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New Academic Integrity micro-course launched

Thu Oct 28, 2021 at 07:31 PM

Over the course of 10 years, more than 33,300 participants enrolled in the Oakland University Libraries and Writing Center’s, “Using and Citing Sources,” which outlined how to attribute resources and avoid plagiarism. This year, OU Libraries and Writing Center overhauled the micro-course, now called “Academic Integrity in Research and Writing” to help students with proper citation and usage in their writing. Since the remodeled course launched in September, more than 2,000 participants have taken part in it. 

According to Amanda Nichols Hess, associate professor and coordinator of Instruction and Research Help in the OU Libraries, the libraries originally teamed up with the Writing Center in 2011 to create an online, micro-course that would allow participants to learn more about citations and using sources in writing, no matter their subject matter. 

“The institutional demand and use were clear to us, so it was definitely a resource that we wanted to maintain,” said Nichols Hess. “The Libraries regularly update the “Using and Citing Sources” micro-course, but we came to a point that both the content and the way the content was presented needed to be completely overhauled.”

The OU Libraries and Writing Center had two goals in mind for the redesigned course: Explain the concepts of academic integrity and plagiarism and what they mean to Oakland University and provide opportunities to learn how to use and cite sources properly. 

Participants self-enroll in the course, which is created in eSpace. The course takes about 45-60 minutes to complete, with a quiz at the end. If the participants take the quiz and earn at least an 80 percent, they receive a digital badge for their work. There are also credentials for completing the content on academic integrity, citation styles and community expectations around giving credit. 

The Academic Integrity course content includes: 

Part 1: Integrity in Research & Writing

  • Why academic integrity is important, and why we cite sources or give credit
  • What does, and doesn’t, constitute plagiarism 
  • The differences between paraphrasing, summarizing, and using direct quotes

Part 2: Giving Credit to Information Sources

  • Understanding academic integrity expectations in different communities
  • Figuring out what kind of source you need to cite 
  • Using a working bibliography to collect citation information while researching (including a downloadable Google Doc that students can use)

Part 3: Citation Styles

  • AMA Style
  • APA Style
  • Chicago Style 
  • MLA Style

Part 4: Learning Assessment

  • Instructional scaffolds for lower-division undergraduates, upper-division undergraduates, and graduate students
  • Supplementary content (e.g. videos, podcasts, other media) that can be used for teaching and learning

According to Nichols Hess, part of the redesign process included using more interactive and engaging elements, which was accomplished through H5P learning tools. 

For more information on the course or to sign up, visit the Academic Integrity in Research and Writing eSpace