Overview
Academic integrity is a cornerstone of university education. It underpins the credibility of the qualifications awarded, the fairness of assessment processes, and the trust between staff and students.
In an increasingly complex educational environment shaped by digital innovation, diverse learner needs, and evolving academic pressures, academic integrity faces ongoing challenges. Upholding the core values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage is a shared responsibility among students, staff, and institutions.
Staff play a critical role in cultivating a learner-centred culture of academic integrity. This involves modelling good practice, designing assessments that reduce the likelihood of misconduct, and applying institutional policy with consistency and care.
This five-part course supports university staff in understanding and fulfilling their role in promoting academic integrity. It covers:
- Building and sustaining a culture of integrity;
- Designing assessments that promote academic honesty;
- Detecting and addressing breaches effectively;
- Navigating the complexities of generative AI in student work;
- Interpreting and applying institutional policy in practice.
Each session takes approximately twenty minutes to complete. A companion workbook provides reflective activities and practical exercises to help participants explore their understanding of integrity, respond to potential misconduct, reconsider assessment design, reflect on student use of generative AI, and examine how they apply policy in their day-to-day work.
Additional resources are provided to support continued professional development.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Define academic integrity and explain its significance within Higher Education;
- Support students in understanding and upholding academic integrity through clear guidance, inclusive practices, and accessible resources;
- Recognise common breaches of academic integrity, including plagiarism, contract cheating, collusion, and other forms of misconduct;
- Promote a culture of integrity across academic and professional services through proactive communication, role modelling, and consistent practice;
- Apply institutional policies and procedures effectively when addressing suspected breaches of academic integrity.
Professional Development Recognition
On earning the open badge for this course, you will have achieved further recognition across the following domains of the National Professional Development Framework for Staff Who Teach:
- Domain 1: Personal Development — The Self in Teaching and Learning — emphasises the values, perspectives, emotions, self-awareness, confidence, and experiences that individuals bring to their teaching;
- Domain 2: Professional Identity, Values and Development in Teaching and Learning — focuses on the development and self-evaluation of professional and disciplinary identity and its associated roles and responsibilities;
- Domain 3: Professional Communication and Dialogue in Teaching and Learning — emphasises clear and coherent communication within changing learning environments;
- Domain 4: Professional Knowledge and Skills in Teaching and Learning — emphasises disciplinary knowledge and disciplinary approaches to teaching while drawing on interdisciplinary experiences;
- Domain 5: Personal and Professional Digital Capacity in Teaching and Learning — emphasises digital capacity and the application of digital skills and knowledge to professional practice.
Course Developers
This open course was developed by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in partnership with:
Catherine O’Donoghue
Subject Matter Expert, CPID, TUS
Eimear Kelly
Subject Matter Expert, CPID, TUS
Dr Geraldine McDermott
Reviewer, CPID, TUS
Tom Aherne
Learning Technologist, CAP, SETU
Mags Connolly
Learning Technologist, CAP, SETU
Ken Doyle
Design Specialist, CAP, SETU
Dr Nuala Harding
TUS Academic Integrity Course Development Project Lead
Acknowledgements
This course is part of My Digital Backpack, developed under the N‑TUTORR programme and funded by the European Union under the NextGenerationEU initiative as part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
