UBC Academic Integrity Digest

The Academic Integrity Digest banner, which features a photograph of a bird’s-eye view of several students studying at the UBC Okanagan campus

Welcome to the Academic Integrity Digest

We are pleased to introduce the first edition of UBC’s Academic Integrity Digest, a cross-campus newsletter aimed at generating conversation, sharing resources and responding to timely and relevant issues impacting academic integrity for students and faculty at UBC.

The Offices of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic, at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan are working collaboratively to expand awareness around academic integrity, enhance academic integrity education and provide support and access to resources related to academic misconduct regulations.

Each Academic Integrity Digest issue will focus on a topic that holds broad interest for the UBC community. We look forward to further engagement and discussion around opportunities and challenges impacting academic integrity at UBC.

If you have topics you would like us to explore in depth relating to academic integrity, please get in touch.

Dr. Simon Bates, Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning, pro tem, UBC Vancouver
Heather Berringer, Chief Librarian and Associate Provost, Academic Operations and Services, UBC Okanagan

A screenshot of the ChatGPT interface window

Q+A on ChatGPT: Considerations for academic integrity at UBC

The recent release of Open AI’s ChatGPT sparked much conversation through the academic community. This large language model, with its ability to generate novel, human-like text responses in seconds, led to mixed responses of concern and curiosity from instructors and students alike. The conversation around the impacts of artificial intelligence in higher education is ongoing and the availability and capabilities of generative artificial intelligence is continually changing. In a new Q+A, we bring together a few key things to know about ChatGPT and its intersection with academic integrity at UBC.

Read the Q+A

Six students sit around two tables, working on laptops and notebooks, as seen from above.

Editorial: The opportunities of ChatGPT

ChatGPT: It’s the subject of social media posts, institutional emails, and click-bait news stories that prophesize the rise of the machines and the death of essays, word problems, and the social contract in general. If a software can identify language patterns, pass standardized tests, and produce intelligible (if not always accurate) responses in grammatically-correct prose, how can we know who – or, rather, what – is the source of a student’s work? Will AI – that is, artificial intelligence – totally undermine our attempts to foster AI, as in, academic integrity? Or, does its arrival instead present us with opportunities?

Dr. Laurie McNeill and Dr. Anita Chaudhuri provide their thoughts on this question.

Read this issue's editorial

Faculty question

Q: What supports are available to initiate academic integrity conversations in my classes?

A: Take Five for Academic Integrity is a resource available to support classroom conversations about academic integrity at UBC. These materials can be integrated into a class presentation or included in Canvas. Faculty can also request that academic integrity staff visit their class to lead the conversation. Further tools to teach academic integrity and respond to misconduct are also available.

Student question

Q: What should I do if I am unsure of academic integrity expectations?

A: Students should speak to their course instructor about any questions including what resources are permitted on assignments or how sources are expected to be acknowledged or what tools are permitted in an exam. Students can also access learning resources on each campus for additional assistance (Student Learning Hub, UBC Okanagan, or Chapman Learning Commons, UBC Vancouver)

A person faced the camera, presending on a topic to four other people, who sit facing the speaker.

Resource spotlight

The emergence of a new technology like generative artificial intelligence is a good opportunity to review academic integrity basics. UBC’s new Academic Integrity website has resources for students and instructors and is a great place to start.

Visit https://academicintegrity.ubc.ca to learn more.

Upcoming events

BC Campus FLO Panel on Educative Approaches to Academic Integrity

March 1, 2023, 10am-12pm
Zoom webinar

Academic integrity at post-secondary institutions has received much attention with pandemic-related adaptations to teaching and learning practices. This panel focuses on viewpoints and directions in academic integrity in higher education featuring UBC faculty members.

Learn more and register

Racing to Integrity, Annual Conference of the International Center for Academic Integrity

March 10-12, 2023
In-person: Indianapolis, USA
Remote sessions available

UBC is a member of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) and this yearly conference brings together scholars and practitioners to share new research and best practices in academic integrity.

Learn more and register

Research in Progress: Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity at the University of Calgary, Sociology Research Forum @UBCV

March 30, 2023, 11am-12:30pm
Zoom webinar

A presentation from Dr. Sarah Eaton (U.Calgary) on research in progress around artificial intelligence and academic integrity at the University of Calgary.

Learn more and register