Build your skills! Explore the skills below that make up Academic Integrity. Developing your collaboration, time management, writing, citing, and test-taking skills can improve your grades, reduce your risk of accidental misconduct, and protect you from false accusations.
Collaboration Skills
When is it okay to work with your friends, and when is it unauthorized collaboration? It's okay to collaborate when...
...you're not being graded.
It’s okay to talk or study with friends when you’re not being graded. For example, it’s okay to work in a study group to prepare for a test, because the studying isn’t graded. You’ll still have to write the test on your own! But it’s usually not okay to talk together about solving a math or programming problem, or to share resources for writing assessments. Finding the solution or resource is part of what you’re being graded on. If you don’t do that work yourself, you’re undermining the assessment outcomes.
...you have permission from your professor.
It's always okay to collaborate if your professor gives your permission. For example, in a group project, it’s okay to collaborate with your group members. Or your professor might have specific rules about collaboration. For example, maybe it's okay to work with your peers as long as you tell your professor who you worked with. In that case, you have permission to collaborate as long as you follow that rule. When in doubt, ask! Your faculty member will always be happy to tell you what kind of collaboration is okay.
Some kinds of collaboration are almost always unauthorized collaboration. Be careful of these common mistakes that can get you in trouble fast:
Contract Cheating
Paying someone else to do your academic work with money, favours, or a trade is never okay. This is “contract cheating,” and it’s a very serious type of Academic Integrity Violation. This isn’t collaboration, and it will never be authorized – it’s just cheating. For more information, check out our Contract Cheating Infographic.
SELF DEFENCE TIP: Block and report contract cheaters
Have you ever received a message from someone offering to do your work for money? Professional contract cheaters prey on students who are stressed out or overwhelmed. Block that number immediately and report them as spam. You can also take a screenshot and send it to academicintegrity@conestogac.on.ca. Never reply to a professional contractor! They can screenshot anything you send them, and use it to blackmail you – even if you never used their services.
Generative Artificial Intelligence
Is it okay to “collaborate” with a Generative AI tool like ChatGPT or Microsoft CoPilot? Only if it doesn’t undermine your assessment outcomes. Anything that you are being marked on, you need to do yourself. This includes generating ideas, finding sources, or writing the paper. Some professors are designing assessments that work well with Generative AI, but it's not very common yet. Most of the time, Generative AI is not an authorized tool. When in doubt, just ask your professor! You’ll never get in trouble for asking whether it's okay to use Generative AI. Click here for more information about generative AI tools.
SELF DEFENCE TIP: Turn on version history
What happens if you get falsely accused of using Generative AI? The best way to protect yourself is to save your version history. Write papers in word documents saved to your student OneDrive, or write in Google Drive, and every version of your paper will be automatically saved. This will allow you to show how your paper was written and edited over time – and prove that you didn’t just copy/paste the text from an AI tool. Save everything you write as a student, and don’t delete any of it until you’ve graduated.
File Sharing Websites
You may have already used websites like Chegg or CourseHero, which allow you to view other students’ work in exchange for uploading your own. This seems like a great way to support your peers, but it’s risky! If you’re expected to solve a programming or math problem on your own, viewing other students’ solutions is cheating. Writing an essay? Once you've read someone else's work, it’s hard to not accidentally copy too much. When in doubt, ask your professor if it’s okay to look at examples of other students’ work on sites like these. For more information, check out our Filesharing Infographic.
SELF DEFENSE TIP: Don’t share your work online
Uploading work to file-sharing sites may seem like a harmless way to help your peers – after all, you did the work yourself, met your own assessment outcomes, and got the grade. But once your work is there, you have no control over who downloads and uses it. If another student uses your work, you’ll be guilty of facilitated academic misconduct. And what if two students use your work? Or three? Or ten? Protect yourself, and don’t post your work anywhere that other students can access. If you’ve already uploaded your work, do your best to get it removed immediately!
It’s normal to want to help your friends. Your community is important, and it’s great to support each other. Pooling resources to solve common problems might make sense in some situations, like your personal life or workplace. Just remember that at Conestoga College, you need to independently demonstrate the learning outcomes (i.e., what you’re being graded on). Keep those learning outcomes in mind for each assessment, and make sure that you aren’t accidentally undermining them.
When in doubt: just ask! The difference between normal
collaboration and cheating is making sure that you have your professor’s
permission. No collaboration is a problem as long as it’s authorized.
For more information, check out our Unauthorized Collaboration Infographic.
