8. Academic integrity

Higher education and society benefit when a college promotes and applies standards of integrity and excellence that provide a foundation for a vibrant academic life, promote progress in science and arts, and prepare you for responsible citizenship and professional conduct. Georgian is committed to providing opportunities for you to learn about the importance of academic integrity and how to work within these expectations.

Academic integrity arises from a community of shared values and responsibilities, including “honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage” (International Center for Academic Integrity [ICAI], 2021, p. 4). Georgian endorses these values by promoting a culture of academic integrity in academic life, including research, teaching, learning and community engagement. Since these values are essential to the integrity of the learning experience and the transformative power of education at the college, any breaches of ethics and integrity will not be accepted. Such actions undermine not only the credibility of the educational experience but also the purpose of learning and the long-term value of the credentials earned by our students and alumni.

In addition to the types of academic breaches outlined in this regulation, other offenses involving civil or criminal law involving academic work or materials are subject to penalties under the applicable civil or criminal law. You should also be aware that other types of breaches may be dealt with under other procedures, such as the Student Code of Conduct, the Information Technology Acceptable Use Procedure, the Ontario Human Rights Code, or the Criminal Code of Canada.

8.1 Student academic responsibilities

As a member of the Georgian community, you're responsible for conducting yourself in a manner that reflects both your commitment to your learning journey and Georgian's commitment to academic integrity. This commitment extends beyond your academic work on campus and online, encompassing work-integrated learning experiences as well, in alignment with the regulations outlined here.

8.1.1 Attendance

Faculty determine the requirements for success in your courses. You're responsible for attending classes (whether in-person or online), not only for course content, but also for information related to the progress of the course. Individual programs and courses may have specific attendance requirements. Please refer to the program outline and/or course outline and syllabus for details specific to your program and courses. Tests, examinations, graded assignments, clinical and field placements must be written/submitted/attended on the date and time specified (Section 10. Tests and examinations).

8.1.2 Student conduct

At Georgian we're dedicated to fostering a learning and working environment where everyone feels seen, heard and knows they belong, through demonstrable, accountable, and system-wide commitments to diversity, de-colonization, anti-racism, equity, and inclusion. The learning environment and activities reflect the college’s core values and mission, including its commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, with faculty playing a key role in facilitating respectful, engaging, and meaningful learning experiences.

The faculty has the right to require you to leave the learning environment if a positive learning environment is impeded by your actions or comments. Faculty have the right to ask you to leave the learning environment if your actions or comments disrupt the positive learning experience for others. Additionally, you're not allowed to share or distribute materials that promote hate, harassment, or discrimination. Any form of illegal, abusive, obscene, threatening, or demeaning communication whether directed at an individual or group is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to, emails, posts on bulletin boards or message boards, content on Blackboard, webpages, and social media. Violations may lead to further actions in accordance with the law or college policies.

8.1.3 Improper use of technology

A faculty member may ban any device, application or website deemed to impede positive progress of the class or deemed to compromise the integrity of tests or examinations. For detailed information about the use of Information Technology, refer to the Information Technology Acceptable Use Procedure.

8.1.4 Acting with academic integrity 

You're expected to act with academic integrity throughout your studies at Georgian, in alignment with the ICAI’s Fundamental Values (2021) and Georgian College’s Academic Integrity Policy. This includes the obligation to acknowledge sources; to protect your work; to avoid suspicion, falsification, and fabrication; and to tell the truth. Breaches of academic integrity are outlined in Section 8.2 Breaches of academic integrity. To support the education and awareness of academic integrity, you're required to successfully pass Georgian’s Academic Integrity module in Blackboard with a grade of 80 per cent or greater, in your first term of study.

8.2 Breaches of academic integrity

The following areas constitute the major types of breaches of academic integrity and are subject to a fair and equitable process and decision. Please note that a suspected breach on any portion of your work will result in the implementation of the breach of integrity process with a restorative outcome. Fees are not refunded if you're suspended, dismissed, or removed from courses or your program for breaches (Section 8.2 Breach of academic integrity).

8.2.1 Cheating

Cheating is the use of inappropriate, prohibited, or unacknowledged materials, information aids, or misrepresentation in any academic work. The unauthorized use of books, notes, online resources, electronic technology (including, but not limited to calculators, cell phones, tablets, voice, and video recorders, and generative artificial intelligence (AI) (e.g., Chat GPT, Quilbot, list not inclusive) as well as conversation with others is restricted or forbidden in many instances of academic work and their use constitutes cheating. You may not request others (including commercial or free term-paper organizations) or any other form of unauthorized assistance to conduct research or prepare any work for you. In addition, you may not distribute or receive an examination, test or other course material that's not obtained with the permission of the professor.

8.2.1.1 Contract Cheating
 

Contract cheating occurs when a student outsources their work to a third party with or without payment and then submits it for academic credit. The third party may include web-based services or people or resources known to the learner. Examples of contract cheating include, but are not limited to:

• Accessing or purchasing an assignment from a commercial source and submitting it as one’s own for marks.

