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Academic Misconduct Epidemic in Pandemic: Institutional Academic Integrity Promotion in Online Education

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Abstract

This research study explores academic integrity practices in higher education institutions in Türkiye during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a primary focus on online education. The study involves English language instructors and lecturers as participants. Data were collected through a survey comprising 24 semi-structured and open-ended questions, aiming to understand participants’ perceptions of academic misconduct, associated sanctions, and actions promoting academic integrity. Demographic information about the 29 participants from different universities in Türkiye was also gathered, with 65.5% being female and 34.5% male, and an average teaching experience of 9.5 years. The findings reveal significant insights into academic integrity practices, including common types of misconduct, challenges in evaluating language skills online, and an increase in cheating tendencies. Based on the results, the study recommends the implementation of institutional-level initiatives to promote academic integrity in online education, emphasizing the importance of effective policies to uphold a fair and honest learning environment.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Hatice Sezgin contributed to this study by providing feedback relevant to the content of the questionnaire.

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Türkiye

    Nalan Erçin Kamburoğlu

  2. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Türkiye

    Salim Razı

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  1. Nalan Erçin Kamburoğlu
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  2. Salim Razı
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Nalan Erçin, Salim Razı and Hatice Sezgin; Methodology: Nalan Erçin and Salim Razı; Formal analysis and investigation: Nalan Erçin and Salim Razı; Writing - original draft preparation: Nalan Erçin and Salim Razı; Writing - review and editing: Nalan Erçin and Salim Razı; Resources: Nalan Erçin and Salim Razı; Supervision: Salim Razı. NE and SR designed the study. NE and SR prepared materials. NE collected the data. NE and SR analyzed the data. Paper written by NE; reviewed, revised and finalized by SR.  This study is a part of the first author’s PhD dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Türkiye which was supervised by the co-author. Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Nalan Erçin and Salim Razı. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Nalan Erçin and both authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nalan Erçin Kamburoğlu.

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Ethics Approval

Ethical approval was obtained from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Ethics Committee. The date of this ethical approval is 01.07.2021 and the issue number is E-84026528-050.01.04-2100097686.

Consent

Qualitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire and all participants provided written informed consent prior to their participation in the study. Quantitative data were collected by means of focus group interviews and informed consent was obtained verbally before participation. The consent was audio-recorded in the presence of an independent witness.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Also, the authors confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.

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Erçin Kamburoğlu, N., Razı, S. Academic Misconduct Epidemic in Pandemic: Institutional Academic Integrity Promotion in Online Education. J Acad Ethics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-024-09534-7

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