Evaluating academic integrity and outreach efforts: changes in perceptions over a three-year period

This study had two purposes: to determine whether academic integrity outreach efforts at a large, comprehensive public research institution were positively impacting the campus community and to explore academic integrity outreach frameworks in an effort to inform best practices. The study was significant because limited data were available about whether suggested campus outreach models produce positive results in terms of reducing academic dishonesty. A thorough examination of existing literature revealed only one similar study, conducted at a small, East Coast liberal arts school; however, the research design of this study differed in important ways. These were as follows: this study surveyed students and faculty at a large public research university in the SACS accrediting region; it did not use “forced- choice” options when seeking data from participants to prevent bias; and the use of open-ended questions informed the researcher as to why participants perceived certain actions should occur.

The population for this study was all university students and faculty. The sample consisted of faculty and students enrolled between 2004 and 2007, classified sophomore through senior, at a large public research institution located in the southwestern United States and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). This study approached its research from a post-positivist perspective, using ANOVA and Pearson’s chi- square as the primary quantitative research design tools. Two open-ended questions informed the researcher and were analyzed using open-coding based upon grounded theory.

Data were collected from 4,345 student and faculty participants. Two ANOVAs produced significant results: (a) the average student’s understanding of university policies concerning cheating and (b) the average faculty member’s understanding of university policies concerning cheating. The dependent variables were the academic integrity perceptions of students and faculty (survey questions) and the independent variable was the survey year. The Pearson’s chi-square analysis also produced a significant result, indicating that student participants in 2007 were 1.5 times more likely to have been informed about academic integrity than were their peers who had completed the survey in 2004.

In addition, analysis of the first open-ended question (what outreach efforts were perceived to already be taking place) yielded 544 valid and useable returns. From those, 956 responses were generated, resulting in 119 unique answer codes. The second openended question (what outreach efforts should be used) resulted in 532 valid and useable returns. There were 1,002 responses within those returns, which resulted in 166 unique answer codes. Codes were subsequently combined into 18 categories and later narrowed into eight themes. Those eight themes were further analyzed, culminating in a proposed academic integrity outreach model that institutions and future researchers may explore.