• Having another person complete an assignment and submitting it as one’s own for marks.

• Outsourcing test or exam questions.

8.2.2 Fabrication

Fabrication is the falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic work or program and employment documentation.

You must never falsify a record of any kind, nor knowingly permit another person to do so. Fabricating academic work, program and employment records includes, but is not limited to clinical permits, criminal reference checks, co-op jobs, placements, employer or placement supervisor evaluation, signatures, misrepresentation of academic credentials from other institutions, or submitting false information for the purpose of gaining admission or credits. An example of fabrication is making up data results for a lab or providing references which are not real.

8.2.3 Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the representation of another's words, computer code, design solution or ideas as your own regardless of how they are used in any academic work. Whenever you use words, code, design, or ideas that are not your own when submitting scholarly work, you must cite your sources with an in-text citation, use quotation marks where appropriate, and include a list of references for the sources cited. Failure to do this constitutes plagiarism.

You must not allow anyone access to the work you have prepared for evaluation, whether in a test, examination, or assignment, etc. You're the only one who should receive credit for what you know, unless prior agreement has been reached with the faculty that group work (and group credit) is allowed. Therefore, publishing work on a public repository (e.g., Course Hero) is prohibited.

Plagiarism of any part of a work is a breach of academic integrity; there is no partial responsibility. To avoid plagiarism, every source of information must be identified and properly documented according to an established writing convention determined by your faculty, for example, Georgian Library Citation Guidelines, American Psychological Association (APA) style. The faculty have the right to request that you submit your work for electronic text matching and may ask you to submit proof of paper development, including your notes and drafts.

8.2.3.1 Self-Plagiarism
 

Self-plagiarism is the resubmission of previous work or portions of work from another course or from the same course if you're repeating a course, without the permission of the current faculty. Self-plagiarism of any part of your work is a breach of academic integrity; there is no partial responsibility.

8.2.4 Facilitating a breach of academic integrity

Facilitating a breach of academic integrity occurs when you put yourself in a position where you could be suspected of having made your work accessible to others, having copied another’s work, or having used unauthorized aids. You alone should receive credit for what you know, unless prior agreement has been reached with the faculty that group work (and group credit) is allowed. Even the appearance of dishonesty may undermine faculty confidence in your academic work.

Knowingly or negligently allowing your work (including electronic files), portions of your work, or drafts of your work to be used by other students or aid others is a breach of academic integrity. This applies if you hide, misrepresent, or falsify information related to a breach of academic integrity. You're as responsible as a student who is involved in the incident directly, even though you may not yourself benefit from that act and are therefore subject to the same outcomes.

8.2.5 Impersonation 

Impersonation is pretending to be another person for the purpose of deception. If you knowingly allow yourself to be impersonated, either in person or electronically, for any academic work or activity, you're breaching academic integrity. Both the impersonator and you're subject to the same outcomes.

8.2.6 Denying access to information or material

Denying others access to academic resources or to deliberately impede the progress of another student or scholar is a breach of academic integrity. This would include giving other students false or misleading information, making library or shared resource material unavailable to others by stealing, deliberately misplacing, defacing, or destroying any of these resources, including computer files that are not your own.

8.2.7 Copyright violation

Copyright violation occurs when you use copyrighted material without permission. Canada’s Copyright Act states the legal and permissible use of copyrighted material. Georgian has adopted the Association of Canadian Community Colleges Fair Dealing Policy that provides guidance in copying according to the Fair Dealing exception under the Copyright Act. Copying beyond these limits of the guidelines and the Copyright Act, is a breach of academic integrity for the individual who made the illegal copy. You may also be subject to penalties under the Copyright Act.

8.3 Process for reviewing and resolving reported breaches of academic integrity

The following outlines the process for addressing cases of reported breaches of academic integrity at Georgian, as well as related outcomes. Procedural fairness will be followed in all instances.

• If at any point in the process outlined below is shown, to the faculty’s satisfaction, that the situation is free of academic integrity breach, no record is kept of the incident.

• If at any point in the process, you decide to withdraw from the course connected to the academic breach the process continues unless otherwise advised by the dean/associate dean or Office of the Registrar.

• If at any point during the process outlined below, you're unresponsive or unwilling to meet within the required timelines, the process continues, and the form is forwarded to the Office of the Registrar for processing. Your signature on the form is not required for an outcome to be applied or for a record to be created for you in Banner.

• If an academic breach is identified for group work, the process continues individually for every member of the group. In cases where one or more members of the group (a subset of the group) are identified to be responsible, only the individual members of the group held responsible will move through the process.

• The form remains part of your record in the Office of the Registrar; however, no indication of a breach of academic integrity is made on your official transcript. Regulatory bodies, partnership institutions or employers may require details around academic integrity breaches, such as the number of instances and outcomes you have received. As with other documents in your record, access is restricted by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 1990 (Section 7. Academic and related records).

