic Integrity Office is offering student consultation drop-ins from December 9th-20th.  Staff will be in-person at the DTK and Doon library desks, and online via Zoom, to answer questions with no appointment required.

Downtown Kitchener Campus:

• December 9th, 10am-11am and 2pm-3pm
• December 12th, 10am-11am and 2pm-3pm

Doon Campus:

• December 10th, 10am-11am and 2pm-3pm
• December 13th, 10am-11am and 2pm-3pm

Zoom:

• December 16^th-20^th, 10:30am – noon
• Zoom Link: https://conestogac.zoom.us/j/99902796939?pwd=GVs7IqKeDekc9hj3DmrxMZHk34QJ8T.1
• Students will be placed in a waiting room upon joining, and admitted to the main room when a staff member is available to meet with them.

Staff can answer general questions about academic integrity, and help students understand any Academic Integrity Violations they have received. Unfortunately staff cannot remove or change an incident, write an appeal, or advocate to faculty behalf of students. Students who have been sent a mandatory meeting email are welcome to ask questions during this drop-in session, but must still book a mandatory meeting with the Outreach Team on the Student Success Portal.