SELF DEFENSE TIP: Protect Your Files
Sharing a computer? Make sure to password protect your files
and log out of eConestoga before handing over the device. If your
friend accidentally submits your file as their own, or takes too many of
your ideas as “inspiration,” both of you will get an Academic Integrity
Violation.
Time Management Skills
Every semester at Conestoga College, you’ll have to juggle a lot of competing responsibilities. Your classes will have a mix of small assignments and big assignments, as well as final exams. You may also be dealing with work, a long commute, and family demands.
Little assessments count too
In some schools, little assignments don’t really count. They aren’t worth much, so nobody cares about them. That’s not how it works at Conestoga. Here, every assessment has a learning outcome, and you need to meet all the learning outcomes to graduate. Sometimes the skills you learn in the little assessments build into the skills you’ll need for the big ones. Take every assessment seriously and give yourself enough time to complete them all.
Use tools to break assessments into steps, and budget your time.
If this is your first time in a Canadian college or university, it might be hard to know how much time you need. At the beginning of the semester, use an assignment calculator tool to break each assignment down into steps. These tools can help you think about how long each step will take. This can help you understand how much time you need to schedule for schoolwork every week. You can also ask your professor to help you understand the steps if you’re struggling. Then week by week, you can use a weekly schedule or time budget sheet to see how much time you need. Make sure to include school, work, commuting, and other commitments. This can help you to prioritize your time and make sure everything gets done.
Leave extra time during the busiest parts of the term
Here’s a hint: you’ll probably be busiest the week before student success week, and the last week of the semester. Most big assessments are due those weeks. Keep an eye on important academic dates that will impact your workload. Try to “clear the deck” and keep those weeks as open as possible. Turning down work shifts or social engagements can buy you a little extra time just when you need it most.
For more time management tips and tools, check out the Library's exam resources study guide and Student Success Portal's Learning and Study Skills page. You can also book an appointment with a Student Success Advisor to learn how to improve your time management. Student Success Advisors can help with study strategies, note-taking skills, group work, and more.
SELF DEFENSE TIP: Not Enough Time? Ask For More!
Panicking people make mistakes! You’re never more vulnerable than when you’re in a rush. You might submit the wrong file, forget to attribute ideas, or decide to use generative AI "just this once."
If you’re not going to be able to finish an assessment on time, reach out to your professor. If you ask in advance, most professors at Conestoga will consider giving you extra time. Try to reach out at least one week before the assessment is due.
For the best chances, map out your due dates at the beginning of the semester. Look for weeks (or days) where there’s just too many things due. Email those professors in your first week of the semester to ask if any of them would consider an extension. You might be surprised at how many will say “yes!”
Writing Skills
Strong writing is the core of most assessments here at Conestoga College. And strong writing starts with a strong foundation! Before you start, you’ll need to brainstorm, research (and take good research notes), then create an outline. You’ll want to edit your final version and write several drafts! All those links offer tons of great information from Writing Services. Their website and staff can help you improve your foundational skills.
To maintain good academic integrity, you'll also need to build your skills in:
Using quotes, and paraphrasing effectively
Remember: at Conestoga College, attribution is very important. Not giving credit to the person who created the idea is seen as disrespectful, or like you’re lying about who said it. If you use someone else’s ideas, you can either quote them or paraphrase them. "Quoting" mean using their exact words in quotation marks. "Paraphrasing" is using your own words to describe what they said. Both quotes and paraphrases require citations.
Paraphrasing helps to show that you understood the source, and is an important skill to learn. Research has shown that paraphrasing helps you understand the material you’re reading (Keltzien, 2009). This will make you a stronger student! But paraphrasing can be difficult to master. It will be harder if English is not your first language. Writing Services has tips to help you improve your paraphrasing skills.
The most common mistake to be aware of is “patchwriting.” If you take the original text and swap some words for synonyms or re-arrange the order of sentences slightly, that's patchwriting. Modifying the source “patch by patch” might make it look or sound a little different, but it's a form of plagiarism. It doesn't demonstrate your own knowledge of the source. Patchwriting often gets flagged by Turnitin’s similarity checker.
It can be helpful to write your first draft without looking at the source you're paraphrasing. After you have a draft, re-read the original text. Check it to make sure you correctly represented the ideas of the author, and look for anywhere that your version is too close to the original. This can help you to avoid accidental patchwriting. For more help with practicing paraphrasing, check out these useful tips and exercises.
