Academic integrity and beyond (POK)

This course will give you an understanding of the meaning of academic integrity and integrity broadly. You will understand what integrity means and how it is applied in your studies, personal life, professional life, and work. We will show you examples of negative practices when it comes to collaborating with others and working together, as well as examples of good practices in studying and working with others. The course will demonstrate what paraphrasing and referencing mean and how to do this. We will explore different types of assignment styles and academic writing methods. The definition and meaning of the Author's right will be presented. Finally, we will consider the definitions of types of misconduct, giving examples of these types of cheating and explaining the meaning and purpose of the Codes of Ethics and Conduct. We will explain how you can develop your skills by knowing how, where and when to get help, giving you the power to take responsibility for your learning journey.

The MOOC will include different activities for you to read and watch, as well as things for you to do to test your knowledge of the concepts as you move through the lessons. Examples and case studies will allow you to taste how integrity is part of everyday life in the academic context, increase awareness of how you can benefit from staff and institutional support, and walk your learning path accordingly.

Total workload of the course: 25 hours

This MOOC is provided by Politecnico di Milano.

The course is delivered in online mode and is available free of charge.

Course materials will remain available to all enrolled users after the end of the current edition, so they can return to content later. The current course edition will be followed by a new one just after its end.

Learning Schedule

The course is organised in 4 weeks.

Week 1 – What is Integrity?

Week 2 – Developing academic skills for integrity

Week 3 – Defining misconduct, study skills and seeking help

Week 4 – Summary of the course

In particular, in week 1, we will define integrity in the context of learning, highlight its importance for professional life, and stress its role at the personal level.

In week 2, we will analyse how to develop academic skills for integrity, such as summarising, paraphrasing and referencing; we will look closely at academic writing skills and assessment styles, and we will see why it is important to understand Copyright and Open Licences.

Week 3 is devoted to defining misconduct, studying skills and how to seek help; we will dive into Polimi’s Code of Ethics and Conduct as an example of the internal norms to support integrity.

Week 4 offers a summary of the course as a whole.