The Importance of Clear Expectations Related to Academic Integrity in a Chemistry Course Syllabus: What Counts as Cheating?

Abstract

Academic integrity is often a concern instructors have when teaching, with past research indicating the classroom environment is one of the largest factors in determining students’ likelihood to cheat. In this commentary, we intend to start a dialogue with instructors regarding the importance of creating a classroom environment that values academic integrity. As part of this, we discuss our analysis of 236 chemistry course syllabi that span the undergraduate coursework and were collected from one institution over the last five years. Our analysis focuses on how expectations related to academic integrity were discussed. We found that syllabi commonly provided a discussion of academic integrity that emphasized the consequences of academic misconduct without providing a definition for what counts as cheating within the context of the course. Although syllabi are not completely indicative of classroom practices, they set the tone for the semester and are relied on when considering how to address instances of academic misconduct. We argue that to build a classroom environment where students value academic integrity, instructors must first communicate to students what counts as cheating.