A Comprehensive Guide to Ensuring Academic Integrity in the Implementation of Imagine Edgenuity

Introduction

Maintaining academic integrity is crucial in today's educational landscape. This guide explores effective strategies to address the prevalence of cheating and promote honesty within the implementation of Imagine Edgenuity. Educators can ensure a culture of academic integrity by articulating expectations, establishing an honor code, setting consequences, fostering a positive peer culture, and utilizing digital tools. 

Understanding the Prevalence of Cheating

Research conducted by the International Center for Academic Integrity highlights the alarming prevalence of cheating in American schools. According to their survey, approximately 67% of high school students admitted to cheating on a test, while 58% admitted plagiarism (International Center for Academic Integrity, 2022). These statistics emphasize the need to address the issue of cheating effectively.

What is ‘Edgenuity’?

Edgenuity, an exceptional online learning platform, is dedicated to providing high-quality e-learning experiences that foster student success. In today's technologically advanced world, where academic dishonesty poses a significant challenge, Edgenuity has emerged as an invaluable tool for educational institutions.

Promoting Academic Integrity

Edgenuity empowers students to reach their full potential by promoting collaboration between students and teachers. The platform offers effective solutions that enable instructors to easily manage their programs. By leveraging the features of Edgenuity, students can personalize their learning experiences, ensuring a worry-free academic journey.

Understanding How Edgenuity Works

Edgenuity incorporates numerous settings that facilitate effective exam proctoring. These settings enable teachers to detect cheating and prevent external assistance during assessments. Moreover, the platform allows teachers to manage courses across entire districts, allowing them to filter courses based on grade level, enrollment numbers, and subjects. Edgenuity also empowers teachers to track student progress within courses, enhancing their ability to provide personalized support.

The Role of Edgenuity in Ensuring Academic Integrity

Edgenuity has emerged as a trusted e-learning tool, offering exemplary instructional services to educators worldwide. The platform provides supplementary solutions that significantly benefit middle and high school environments. With a focus on motivating and educating students in a friendly manner, Edgenuity allows instructors to customize the curriculum to meet student's diverse needs, including credit recovery, electives, advanced placements, and core curriculum.

Detecting and Preventing Cheating with Edgenuity

Edgenuity incorporates advanced anti-cheating features, making it one of the best online course tools to deter and detect cheating during exams. Through proctoring settings, teachers can effectively monitor students and identify any signs of academic misconduct. Additionally, the platform employs proctoring software when necessary to enhance exam security.

Methods Employed by Edgenuity to Detect Cheating

Edgenuity employs various methods to detect cheating effectively:

IP Restriction:

Educators can implement an IP registry, ensuring students register their IP addresses before taking assessments. This helps teachers identify instances where students are not located in the designated testing area, raising red flags for potential cheating.

Honor Codes:

Edgenuity integrates honor codes as a prevalent method to discourage cheating. Students sign an honor code as a personal commitment to academic integrity, although this approach may not deter students who initially intended to cheat.

Keystroke Verification:

Edgenuity utilizes keystroke verification software, which analyzes students' typing patterns during exams. The platform can identify potential cheating if inconsistencies are detected by comparing the submitted text with the recorded typing pattern.

Preventing Plagiarism: 

Edgenuity actively checks the originality of student work to detect and prevent plagiarism. The platform incorporates plagiarism detection tools to ensure that any form of copying or paraphrasing from external sources does not go unnoticed. Edgenuity takes appropriate actions when plagiarism is identified, ranging from disciplinary measures such as suspension to course removal and failing grades.

Additional Measures Taken by Edgenuity

Edgenuity goes the extra mile in maintaining exam credibility and integrity. The platform is designed to detect when students abandon the exam tab to open other browser tabs, thereby minimizing opportunities for external information gathering. Additionally, Edgenuity can record students' activities and audio during exams, ensuring a comprehensive assessment process.

Teacher's Perspective on Edgenuity

Teachers can access different stages of student work, including prewriting, raw manuscripts, revisions, progress reports, scores, and classroom engagement. Edgenuity facilitates a seamless learning experience, enabling teachers to monitor student progress, provide feedback, and support their academic growth effectively.

Utilize Digital Tools

Imagine Edgenuity provides various digital tools that can support academic integrity efforts. Teacher reviews for assessments, analyzing completion time and scores, and implementing plagiarism checkers can help identify potential instances of cheating. Additionally, features such as an IP registry, lockdown browser experiences, and attendance reports with speed radar can reinforce the importance of academic integrity within the online learning environment.

Conclusion

Upholding academic integrity is a collective effort involving educators, administrators, and students. By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, schools can create an environment where academic honesty is valued, enabling students to grow ethically and promoting a culture of integrity within the implementation of Imagine Edgenuity.

Edgenuity's innovative features and commitment to academic integrity make it a valuable tool in online learning. The platform empowers students and teachers by offering personalized learning experiences, comprehensive proctoring measures, and effective plagiarism detection. With Edgenuity, educational institutions can foster a culture of academic honesty and ensure students' success in their educational journey.

SUGGESTED READINGS: 

"Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do About It" by Donald L. McCabe, Kenneth D. Butterfield, and Linda K. Trevino

"Defending the Integrity of Online Exams: Proctoring Options in Higher Education" by Kelly A. Hanley, Christine M. Frazer, and Aaron J. Bond

"Digital Citizenship in Schools: Nine Elements All Students Should Know" by Mike Ribble and Gerald D. Bailey

"Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Education" by Mary Thorson and Belinda Davis Lazarus

"Preventing Cheating and Plagiarism in Online Courses" by Stephanie J. Blackmon and Rob Kelly

LIST OF REFERENCES: 

1. International Center for Academic Integrity. (2017). Statistics. Retrieved from https://academicintegrity.org/resources/facts-and-statistics?highlight=WyJzdGF0aXN0aWNzIl0=
2. Ma, H., Lu, Y., Turner, S., & Wan, G. (2007). An empirical investigation of digital cheating and plagiarism among middle school students. American Secondary Education, 35(2), 69–82.
3. McCabe, D., & Trevino, L. (1993). Academic dishonesty: Honor codes and other contextual influences. The Journal of Higher Education, 64(5), 552–538.
4. McCabe, D., Trevino, L., & Butterfield, K. (2001). Cheating in academic institutions: A decade of research, Ethics & Behavior, 11(3), 219–232.
5. McCabe, D., Trevino, L., & Butterfield, K. (2002). Honour codes and other contextual influences on academic integrity: A replication and extension to modified honour code settings. Research in Higher Education, 43(3), 357–378.
6. Stuber-McEwen, D., Winseley, P., & Hoggatt, S. (2009). The point, click, and cheat: Frequency and type of academic dishonesty in the virtual classroom. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 12(3).