Academic Integrity Fundamentals Tutorial

Collaboration is an important professional and academic skill. But, in an academic environment, you will often work on your own because it is important that your instructor can assess your individual knowledge and skills.  

If your instructor has indicated that independent work is required, you cannot work together or share answers. This is called “inappropriate collaboration” and is a violation of RDP policy.

Talking to friends and classmates can help you reinforce your own learning. If you are in a study group, you can use this time to discuss the material and promote your understanding of the material. However, you need to complete independent assignments on your own.

If your instructor has assigned a take-home exam, you must work independently. It is inappropriate to work on those questions with another person. Once you have the test questions, you are not allowed to discuss them with anyone else.

If you need help with your assignments or exams, you should ask your instructor.

Inappropriate collaboration is academic misconduct. Consequences include:

• Failing your assignment​
• Failing your course​
• Being suspended from RDP
• Being expelled from RDP
• And not being accepted at another college or university after being expelled

adapted from SFU (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Graphic by Sara LeBlanc, University of Waterloo (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Graphic by Sara LeBlanc, University of Waterloo (CC BY-NC 4.0)