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Academic Integrity Fundamentals Tutorial

The Academic Integrity Fundamentals Tutorial will foster an understanding of Academic Integrity at RDP. The tutorial is aligned with RDP’s Student Rights and Responsibilities Policy and Academic Misconduct Procedure.
   

Contract Cheating in Real Life: Sharing Notes Online

Sharing Notes Online

Setting: your home
You are feeling frustrated while working on an assignment.
You think, “I don’t know how to do this, and if I don’t do well on this assignment, I could fail the course!” You flop over on the couch.
A few seconds later, you think, “Maybe I can find a website to find solutions to my assignment!” You grab your laptop and log onto the internet.
You find a website that prompts you to upload your instructor's notes in exchange for assignment solutions.

 

In this scenario, you should not upload your instructor's notes in exchange for your assignment solutions. If you do, you are committing contract cheating. You might:

  • Fail the assignment
  • Fail the course
  • Be suspended from RDP
  • Be expelled from RDP
  • And not be accepted at another college or university after being expelled from RDP

Furthermore, your instructor legally owns their course materials (e.g. lecture slides and exam questions). If you share your instructor's course materials without permission, you are violating the Canadian Copyright Act.

If you are struggling with your academic work, you should ask for help. There are many free services for RDP students, including:

Videos created by University of Waterloo and used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Text adapted from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and used under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Contract Cheating in Real Life: Sharing Exam Questions

Sharing Exam Questions (Part 1)

Setting: in a café
A student comes up to you and says, “I took that class last semester. I can give you a copy of the exam questions if you like.”

 

In this scenario, you should not take the exam questions from the other student. Taking the exam questions give you an unfair advantage over your classmates, so this is considered cheating. If you do cheat, you might:

  • Fail the exam
  • Fail the course
  • Be suspended from RDP
  • Be expelled from RDP
  • And not be accepted at another college or university after being expelled from RDP

Remember: your instructor legally owns their course materials, including their exam questions. If you share your instructor's exam questions, you are violating the Canadian Copyright Act.

Sharing Exam Questions (Part 2)

Setting: in the exam room
You see the exam and think to yourself, “This exam looks completely different from the one I got from that student!”
You don’t recognize any of the questions. Looking over someone’s shoulder, you realize that there are different versions of the exam, and the person in front of you has the exam you studied from.

 

In this scenario, receiving exam questions from an unethical source put you at risk of receiving inaccurate information, in addition to jeopardizing your academic integrity.

Instead of taking the exam questions from the other student, you should focus on your own studying. If you are struggling to study for exams, consider talking to a Learning Strategist for help with study skills and exam preparations.

Videos created by University of Waterloo and used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Text adapted from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and used under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.