Where I started:
Looking back, I found that I had a lot of incorrect assumptions before beginning my research into academic honesty. I began this semester with only a cursory understanding of academic honesty, information literacy courses, and ethics as applied to higher learning environments. The winter before I began my degree program, I had the chance to attend an information literacy course; thus, when starting this project, I was somewhat aware of the ways that librarians taught ethical uses of information. Also, like any other college student, I had encountered programs like Turnitin when handing in papers for class. Because these types of detection methods were in place, I figured that cheating happened infrequently and anyone who did plagiarize was doing it on purpose and deserved to be caught.
As a staff member in a public library, I had not really encountered academic honesty issues before. Most students in the library would ask their school or college library for assistance and were often merely using our computers to complete the work, rather than ask for advice about it. When working as a Library Assistant in the Reference department of a major public library, I found that my job never revolved around teaching ethical uses of information and proper citation methods so much as showing patrons where to look for the knowledge they sought. I had little foundation to work with on this topic.
I knew that honesty ethics would be an important part of my career if I wished to continue my route to becoming an academic librarian, so I decided to make this the focus of my ethics project.
Where I am now:
I feel that I have a much better understanding of this topic after creating and compiling this research project. I was surprised to learn just how big of an issue academic dishonesty is and how widespread it has become. I had no idea that 50% of university students had been dishonest during their undergraduate years, nor did I realize that plagiarism was the biggest type of honesty violation in campuses worldwide! The gravity of the situation makes me want to continue to do research and work with my peers to find a better solution to this issue.
I also feel that I have more familiarity with the factors that influence people to make decisions. Now that I better understand the critical motivators (attitudes, norms, and perceived control) driving behavior, I can attempt to use this knowledge in my own practice to encourage ethical behavior. Furthermore, until I learned of the concepts of "accidental plagiarism" and "sloppy authorship," I had no idea that cheating could be unintentional. I had falsely assumed that the students I knew were cheating were consciously making the choice to do so out of laziness. Now that my eyes have been opened to other factors outside of conscious choice, I find myself rethinking my zero-tolerance policy of punishing any form of cheating, to developing a different set of best practices where I instead take an introspective look at my own teaching practices and determine what I can do to better communicate the importance of academic honesty to my (future) students.
Finally, I will say that my favorite part of this project was developing a set of resources I could use to continue my education further about this topic. While I feel I have a better grasp on the topic of academic integrity (and ethical thinking as a whole), I still believe that I have much to learn if I want to succeed in my future career. Fortunately, I was able to build a mentoring relationship with my librarian contact. She gave me excellent advice, such as the importance of being cognizant of my own online presence and the need for librarians to educate the entire campus community about honesty practices. Additionally, she serves as an important resource I can consult when I encounter my own (inevitable) ethical dilemmas and I need the wisdom that only experience can bring.
All-in-all, I found this a very rewarding and enlightening experience. I suppose the most important lesson that I learned is just how much I still have yet to learn! Academic honesty (and really, the concept of "ethics" as a whole) seems to be a very complicated issue without a simple or direct answer. I am hoping that by creating this blog, I can eventually attract readership and gain some answers from other librarians in the field so that I can come to my own consensus and set of best practices. Even though this project has ended, my goal is to continue posting here as I learn more about honesty ethics.
Thank you for reading and learning along with me!
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