NURSING FACULTY AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. Dr. Cecilia Elaine Wilson, Associate Clinical Professor, Nursing

Transcription

1 NURSING FACULTY AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Dr. Cecilia Elaine Wilson, Associate Clinical Professor, Nursing

2 BACKGROUND & CONTEXT Technology, Simulation, Virtual hospitals Academic dishonesty in college exists! (McCabe,1992 and Anderson & Obenshain, 1994) Prevalence of cheating, the ways students cheat, and influential factors on the cheating behaviors Strategies to promote AI Traditional face-to-face course room Modifications for online Technological tools

3 PROBLEM & QUESTIONS THAT LED TO MY RESEARCH Maintaining Academic Integrity (AI) Issue in Traditional & Online environments Faculty Responsibility when assessing student achievements C. Rogers (2006): Majority of surveyed faculty agreed important, but inconsistency discovered with implementation of the process in an online environment Testing Strategies & Technological Tools Dietz-Uhler & Hurn (2011); Hart & Morgan (2009); Kritzinger and Von Solms (2009); Tippitt et al. (2009); Teo (2009) Provide more secure online testing environment Acceptance and appropriate implementation Important in maintaining AI Key to success or failure of strategy or tool Insufficient Information Regarding nursing faculty decision-making process Specifically in area of maintaining AI in an online environment

4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Everett Rogers s Diffusion of Innovations Theory (1995) Manner in which new ideas are dispersed among a group of people The use of new strategies and technological tools Preventative innovations Communication process leading to adoption and use of preventative innovations

5 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY explore the experiences and decision-making process of nursing faculty related to maintaining academic integrity in an online environment Specifically, the manner in which the ideas were diffused during the decision-making process of nursing faculty when making choices in maintaining academic integrity the use of strategies and technological tools

6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS Primary research question: How do nursing faculty members describe their experiences with maintaining academic integrity in an online learning environment? Sub-question 1. What strategies have nursing faculty members used to maintain academic integrity with an online examination or assignment? Sub-question 2. How do nursing faculty members describe their experiences in utilizing technological tools to maintain academic integrity with an online examination or assignment? Sub-question 3. How do nursing faculty members decide which strategies and technological tools to use or reject?

7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Walton (2001) and Corll (2007: -ability to assess correctly a student s achievements -potential for harm. protecting the public most trusted professions perseverance of integrity description of nursing faculty members decision-making process involving the maintenance of academic integrity complement and add another dimension to previous research development of policies identify areas for improvement

8 KEY POWERFUL POINTS FROM THE RESEARCH Society expects the profession of nursing to be trustworthy and honest (J. Jones, 2010). McCabe s (2009) research study revealed nursing students were no different from their non-nursing peers in relation to engaging in dishonest behaviors. Academic dishonesty translated into professional practice would mean if a nursing student were dishonest on an exam and the expected learning did not occur, the learning deficit could become an issue of life or death for their patients (Bavier, 2009; Gaberson, 1997; McCabe, 2009; Ridenour, 2007).

9 AN OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE vast area in the literature accountability and ethics Web-based and online courses development of technologies prevention and detection prevalence and issues faculty use of the available technologies

10 THE NEED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH limited in the area of academic honesty in the online environment research related to faculty further limited the online environment remains an open area changing paradigm of online education for nursing deficit of information

11 METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN A basic qualitative research design A systematic design approach gap in the literature exploring how the diffusion of ideas during the decision-making process influences choices nursing faculty make in carrying out activities to maintain academic integrity, specifically in an online environment. description of the process themes and patterns

12 Target Population: Nursing Faculty Homogenous purposeful sampling technique Current employment at the selected School of Nursing, AND Participated in teaching in an online environment in one or more of the following ways: SAMPLE traditional face-toface course in which a portion of the examinations or assignments were online hybrid online course course administered one hundred percent online

13 DATA COLLECTION DATA COLLECTION: Twelve open-ended survey questionnaires seven focus group interviews Saturation Member checking Reliability of the interpretation of data

14 DATA ANALYSIS ANALYSIS: audio-taped interviews online surveys Constant comparative analysis

15 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS Primary Research Question How do nursing faculty members describe their experiences with maintaining academic integrity in an online learning environment? issues of integrity experiences involving technology emotive & philosophical viewpoints examinations, discussion boards, written assignments, faculty integrity, & policy changes

16 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS Sub-Question 1 What strategies have nursing faculty members used to maintain academic integrity with an online examination or assignment? strategies for online examinations strategies for online assignments design of exam administration of exam prevent & detect plagiarism design of assignments

17 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS Sub-Question 2 How do nursing faculty members describe their experiences in utilizing technological tools to maintain academic integrity with an online examination or assignment? plagiarism detection software platform tools non-platform technological tools no experience assessment options other available options such as Wikis

18 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS Sub-Question 3 How do nursing faculty members decide which strategies and technological tools to use or reject? perceptions of use and functionality existing state of affairs perceived responsibility past experiences channels of communication ease problems availability trust in platform options mistrust trial & error faculty educational evaluation

