Academic Honesty Policy
We value academic honesty at CHeS and hold our students accountable because God has called us to live a life of honesty and integrity; He calls us to honour one another and we can do so by honestly accomplishing assignments and giving credit to other’s work when appropriate.
Because we operate in a unique and flexible online environment, it is especially important that we take great care to educate our students and children on “giving credit where credit is due”. We desire for each of our students to model the highest standard of academic honesty in their educational pursuits. CHeS will therefore not tolerate academic dishonesty of any sort, including plagiarism, sharing false learning information, using artificial intelligence (AI) to complete assignments, or cheating on tests/exams/assessments.
The Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines plagiarism in the following manner: “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source.” Plagiarism includes (adapted from Wallaceburg Christian School):
- Direct copying of the work of another submitted as the student’s own (for example: from that of another student or other person, from an Internet source, from a print source)
- Lack of parenthetical in-text or in-project documentation
- Documentation that does not check out or does not match Works Cited/Works Consulted page
- Quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing another person’s words, sentences, paragraphs, or entire work without acknowledgment of the source
- Asking AI (ex. Chatgpt) to complete an assignment for you or paraphrasing it’s responses and claiming they are your own ideas. Cite AI as you would any other resource. Note. AI is growing and we understand it’s a good way to get ideas but it’s ideas must be cited and the student may not use AI to replace their own creative and/or critical thinking.
- Utilizing another person’s ideas, opinions, or theory without acknowledgment of the source
- Copying another student’s written test answers
- Copying or allowing another student to copy a computer file that contains another student’s assignment, and submitting it, in part or in its entirety, as one’s own
Our Teacher Mentors are trained to watch for instances of plagiarism and can easily spot when an assignment does not match the students’ ability or regular manner of writing. Sometimes, unintentional plagiarism can occur because of a lack of understanding of the protocol when using someone else’s words (Dickerson). In these cases, it is the responsibility of the parent and Teacher Mentor to help correct the issue.
When a student is found to be in violation of our academic honesty policy, the Teacher Mentor will be in direct communication with the parents and consequences may vary, depending on the circumstance. Possible consequences may include any of the following:
- Parents will be informed of the incident by a telephone call and/or email.
- Teachers will use tools such Quetext to verify authorship:
- The assignment in question will need to be re-submitted with proper citation.
- He or she is likely to receive a mark of zero for the assignment or test in question when verified that intentional plagiarism has taken place.
- Administration will be notified if subsequent offenses occur.
- If repeated instances of cheating/plagiarism occur, the student may receive a failing grade for the course.
If you would like more information on plagiarism and how to cite properly, please visit the resources listed below:
Dickerson, Lee Ann. "Writing With Integrity: Serious Talk About Plagiarism." Crosswalk: The Intersection of Faith and Life. N.p., 30 Jan 2013. Web. 31 Mar 2013.
Author Unknown. "Academic Honesty Policy." Wallaceburg Christian School Society - Board Policy Manual. Wallaceburg Christian School, June 2010. Web. 30 Mar 2013.
Lastly, one of our teachers recently designed an Academic Integrity Module that would be helpful for High School students: link here.