• From the time the suspected reported breach is found to the time it's recorded on your record; the process should take no longer than 15 working days (excluding weekends and statutory holidays). You're expected to continue your term while the process is taking place unless otherwise advised by a dean/associate dean, registrar/ associate registrar in writing.

• Academic integrity breaches may also be identified by other employees such as co-op consultants, testing services employees, or any other department at the college involved in determining grades for academic work.

• If requested by you, the student success advisor can prompt reflection and support you to build your self-navigation and self-advocacy skills as it relates to the breach of academic integrity process. It's not the role of the student success advisor to negotiate on your behalf.

8.3.1 Breach of academic integrity decision chart

Academic Misconduct

Step	Process	Owner	Resource
1	Determine a review for an academic integrity breach is required.	Faculty	Exam, test, assignment, etc.
2	The faculty informs and consults with the program coordinator.	Faculty	phone/email/teams
3	An initial meeting between the faculty and student must take place within five working days* of first identifying suspected breach. The faculty member will email the student via Georgian email with an invitation to meet. After five days* the breach process continues.	Faculty	Banner, timetable/outlook calendar/Georgian student email
4	Faculty contacts the Office of the Registrar via RORecords@georgiancollege.ca to determine any previous reported breaches	Faculty	Phone/email/or Banner
5	Faculty completes the Breach of Academic Integrity Form (BAIF)	Faculty	BAIF
6	The faculty conducts a meeting with you to discuss the breach of academic integrity. If the third offence, provide warning to you that a fourth offence will result in an automatic dismissal from your program and the college for up to five years.	Faculty	BAIF and supporting evidence
7	Within 24 hours of the meeting, you're to review the BAIF form and either: a) acknowledge the offence, accept the outcome and sign. The form is then sent to the Dean/Associate Dean for final signature and forwarded to the Office of the Registrar, or; b) choose not to acknowledge the breach. If you don't wish to meet, sign the BAIF form, or, you fail to provide the required documentation, the process continues	Student	BAIF
8	Faculty sends form and any supporting documentation to the Dean/Associate Dean within two working days* of meeting with the student.	Faculty	Email
9	Dean/Associate Dean reviews form and supporting documentation and discusses with faculty. If a meeting with the student is required for clarification, the date and time of meeting must be determined within three working days* of receiving the BAIF from the faculty.	Dean/Associate Dean	BAIF/phone/email
10	The Dean/Associate Dean finalizes/signs the BAIF and emails the form to you copying the Office of the Registrar, the student success advisor, and the faculty. In this same message, they will advise you of the academic appeal process as per section 9.2.2 Appeal process. If the academic breach is appealed, the Academic Appeal form (AAF) must be completed and submitted by you to the Office of the Registrar.	Dean/Associate Dean	BAIF
11	The student information is updated in Banner by the Office of the Registrar.	Office of the Registrar	Banner
12	Implement any record changes needed because of the outcome	Faculty/Office of the Registrar	Blackboard, Banner

*Deadlines exclude weekends and statutory holidays

8.4 Consequences of breaches of academic integrity

These guidelines are designed to help formalize decisions about the consequences of a breach of academic integrity, while recognizing that certain circumstances may require a different resolution. As a student, it’s an opportunity for you to actively engage in the process and embrace the learning experiences that come with it to support your growth and success.

Any one or more of the outcomes listed below can be applied to your first, second and third breach. The consequence is recommended by the faculty in accordance with the severity of the offence and the number of past breaches you have. The final decision regarding the consequence applied will be determined by the dean/associate dean.

A fourth breach will result in your automatic dismissal from the program and from the college for up to five years. After the fourth breach you may not return to the same program.

8.4.1 Guidelines for determining consequences of academic breaches
Faculty are encouraged to include opportunities for remediation and learning as part of the process.  

Penalties for academic misconduct

Offence	Penalty
First	- Documented warning  - Complete assigned remediation (e.g., Academic integrity module or other as identified by the academic area/department) - Assigned training or advising/academic support.  - Re-submission of work involved (this may include a reduction or modification of the grade assigned to this work) - Mark of “0” in work involved
Second	- Assigned training or advising/academic support   - Mark of “0” in work involved- Mark of “0” in the course  - Immediate suspension from the college for the current term  - Immediate suspension from the college for the current term, plus one subsequent term  - Immediate dismissal from the program and suspension from the college for one year (12 months)
Third	- Assigned training or advising/academic support  - Mark of “0” in the course  - Immediate suspension from the college for the current term  - Immediate suspension from the college for the current term, plus one subsequent term  - Immediate dismissal from the program and suspension from the college for one year (12 months)  - Immediate dismissal from the program and the college for three years
Fourth	- Automatic dismissal from the program and college for a period ranging from current term, plus one subsequent term, up to five years as determined by the dean/associate dean