SELF DEFENCE TIP: Avoid “Paraphrasing” Tools
“Paraphrasing” tools like Quillbot are risky to use. In addition to often being an unauthorized aid that might undermine your learning outcomes, these are really patch-writing tools. They can introduce strange mistakes into your work by swapping out words that aren’t really synonyms, like changing “Great Britian” to “Awesome Britian.” Even without obvious mistakes, text written by these tools often gets flagged by Turnitin's AI detector. To avoid accusations of plagiarism or Generative AI use, avoid Quillbot and other patchwriting tools
Use Grammarly and other editing tools safely and effectively
Grammarly and other editors are useful tools to improve your spelling and grammar. They can be very helpful, as long as you have your professor’s permission to use them. Grammarly uses “traditional AI” to provide these suggestions. Some versions of Grammarly also now have “generative AI” tools built in. It’s usually okay to use traditional AI to support your writing, but it’s almost never okay to use generative AI to do the writing for you.
When using Grammarly, think about each suggestion before accepting it. Is the suggestion a small spelling or grammar edit that improves your own writing? Or is it doing the writing for you, by re-writing entire sentences or composing new sentences? If Grammarly is doing the writing for you, try re-writing it in your own words first! Accepting those big suggestions won’t help you learn. It might even be undermining your assessment learning outcomes.
SELF DEFENCE TIP: Don’t Let Grammarly Increase Your AI Score
Accepting every suggestion from Grammarly can make your paper sound more generic. If it sounds very generic, the Turnitin AI detector might mistake it for Generative AI. Take the time to consider each suggestion, and decide whether to accept it or whether to re-write the sentence in your own words. This will improve your writing skills and help preserve your unique written “voice.”
It’s also important to only use Grammarly through the Conestoga library website, with your college account. If you use Grammarly in any other way, you will have access to built-in generative AI tools. If you use AI tools by mistake, Turnitin will flag your paper. This will raise questions about whether you did your own work.
To protect yourself, write a complete draft and save a second copy of your paper BEFORE you start editing it with Grammarly. If necessary, you can use the unedited copy to help prove that you did original work.
For more help, book an appointment with a Research Consultant for help researching and finding information. You can also book an appointment with a Writing Consultant for assistance improving your writing skills (outlining, organizing, grammar, etc).
SELF DEFENCE TIP: Disprove False Accusations with Foundational Work
If you’re ever falsely accused of using Generative AI or contract cheating, foundational work is the best defence. Research notes, outlines, and drafts are the best way to prove that you did your work yourself! If you're using Grammarly, save a copy of your paper before you start editing. Then you can show your professor the first version if necessary. If you can, use version history too. Save everything, and don’t delete your files until after you’ve graduated.
Citing Skills
Remember: at Conestoga College, attribution is very important. Not giving credit to the person who created the idea is seen as disrespectful, or even like you’re lying. If you use someone else’s words or ideas, you need to cite your source. This applies to any type of idea, including written ideas, mathematical solutions, data, code, images, graphical designs, and more! If you copy someone else's words or ideas but don’t cite, you may accidentally commit plagiarism. Check out this resource from Writing Services with more information about how and when to cite.
Be careful to avoid “self-copying" too. You might be wondering: how can it be misconduct to copy from yourself? If it's your idea, you don't need to cite it. But every time you complete an assessment at Conestoga, it’s expected that you will create new work to meet the learning outcomes, and not re-use old work. This expectation applies even if you have taken the exact same course before. Re-using your own work without your professor's permission is misconduct.
But what if I really want/need to re-use old work?
If you're re-taking a course and you did well on the assessment the first time, you’d probably prefer to save time by re-using all or part of it. Or the assessment might be so specific, it feels almost impossible to create a completely new version. There’s a simple solution: just ask your professor, as soon as possible, if it would be okay to re-use the work. The first week of the course is the best time to ask this question! As long as you have permission, it’s not self-plagiarism.
If you do get permission to re-use work, immediately send your professor the files you wrote in your previous semester. When you re-use parts of your previous work, the Turnitin Similarity Score can be very high. Sharing your old files early in the semester makes it easy to prove that the work is your own, regardless of the Similarity Score.
If you don’t get permission, then it’s not okay to re-use what you’ve already written. Make sure to leave yourself enough time to create a new version of the assessment.
Check out our Plagiarism Infographic to learn more. For more help with citation skills, book an appointment with a Writing Consultant for advanced citation and referencing support.
SELF DEFENCE TIP: Make Turnitin's Similarity Score Your Friend
A high Turnitin Similarity Score does not mean that you wrote a bad paper, or that you plagiarized. All it shows is how much of the assessment was similar to other sources. You can use this information to improve your writing and citing! If part of your text is flagged, check those sections to make sure you included a citation. If the score is very high, that could be a sign that you need to include more original ideas in your report. Or you might need to use fewer quotes! Try editing and paraphrasing to bring the score down.
