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A colleague of mine recently sent me a Chronicle article titled “Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: a Question of Education, not Ethics.”  (Link to Blum’s article: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i24/24a03501.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en)

All and all, the meat of the article didn’t say much more than we know to be true, but author Susan Blum’s closing statement really resonated with me.  Blum writes “Treating academic integrity as a constellation of skills, taught largely through the long apprenticeship of higher education, is the most promising approach for getting students to follow the rules of academic citation, and the one with the least likelihood of providing a shortcut. That means teaching students what academic integrity involves, why professors value it, and how exactly to carry it out.”

It made me wonder, do we (Capella) receive passing marks when it comes to teaching our learners what academic integrity entails?  Do we value academic integrity?  And if we do, do you (the learner) understand why we do?  As established scholar-practitioners, are we modeling this behavior explicitly for you to understand why you too should embrace the value?  I’m not necessarily talking about just citing infractions of wrongdoing or just plagiarism.  Rather, as I’ve stated previously on the power of failing; if a college or university is to be a safe environment for a learner to fail, to make mistakes, are we providing that same safe environment to learn from academic integrity infractions?   Are we engaging the opportunity to further discuss the value or simply engaging the dialogue as a “crime”?

Is it really a question of education, not ethics?  And let me elaborate on that, as a learner, you play a critical role in this dialogue.  How should Capella handle academic integrity infractions?  Reading Blum’s article, do you agree with her recommendations for colleges (and universities)?

Do you value academic integrity?