Student mandatory training

As of September 2021, all new undergraduate students arriving at uOttawa need to take a mandatory Academic integrity training that aims to help new students understand the University’s culture of academic integrity and work with integrity. One benefit of this mandatory training is that the students cannot later claim that they did not know about academic misconduct, or how academic integrity is enforced at uOttawa.

Recommended reading

We encourage you to read Academic Regulation A-4 – Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct and resources for:

• professors,
• students, and
• researchers.

Recognize cheating opportunities

• using digital devices to store and access notes, information or formulas to be used during an exam,
• using an exam booklet obtained before the exam that contains notes, information or formulas,
• copying from a book left open on the ground or in a backpack left within sight,
• copying off another student,
• not following instructions given for the examination process,
• uploading home assignments or exam questions to websites like Chegg.com and getting tutors to provide solutions within 15-20 minutes,
• uploading home assignments or exam questions to websites like ChatGPT and getting personalized solutions immediately, with virtually no chance that a plagiarism detection software could detect anything.

Frequently-asked questions regarding AI and academic integrity

To mitigate risks of academic misconduct during exams, the only solution currently possible at large scale consists in conducting exams in person. Exceptions for online exams may be granted, but will require an authorization from the Vice-Dean Student Affairs.

Finally, regardless of the mode of delivery of an exam (in person or otherwise), some students memorize questions, or may take screenshots of exam questions, and may share them later to work out the solutions. In other words, professors must be aware that, should they re-use exam material that is repeated from one year to the next, a portion of students might have studied the solution keys and have an unfair advantage.

Plagiarism detection software

If relevant to the type of evaluation that you give students, you can use Ouriginal in BrightSpace to check students’ work against the existing literature and/or previous student works. Again, please be aware that material created by ChatGPT or the likes is likely to evade detection.