Do you know what happens if a student has someone write an assessment for them? Or if they use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to generate a fake reference?

The information available on this page is from our 2024 Academic Integrity Awareness Campaign.

Deakin’s Student Academic Integrity Procedure outlines the different Outcomes for Student Breaches of Academic Integrity in the Schedule A Document. There are a range of breach types with varying outcomes. We understand that there is lots of information about academic integrity allegation breach types, however it can be difficult to know how these work in practice.

DUSA’s 2024 campaign focused on educating students about the standard outcomes that are received if a student is found to have a substantiated allegation.

The campaign had two main elements:

Element 1: ‘What happens if…’ on-campus and online activity

DUSA’s Student Advocacy and Support Service team ran an on-campus activity for Deakin students at Burwood, Waurn Ponds, Waterfront and Warrnambool campuses in late August – early September 2024.

DUSA Advocates presented students with a corflute containing brief descriptions of two academic integrity breach behaviours and asked, ‘What happens if…?’ and students selected an outcome for each behaviour from a range of options.

There were six descriptions of breach behaviours presented to students across three corflutes: What happens if…

Kat inappropriately uses generative artificial intelligence to write their assessment for them?
Jay copies another student’s assessment?
Sam has someone else write their assessment for them?
Jo uses generative artificial intelligence to generate a fake reference for their assessment?
Lee buys their assessment answers online?
Jaz uses generative artificial intelligence to paraphrase their assessment?

Students could select the following outcomes as response options:

No consequence
Zero for assessment
Exclusion for 1 year
Warning
Zero for unit
Permanent exclusion
Zero for copied sections
Suspension for 1 trimester
Other

A total of 852 students participated in the activity. 555 students completed the on-campus activity and 302 students completed an online version of the activity.

What did we observe?

Participants thought that students who use GenAI to write their assignment receive less severe outcomes than Deakin’s Standard Outcome.

70% of students through the standard outcome was more lenient than it is (ie warning / 0 for copied sections, or 0 for assessment).
19% said the standard outcome (0 for the unit).
11% of students said a more severe outcome (suspension or exclusion).

Participants thought the outcome for contract cheating would be more severe if an assessment is purchased than if an assessment is obtained in another way.

For the Scenario ‘Sam has someone else write their assessment’:

51% of students selected a more lenient outcome (ie warning / 0 for copied sections, or 0 for assessment).
32% of students selected the standard outcome (0 for the unit).
17% of students selected a more severe outcome (suspension or exclusion).

For the Scenario ‘Lee buys their assessment answers online’:

30% of students selected a more lenient outcome (ie warning / 0 for copied sections, or 0 for assessment).
41% of students selected the standard outcome (0 for the unit).
29% of students selected a more severe outcome (suspension or exclusion).

The above scenarios are all considered contract cheating, and all have the same standard outcome for 0 for the unit for first substantiated breach.

What do students think about the standard outcomes?

After the activation, students could participate in an optional survey.

Of the 140 students who responded:

90% indicated the outcomes are fair
7% indicated the outcomes are too harsh
3% indicated the outcomes are too lenient

Element 2: Reels of interviews with Deakin students shared on social media and Cloud Deakin.

DUSA Student Council Vice-Presidents, Paul and Kate, filmed a series of brief interviews with Deakin students at Burwood campus on the topic of academic integrity. The interview reels can be accessed via the DUSA YouTube channel.

So…where to from here?

We hope to continue raising awareness about academic integrity. It is important that students understand:

What constitutes ethical use of Generative AI.
How contract cheating has many faces (including using GenAI unethically, purchasing assessment answers online, having someone else write your assignment) but receives the same Standard Outcome.

Deakin has many resources that students can access regarding Academic Integrity:

Deakin’s Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure, Language and Learning Advisers, The Deakin Guide to Referencing, Writing Mentors, Maths Mentors and the Deakin Library Librarians – just to name a few!

If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to us and we can help point you in the right direction!

What happens if...?