What is academic integrity?
Academic integrity is when you act with the principles of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility when undertaking your studies and submitting course work for assessment.
What does this mean for me?
If you are taking a TASC course you are responsible for upholding academic integrity and its principles. This means that the work you submit is your own and where information from another source is used, it has been acknowledged correctly.
If you are undertaking a TASC course, it is expected that you:
- only participate in actions and behaviours that support academic integrity
- follow your school’s academic integrity policies and procedures
- submit a TASC Student Declaration Online Form
- comply with TASC’s External Assessment Policy and associated Rules.
What if I don’t act with academic integrity?
If you don’t act with academic integrity when undertaking your course work, this is academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty means you are being untruthful and that you are misrepresenting information you are using.
Your school can apply their consequences for breaches of academic integrity in relation to internal school assessments.
TASC investigates any potential breaches of academic integrity for external assessments before any consequences are applied. The investigation is completed by external markers and/or marking coordinators for the course involved. If academic dishonesty did occur, potential consequences include:
- issuing of a formal warning
- unreferenced material not being marked
- a cap on the maximum rating that can be achieved (for example, markers may be instructed to give no higher than a ‘C’ rating for each criterion)
- cancelling of all internal and external ratings for a course
- cancelling of all ratings for your TASC-accredited courses.
All instances of academic dishonesty are dealt with on a case-by-case basis and the above list is not an exhaustive list of all consequences.
Student declaration online form
Each year that you undertake a TASC course you must complete a Student Declaration. It is important that you read the linked information on academic integrity so that you understand what you are agreeing to, and that all material submitted for external assessment is your own (except for where the source of information, images, ideas or works is correctly referenced and acknowledged).
Actions that do not support academic integrity
Copying
Using the same (or similar) words, ideas or images from a source of information without appropriately referencing.
Collusion
Working with other people to undertake work that is meant to be independently completed.
Contract cheating
Using an outside source (i.e. a third party) to produce assessment work and submitting it as your own work. This also includes offering and obtaining a financial incentive to complete another student’s work.
Inappropriate paraphrasing
Rearranging or changing minor words from a source of information, while keeping the same idea and not crediting the original source.
Inappropriate referencing
Incorrect, inconsistent or improper referencing of a source. This also includes creating fake source references.
Plagiarism
Passing off someone else’s work as your own without crediting the source. This can be intentional or unintentional. This also includes using unauthorised artificial intelligence tools such as, but not limited to generative tools (e.g. chatbots), language translation tools, web-scraping software or automation software.
Recycling
Reusing your previously submitted work without acknowledging it.
Do you understand academic honesty?
Types of Academic Dishonesty – A Cartoon Guide for Students provides a fun overview of how to avoid academic dishonesty.
Frequently asked questions
What is Artificial Intelligence and can I use it?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a term used to broadly cover computer programs or machines that use human-like thinking to complete requested tasks. For example, ChatGPT is a well-known AI program.
Your teacher will tell you whether you may use an AI program for an assignment, as this may vary from course to course. Where AI is allowed to be used and you include information from this, you must be sure to reference it.
If I have to reference everyone else’s ideas, does this mean I can’t get help doing my homework?
Having other people check and review your work can help you to improve. It’s okay for someone to make comments or suggestions about your work (such as: ‘This is not clear…’; ‘Maybe you need some more detail here…’; or ‘This graphic looks wrong in this part of the page…’).
On the other hand, if someone gives you so much help that they have effectively written part of your work for you, then you must acknowledge their contribution and reference the work appropriately.
How often do I have to reference a single source?
You must reference all source materials every time you use them in your work. This may mean you need to reference the same thing multiple times throughout your work.
Do I need to reference common knowledge?
No. ‘Common knowledge’ refers to facts that are likely to be known by many people, rather than something you specifically found out through your research. Common knowledge does not need to be referenced.
What is ‘common knowledge’?
Common knowledge refers to common sense observations or information and facts that is generally verified and could be easily confirmed by the audience. For example: there are 365 days in a year, the Earth is round or water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level.
It is important to note that ‘common knowledge’ can vary across different social groups. If you are ever in doubt, it’s best to cite your source.
Can I be penalised even if I didn’t mean to do the wrong thing?
Yes. Forgetting to include references, or not taking enough care to reference appropriately, is no excuse for submitting unacknowledged work as your own.
You are responsible for maintaining academic integrity and referencing all your work appropriately.
I’ve rewritten another person’s ideas in my own words. Do I still need to reference the source?
Yes. If you are using someone else’s ideas, you must always reference your sources, even if you rewrite their ideas in your own words.
I’ve used notes from class. Do these have to be referenced?
It depends. If your teacher has spoken about ideas that are common knowledge, then these do not need to be referenced. However, if you are using materials that your teacher has prepared or ideas that your teacher has spoken about that are their own, then these must be referenced.