Whatever you do, don’t put your paper into random drop-boxes to check the score! Never submit the assessment in any Turnitin drop-box except the one your professor set up for it. Doing so can result in an accidental 100% similarity score when you go to submit the final project. If this happens, it will be almost impossible to prove that you did original work. Instead, ask your professor if they will turn on the feature that allows you to make multiple submissions to the correct drop-box. This will let you check your score and edit your paper before submitting your final assessment.
Test-Taking Skills
Test-taking success starts with study skills! Before any exam, it's important to both learn the material well, and to review Conestoga's rules for good exam etiquette. You don’t have to be trying to cheat on an exam to commit an Academic Integrity Violation. Behaving improperly in a testing situation, even if it was an accident, can still get you in trouble. Your professor doesn’t have to “prove” that you were cheating, only that the way you behaved was inappropriate.
But how do you know what’s appropriate, and what’s inappropriate? The rules here at Conestoga might not be the same as they were at the schools you’ve previously attended. When in doubt, always ask your professor. If your professor gives you any special instructions before or during the exam, always follow them! But in general, you should:
Keep phones and other technology away
Even touching your phone during an exam can count as cheating. Leave your phone and headphones in your bag – or better yet, leave them in your locker or at home. If you brought your phone to an exam by mistake, ask your professor if you can leave it on their desk until the exam is done. If your phone is in your pocket, you might be tempted to look at a notification. If you’re writing at home, put your phone out of arm's reach or in another room.
If you have a personal emergency that requires you to be available by phone, talk to your professor in advance. You may be able to reschedule your exam or reach some other compromise with your professor.
Don’t talk to anyone but your faculty member or proctor
Once an in-person test has begun, do not talk or communicate with other students in any way. Even if you are not trying to cheat, communication may be considered academic misconduct.
If you live in a noisy house and have to write a virtual test at home, talk to the other members of your household before the exam starts. Ask them for privacy and silence during your exam. What if they forget and start talking? State clearly and in English that you are writing an exam and need silence. Don't say anything else. When your professor is reviewing the Respondus video, this will allow them to understand what is happening.
Some interruptions might be unavoidable during Respondus exams. If you live with small children or other people who might not understand the need for silence, talk to your professor in advance. Let them know the specifics of your situation.
Keep your eyes on your own test
Looking at your fellow students’ work during in-person testing may be seen as evidence of cheating. If you need to look away from your test while thinking, close your eyes or look upwards at the ceiling.
When writing remote Respondus exams, try to keep your eyes on your screen. If you need to look away from your test to think, close your eyes or look at the ceiling. If you look downwards or to the side, it can look like you are accessing a second device or reading from notes. It is also important to keep your face visible on your screen. If the camera cannot see your face, or if your face is cut off, your professor may think that you are trying to conceal your actions during the test.
Begin and end on time
Arriving on-time for in person tests is respectful of your professor and fellow students. Some professors will provide options for students who arrived late. But in some specialized tests, a late arrival may be considered cheating, even if it was an accident. Always leave extra time to get to campus on testing days. If you are running late for reasons beyond your control, immediately email your professor. Briefly describe the cause of the delay (such as a late bus or a car accident) and your anticipated arrival time.
When writing a virtual test, your professor can see when the test was opened and closed. They can also see which IP addresses accessed it. If your test is opened and closed at a strange time, or from a remote location, this can be considered evidence of cheating. Make sure that you open the test when you are supposed to, and don't re-open it after the time for writing is done. If you are writing a virtual test on campus, be sure that you are logged into the Conestoga Wi-Fi and not a hotspot. Turn off your VPN. If there is an error and you are forced to log off and re-enter the quiz, or if you have to switch devices during the test, notify your professor immediately. Take screen-shots of the error if possible. The sooner you can notify your professor of an issue, the less likely you are to be incorrectly accused of academic misconduct.
For more help with exam preparation, you can book an appointment with a Student Success Advisor to learn how to improve your time management, study strategies, and note-taking skills, or you can book an appointment with a Math Consultant for help with math courses. For additional information, check out our Online Exams Infographic.
References
Kletzien, S. (2009). Paraphrasing: an effective comprehension strategy, Reading Teacher. 63(1), Page 73 - Page 77. https://ila-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.conestoga.idm.oclc.org/doi/pdf/10.1598/RT.63.1.7