Course Design Recommendations

Reminder: These ideas are not in any way intended to be prescriptive – these are simply suggestions from our peers for ideas that have shown promise or worked for them. We acknowledge that there is no quick fix, and that upholding academic integrity takes effort.

Be clear about purpose of each assessment

• Explaining to students why you’ve implemented an assessment helps them to understand the value of that assessment for their own learning. For example, explain that quizzes help them stay on top of material and focus on the basic, foundational concepts and vocabulary. Explain that they will need to have a solid understanding of these concepts to succeed on the higher-stakes exam or final project because it will require them to integrate their learning across topics, think critically, and apply knowledge.
  • If you’re using Brightspace quizzes to help students solidify their understanding of basic concepts, consider providing automated explanatory feedback for each answer depending on a student’s response. This method of explanation helps to reinforce the intention of using these quizzes as a learning tool.

Include an academic integrity module at the beginning of your class

• Consider directing students to the Dalhousie Academic Integrity Module. This module is recommended to be completed by all incoming students and remains available for reference for the duration of a student’s academic career.
  • Students can self-register for the module on the Writing Centre’s webpage.
  • Reminder: students at all levels may need reminders about academic integrity-related considerations. Consider referring students back to the module each year and/or providing additional materials about academic integrity in your syllabus, course materials, or Brightspace course site.
     
• Explain what you expect of students for each assessment–what is meant by “open book,” “discussing ideas with others,” “individual submissions,” and so on. It’s important to communicate intention and expectations, especially since those expectations could vary across courses.
  
  
• If you’re concerned about students inappropriately using “homework” websites like CHEGG, explicitly explain that the use of these sites is prohibited in your course and that those caught using them will be penalized. You might consider discussing the idea that we learn by doing.
  
  
• If you’re concerned about students using generative artificial intelligence for course work, talk with students about gen A.I. (what students can and can’t use it for, how to use it appropriately, etc.). Read Dalhousie's Guiding Principles with respect to A.I.-driven tools for course delivery or learn more on the CLT’s GenA.I. in Teaching and Learning resource.

Carefully consider the grade breakdown in your course

• Use of higher-stakes assessments (assessments worth a large percentage of the final grade) puts pressure on students to do well and may lead to integrity issues. A combination of transparency and balanced grade distribution (e.g., multiple, lower-stakes assessments) may help students to understand the value in completing course assessments without relying on their classmates or the internet for the solutions.
  • Instructors may consider explicitly providing context for students who sometimes have difficulty putting individual assessment grades into perspective.
    • Example: “This assessment is worth 3% of your final grade. Therefore, receiving a D on this assessment will not have a major impact on your final grade as a whole – 50% on a 3% assessment would only bring your grade down by 1.5% (leaving 98.5% remaining).”
  • In addition to providing context, be mindful that instructors and students may disagree on the definition of “high stakes.” This may be more prevalent in programs that feed into post-graduate programs that rely heavily on GPA standings.
    
    
• Consider decreasing the value of assessments that are more vulnerable to cheating/integrity issues (e.g., online, non-proctored, multiple-choice exams) and increasing the value of assessments more resistant to cheating (e.g., student presentation).
  
  
• Balance time/effort and value of an assessment. If an assessment takes a lot of time and a lot of effort but is worth relatively little, there may be more incentive to consider cheating. If the value of the assessment is for student learning, instructors may choose to remove grade value altogether and emphasize benefit to students in terms of learning (e.g., homework is available to students -– does not contribute to their final grade but will likely improve performance on other assessments).
  
  
• If you are using multiple, lower-stakes assessments, you may worry that the marking load will increase substantially. While time spent recording marks may increase a little, you can use marking methods such as peer review, assessing for completion rather than quality, providing global feedback, and so on.

Provide timely feedback

• Students need to understand how to succeed or improve in a course. Provide timely and constructive feedback so students receive the information/tools they need to improve.
  • If providing individual, timely feedback is challenging, consider providing feedback to the class based on common mistakes/errors.
  • It is also useful to keep in mind that ungraded quizzes and practice problems that are automatically graded but don’t count, are additional ways in which students can receive feedback before an actual quiz or exam. This serves as practice, but also alerts students to where they may need more help or study, and can help reduce anxiety about quizzes / exams, as well as reducing the sense of a need to cheat.

Set the tone in the syllabus

• Providing clear, firm, but friendly information in your course syllabus can be helpful for ensuring students know the rules/expectations, but also encourages them to come to you or the course TA before turning to “outside” help. University services such as the Writing Centre and Studying for Success staff members are trained to teach students and not do the work for the students. Consider adding these services to your course information for students.
  
  
• Explicitly invite students’ questions and/or direct students to come to you/TA for help if they’re struggling or confused.
  
  
• Consider incentivizing desired behaviour (e.g., bonus points for early submission).
  

Consider offering students choice

• Allowing students some autonomy over the weighting of grades can help to reduce some of the incentive to cheat as it allows students the chance to earn a grade that they may consider is more reflective of their abilities.
  • For example: offering a range or an either-or option and allowing students to weigh in on how each assessment will factor into their final course grade.
     
• Offer choice in the format of the assessment – for example, consider allowing students to complete a book review in the style of a podcast, short video, review paper, and so on.
  
  
• Providing choice also contributes to creating assessments that fit within the framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which contributes to a more open access to learning for all students.