19 RELATIONSHIP OF FINDINGS AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Everett Rogers s Diffusion of Innovations Theory (1995) time to adopt acquisition of new skills knowledge deficit lacking the training and skills necessary for successful implementation influences and decisions of other members of the system Observations, word of mouth, and experiences of others the perceived level of advantage and the complexity of the innovation perceptions of ease of use and functionality Uncertainty discomfort, frustration, and mistrust

20 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY description of the process, not a theory faculty from the selected school institution to institution from state to state disciplines employed at the same institution as the participants not all faculty members primarily of women

21 IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE education training support address issues involving the school s selected platform description nursing faculty members decision-making process complement and add another dimension development of policies help identify areas for improvement

22 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE STUDY different types of programs other geographic locations online university expanding the sample demographics potential faculty integrity issues unexpected findings encouraging academic dishonesty no experience reasons and potential solutions

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25 REFERENCES Anderson, R. & Obenshain, S. (1994). Cheating by students: Findings, reflections, and remedies. Academic Medicine, 69(5), Baron, J. & Crooks, S. (2005). Academic integrity in web based distance education. Tech Trends, 49(2), Bavier, A. R. (2009). Guest editorial. Holding students accountable when integrity is challenged. Nursing Education Perspectives, 30(1), 5-5. Cordova, J. & Thornhill, P. (2007). Academic honesty and electronic assessment: tools to prevent students from cheating online-tutorial presentation. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 22(5), Corll, V. (2007). Cheating, plagiarizing, and false excuse making: A study in student ethics. Ph.D. dissertation, Capella University, United States, Minnesota. Retrieved March 11, 2010, from Dissertations & Capella. (Publication No. AAT ). Cuellar, N. (2002). The transition from classroom to online teaching. Nursing Forum, 37(3), doi: /j tb01005.x Dietz-Uhler, B. & Hurn, J. (2011). Academic dishonesty in online courses. Proceedings of the Association of Small Computer Users in Education, 44, Retrieved from Ercegovac, Z., & Richardson, J. (2004). Academic dishonesty, plagiarism included, in the digital age: A literature review. College & Research Libraries, 65(4),

26 REFERENCES Gaberson, K. (1997). Academic dishonesty among nursing students. Nursing Forum, 32(3), Harmon, O., & Lambrinos, J. (2008). Are online exams an invitation to cheat? The Journal of Economic Education, 39(2), doi: /JECE Hart, L., & Morgan, L. (2009). Strategies for online test security. Nurse Educator, 34(6), doi: /NNE.0b013e3181bc743b Jones, J. (2010). Nurses top honesty and ethics list for 11th year. Gallup, Inc. Retrieved from Honesty- Ethics-List-11-Year.aspx Jones, K., Reid, J., & Bartlett, R. (2006). E-learning and e-cheating. 3rd E-Learning Conference, Coimbra, Portugal. Retrieved from Jung, I., & Yeom, H. (2009). Enhanced security for online exams. Using group cryptography, IEEE Transactions on Education, 52(3), doi: /TE

27 REFERENCES Kritzinger, E. & Von Solms, S. (2009). Information security in an e-learning environment. In M. Gupta, & Sharman, R. (Eds.), Handbook of research on social and organizational liabilities in information security (pp ). doi: / ch021 McCabe, D. (1992). The influence of situational ethics on cheating among college students. Sociological Inquiry, 62(3), McCabe, D. (2009). Academic dishonesty in nursing schools: An empirical investigation. Journal of Nursing Education, 48(11), doi: / Patnaude, K. (2008). Faculty perceptions regarding the extent to which the online course environment affects academic honesty. University of Houston. Proquest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from Ridenour, J. (2007). Cheating is profoundly unfair to patients. Arizona State Board of Nursing Regulatory Journal, 2(1), 4-5. Retrieved from %20May% pdf Rogers, C. (2006). Faculty perceptions about e-cheating during online testing. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 22(2), Rogers, E. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

28 REFERENCES Stuber-McEwan, D., Wiseley, P., Hoggatt, S.(2009). Point, click, and cheat: Frequency and type of academic dishonesty in the virtual classroom. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 12(3). Retrieved from Tallent-Runnels, M., Thomas, J., Lan, W., Cooper, S. Ahern, T., Shaw, S. et al. (2006). Teaching courses online: A review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 76(1), doi: / Teo, T. (2009). Modeling technology acceptance in education: A study of pre-service teachers. Computers & Education, 52(2), doi: /j.compedu Tippitt, M., Ard, N., Kline, J., Tilghman, J., Chamberlain, B., & Meagher, P. (2009). Creating environments that foster academic integrity. Nursing Education Perspectives, 30(4), doi: / Walton, C. (2001). An investigation of academic dishonesty among undergraduates at Kansas State University. Dissertation, Kansas State University. Retrieved from