With technology use in the classroom increasing, the focus on academic integrity in online environments has never been greater. Though much of what educators have done in the past also applies with online learning, there are additional things you can do to help ensure academic integrity.
Ensuring academic integrity is a concern for all educators, regardless of how students complete their learning. Unique challenges are presented, however, when students use devices to complete some or all of their learning. Fortunately, technology also affords educators and administrators the ability to set up automatic alerts, checks, and systems so students complete their assigned schoolwork honestly.
Edgenuity is pleased to continue this ongoing commitment and support to educators, administrators, and our district customers through our enhanced Plagiarism Checker that will be embedded into Edgenuity Courseware. This is the only version accessible in an online curriculum. This new academic support feature is designed to support teachers in their pursuit of rigorous academic instruction while helping students maintain honesty, truth, and accountability as they strive for academic success.
Edgenuity has also partnered with Brainly for both our Courseware and Odysseyware offerings. This allows customers a dedicated email support ability to communicate concerns quickly, and effectively route concerns to help students use Edgenuity courses in the proper manner.
The best first step any educator or school should take is establishing an honor code. Cheating is sometimes the result of students not understanding what is and isn’t acceptable, and simply explaining what constitutes cheating (plagiarism in particular) can make a significant difference. Effective honor codes make clear that the work students submit must be their own, and they have completed it using the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired over time.
Additionally, setting real consequences for breaking the honor code is a good way to help students understand the severity of doing so. Consider creating a contract for students and families to sign that clearly lays out online learning expectations and consequences for not meeting them so everyone understands what students need to do to be successful in their coursework.
When activated, IP Registry can block students from accessing assessments from home—or block students from accessing Edgenuity from outside the school network at all. If the system bypasses an assessment for a student working at home, the student will automatically be presented with that assessment when he or she returns to school.
To enable IP Registry, school IT staff can simply enter the IP addresses (or ranges) of the firewall or edge router that represents their network’s gateway to the internet. Exceptions can be added for individual students as needed, including those who are homebound.
Schools and districts can also implement Edgenuity’s SecureLock Browser Experience to help ensure academic integrity in online learning. The SecureLock Browser Experience will prevent students from opening new tabs, browsers, and programs while they’re working in Edgenuity.
The SecureLock Browser Experience leverages your district’s existing Active Directory or Google Admin setup to create a single Edgenuity profile that students must use to access their coursework. For no additional cost, the SecureLock Browser Experience is easy to setup and maintain, and is a great option for schools and districts to go even further in establishing academic integrity in online learning.
In addition to turning in honest and complete work, students should know the day-to-day expectations of them so they can be successful online learners.
To start, make sure all of your students know the following:
At a minimum, make sure to clearly define attendance policies and set target dates so each student’s Course Map will display the correct due date for each activity. It’s important for students to understand their school responsibilities, especially if they work from home without daily, face-to-face interaction with a teacher or mentor.