Academic Integrity for
Online Learning Courses

As generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini become increasingly prevalent, they present new challenges and temptations for academic dishonesty among our students, both online and on campus. Additionally, even applications such as Grammarly, which utilizes artificial intelligence to help improve and correct writing, now offer generative capabilities within their software. 

While eliminating academic dishonesty may be unattainable, the strategies outlined below can significantly mitigate these issues in your courses. Our goal is to empower you with the tools and insights necessary to maintain the integrity of our academic programs.

  1. Encourage Integrity

Proactively encouraging academic integrity increases the odds that students will adhere to the standards we set. Therefore, the following suggestions are ways to promote academic integrity in your courses.

  • One simple and effective way to encourage academic integrity is to send a text or video announcement to the class a few weeks before a major assignment. Speak honestly to the class on the value of academic integrity. Students should understand that academic integrity is an essential part of not only their personal and academic development but also their current or future ministry.

    Inform your students that you and the Online Teaching Assistant (OTA) will actively use tools to detect plagiarism and AI-generated content when grading assignments.

  • While the Student Handbook and Honor Code clarify and define academic integrity generally, most assignments require specific clarifications. Your class resources page, syllabus, and/or assignment portal may need a section that clearly defines citation expectations and an Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage policy. While various classes and assignments will require more specific warnings and nuances, the following example may be used as a starting point:

    “As stated in the Honor Code, all writing in this class must be done exclusively by the student. Anything the student did not write and any idea or text that did not originate with the student must include proper attribution. This also means that generating or using AI text is prohibited in this class.”

    If your online class requires adjustments or clarification, contact an Instructional Designer for assistance.

  • Some assignment formats are more susceptible to academic dishonesty. Consider the following when developing your assignments:

    • Incorporate requirements for direct quotations, citations, and critical interactions with readings and lectures. This approach challenges plagiarism and AI’s ability to mimic nuanced understanding.

    • Require students to use detailed examples to connect theoretical knowledge and ideas from the class to practical applications in their current ministry.

    • Design scaffolded writing assignments that require phased submissions that build toward the final assignment.

    • Develop quiz and exam questions requiring detailed examples from course content, discouraging AI use and plagiarism. Collaborate with an Instructional Designer to incorporate proctoring systems and other safeguards if the risk of cheating is high.

    • Craft writing assignments that span more than 1–2 pages. The extended length makes it more challenging for AI-generated text to remain undetected, as it often struggles with maintaining deep analysis and a coherent narrative over longer texts.

    Our Instructional Designers will assist you in these principles while developing your online course. If you would like to make changes to a current course, please contact us.

  • As you are working on your assignments in this class, I want to underscore the importance of academic integrity in your research and writing. This specifically pertains to the use of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. While these technologies can serve as valuable aids in the preliminary stages of your research, helping you generate ideas or clarify thoughts, it is crucial—and a matter of personal integrity–that they are not used to write, rewrite, or translate the submissions for your assignments.

    Many of you may also be familiar with Grammarly, a tool commonly used to refine writing through grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity checks. I personally use and endorse it for these purposes. However, please be aware that Grammarly has recently integrated generative AI features that assist in creating original text and generating ideas. These new capabilities should not be used in your coursework, as per our honor code.

    Let’s continue to uphold the standards of being faithful Christ followers by ensuring all work submitted is genuinely your own effort.

    Should you have any questions or require further clarification on what constitutes appropriate use of these tools, please feel free to reach out to me.

2. Check Integrity

Verifying academic integrity is important to the professor and OTA’s responsibilities. We developed general guides on how to efficiently detect plagiarism and AI generated writing.

  • Turnitin is the first step in detecting academic dishonesty. In your online classes, all writing assignments will have Turnitin activated during initial development. Turnitin appears in Canvas SpeedGrader as a ‘Similarity Score.’ Clicking on that percentage will open a detailed report with plagiarism information and an AI similarity score.

  • AI Content Detection within the Turnitin detailed report is an important starting point for checking whether a student relied upon an AI text generation tool. At the beginning of the grading and feedback process, the OTA must go through the assignment submission AI checker, as shown in the video above.

    A high percentage on the AI checker does not guarantee AI writing, but it is a cause for a deeper look. AI detection will not flag AI spelling and grammar tools, but instead, it picks up AI writing patterns that span 300 words or more. Watch the AI Content Detection video for step-by-step instructions, and read the AI Detection FAQs from Turnitin.

  • AI Detection Percentage is a helpful guide to determining whether a closer review is needed to identify the characteristics of AI writing.

    • 0%–20%: AI use is unlikely.

    • 21%–50%: AI use is likely in highlighted sections if general characteristics of AI writing are present.

    • 51%–100%: AI use is very likely in highlighted sections if general characteristics of AI writing are present.

  • General Characteristics of AI Writing should be verified in the student’s submission if the AI Score is high. Further explanations for these can be found in the video.

    1. Disconnected from class content: The submission lacks context and provides general information that lacks specificity.

    2. Provides no unique perspectives: The content lacks a distinct perspective and an absence of detailed facts.

    3. Inconsistent with student writing patterns: The writing style is inconsistent with the student’s other submissions. The content is general in nature and often lacks a conservative Christian point of view.

    4. Repeats words and phrases: Overuse of certain phrases or specific vocabulary.

    5. Format and Structure: Students will naturally write in varied sentence structure throughout a submission. Look for overly uniform writing with little variation.

    6. Perfection: AI-generated writing is generally flawless in grammar and spelling but does not follow natural language flow. It can often feel static and inauthentic.

Last updated: April 2024 This information on Turnitin and characteristics of AI writing are based on the current state of AI text generation. AI text generation and tools for detecting AI writing continue to change and improve.

3. Report Failures

Contact the Student to provide an opportunity for confession or clarification. False positives or misunderstandings are possible. If you need help, Student Life can provide insight into specific situations. Once the student responds, or if they do not respond within a few days, complete the remaining steps below.

Determine Grading Ramifications for the specific assignment and the class. Depending on the nature and severity of the failure, you may determine to reduce points on the assignment(s), provide a zero for the assignment, or provide a failing grade for the class.

Always Report Instances of Academic Integrity Failure to Southern Seminary Student Life or Boyce College Student Life so that disciplinary policies can be carried out when appropriate and repeated offenses can be tracked. Include evidence of the failure, the history of communication, and the grading ramifications you have determined. Student Life is available throughout the entire process to assist you as needed.