As you might have guessed from the title, this is a blog about ethical issues in academic integrity. That is, it’s about the issues that arise with regard, and the issues that arise when educational institutions (high schools, colleges, universities, etc.) attempt to regulate student behaviour in that regard.

“Integrity” is of course an “ethics word” (some people might even regard it as a synonym for “ethics”), which might make the title of this blog a bit of a redundancy. But I think it’s really not. Here’s why. The term “academic integrity” itself typically refers to one or both of the following:

a) An attitude or pattern of behaviour according to which an individual conducts themselves in an academic setting (namely, with integrity, and avoiding various forms of wrong-doing); or

b) The rules and systems that various educational institutions put in place to educate students about what sorts of behaviours are considered (un)acceptable in their academic work, and to monitor, regulate, and occasionally reprimand.

In effect, academic integrity in the second sense is about ensuring or at least promoting academic integrity in the first sense.

So why “ethics of academic integrity?” Ethics — as I define it, from a scholarly point of view — is the critical, structured examination of questions of right and wrong. So the ethics of academic integrity is a critical, structured examination of the rights-and-wrongs of various ways in which students conduct themselves, as well as the rights-and-wrongs of various ways in which educational institutions educate and regulate students in that regard.

So this blog will talk about academic integrity in what I hope is not a preachy way, but in a way that explores, in a more-or-less readable and non-technical way, some of the thornier issues that arise in this area.

The blog is going to be written primarily by me, Prof Chris MacDonald. I’m a philosopher currently teaching (ethics & critical thinking) at a very large, primarily-undergraduate business school. I teach and write about ethics — primarily ethics in the corporate world. But as an educator, I also care deeply about academic integrity.

Some of the entries in this blog will likely be “co-authored” by one or another Artificial Intelligence services, such as ChatGPT. Some readers might find that funny, but they shouldn’t. The problems with academic use of AI are very specific, and — as I’ll outline soon in one or more blog entries — the concerns regarding AI shouldn’t be regarded as applying the kind kind of open, honest use of AI that I’m going to exhibit here. When I use ChatGPT to assist in writing a blog entry, I’ll make that clear. I hope that such use will serve two purposes. First, it may help me with writers’ block. Second, it may serve as a focal point for discussion about the ethics of using such technology.

It’s also possible that this blog will feature guest postings by other professors, or administrators with an interest in, and insight into, academic integrity.

If you have questions about the blog, or if you have topics that you’d like to see covered here, feel free to email me at chris.macdonald@torontomu.ca.