POLICY VIOLATIONS Consider the following situations, and decide whether or not an academic integrity violation has occurred.

1. Student A collaborates with Student B on a nursing cohort assignment. Student A takes Student B’s assignment and uses it as her own for another class. Student B did not authorize Student A to use the assignments.

Answer: Yes, a violation has occurred. Both students are in violation for collaborating on an assignment without express permission from the instructor. Student B is also in violation of the Code of Conduct for cheating. The following policies would apply to one or both students:

• Collaborating in an unsanctioned manner – Students must work individually on homework, assignments and other assigned coursework, unless collaboration has been expressly permitted by the instructor. Students who collaborate without express permission of their instructor must inform the instructor of the nature of their collaboration.

• Cheating, attempting to cheat or assisting others to cheat, including dishonest activity or unauthorized use of any resource or materials in any academic exercise. • Presenting work that has been prepared by someone other than yourself, including the purchase or sharing of work.

2. A student buys a test bank booklet with all the answers to the course assignments. The student proceeds to sell the test bank and collect funds for the test bank.

Answer: The student is in violation of several policies by buying and distributing the test bank. At no time is it acceptable to buy a test bank for any reason. Doing so will result in university-level penalties. Here are the following violations:

• Cheating, attempting to cheat or assisting others to cheat – This also includes dishonest activity or unauthorized use of any resources or materials in any academic exercise.

• Unauthorized assistance – Using materials not authorized by the faculty member to complete an assignment, or completion of an assignment by someone other than the student, including, but not limited to, providing/receiving exam answers, using faculty materials, answer keys or solution manuals.

3. A student has taken COM-101 and has passed with a grade of “A.” The student is now taking ENG-106 and has a similar assignment to one he completed in COM- 101. He reuses one of his assignments and submits it as an assignment in ENG-106.

Answer: This is considered “self-plagiarism”. You cannot re-use any portions of a paper from another class and submit it for a current class. At GCU, our rule for submitting work you have already submitted is that the items can be submitted for the “same class, same assignment.” Please note, when you are retaking a class, it is best to notify the instructor that you are retaking the course and may be resubmitting assignments. However, if your assignment was plagiarized the first time, this will be caught by Turnitin and you are subject to penalties for plagiarism, regardless of whether you are repeating the course. In this case, the following policy would apply:

• Submitting work that has been prepared and used for a different course, wholly or in part, and without appropriate citation of the original work and prior approval of faculty.

4. A student has a finance course and is struggling with the math problems. The student finds the math problem with the answer on the Internet. In turn, the student copies and pastes the answers from the Internet in the assignment and turns it in as complete.

Answer: Yes, this is plagiarism. Also, depending on the type of source in which the student located the information, this infraction could also be considered unauthorized assistance, which includes the use of items such as instructor guides or solutions manuals. Policy violations may include:

• Plagiarizing, intentionally or unintentionally, the words, works or ideas of others without proper citation or acknowledgement and representing them as one’s own in any academic exercise.

• Paraphrasing sources which do not represent the student’s original words or ideas without proper citation or acknowledgement. • Using materials not authorized by the faculty member to complete an assignment, or completion of an assignment by someone other than the student,

including, but not limited to, providing/receiving exam answers, using faculty materials, answer keys or solution manuals.

5. A student writes a paper and receives a Turnitin rate of 97 percent, which links to oppapers.com. The student receives a zero for the assignment. The student feels they should receive maximum credit for the paper and feels the instructor is wrong for giving zero credit.

Answer: This is a policy violation; at no time is it okay to use an online term paper clearing house or other commercial websites distributing term papers. The following policies apply:

• Plagiarizing, intentionally or unintentionally, the words, works or ideas of others without proper citation or acknowledgement and representing them as one’s own in any academic exercise.

• Paraphrasing sources which do not represent the student’s original words or ideas without proper citation or acknowledgement. • Presenting work that has been prepared by someone other than yourself, including the purchase or sharing of work.

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POLICY VIOLATIONS 6. A student is struggling with their first assignment in a new course and looks for examples of the completed assignment online. A website is found which

allows the student to view assignments as long as they submit an old assignment of their own.

Answer: Students are not permitted to use other student’s work to complete an assignment. You should utilize other resources such as your instructor or the GCU Learning Lounge to help you complete the assignment. Also, submitting previous work to any paper selling website is a policy violation; specifically, the following would apply, assuming the website was used to complete the paper and submit a previous paper:

• Plagiarizing, intentionally or unintentionally, the words, works or ideas of others without proper citation or acknowledgement and representing them as one’s own in any academic exercise.

• Paraphrasing sources which do not represent the student’s original words or ideas without proper citation or acknowledgement. • Presenting work that has been prepared by someone other than yourself, including the purchase or sharing of work. • Selling or providing papers, essays, discussion questions, assignments or any part of the university curriculum to online term paper clearinghouses or other

commercial websites.