Theme 1: Assessment design to support academic integrity
Can assessment design mitigate or reduce risks to academic integrity? This theme will consider how design strategies can improve the integrity and security of assessment and showcase initiatives that impact academic integrity through assessment practice. Through a variety of transferable approaches, we can explore successes and failures in order to build a greater understanding of how to overcome the challenges in this area.
Theme 2: Building teams, systems and approaches
Maturing our institutional responses to the challenge of maintaining academic integrity includes building fit-for-purpose systems and processes, enabling shared learning and collective action, and enacting data-informed interventions across the academic integrity lifespan (from prevention to detection, investigation and sanction). This theme will reflect on initiatives designed to achieve better outcomes by connecting people, aligning processes, implementing systems, centralising functions, and translating data insights into practice.
Theme 3: Decision-making in academic integrity
Deciding whether and how to respond to breaches of academic integrity remains complex, confronting, and difficult for staff. Research suggests that responding is a time-consuming and emotionally stressful process which may lead to inconsistent decisions by staff and unfair outcomes and significant academic consequences for students. This theme will explore how policies, procedures, decision-making models such as narrative building, and other strategies can assist in fair and consistent outcomes for students.
Theme 4: Diversity, community and support
This theme will consider academic integrity initiatives and challenges in relation to student transition, belonging, wellbeing, equity, diversity and inclusion. Submissions may focus on the role of staff, peer leaders, leadership, academic and wellbeing support and other stakeholders in building students’ sense of membership in the academic community, supporting students' transition to academic and professional expectations and requirements, and reducing or responding to misconduct, particularly in the context of widening participation and internationalisation.
Theme 5: Technology and Academic Integrity
Emerging technological threats to academic integrity- such as paraphrasing tools and artificial intelligence systems, or assessment outsourcing services and contract cheating companies accessing learning management systems using student credentials- raise issues regarding the use and misuse of technology in higher education. This theme will explore how academic integrity practitioners may respond to these emerging threats now and in the future.
Theme 6: Integrity in non-text-based assessment
Most work on promoting academic integrity and detecting breaches focuses on students submitting written assignments, supporting their writing with citations and bibliographies. But research shows that promoting academic integrity and detecting misconduct are more difficult in disciplines that use non-text-based assessment, such as in the creative and performing arts, design, mathematics and computer science. This theme will explore approaches to reducing the risk of academic integrity breaches and contract cheating in such disciplines.