New podcast focuses on academic integrity

Our latest QAA podcast marks the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity (IDOA).

This global event takes place online on 16 October and will include a panel convened by QAA and chaired by our Chief Executive Vicki Stott.

Meanwhile, hosted, as ever, by QAA's very own Dr Kerr Castle, our new podcast features Loughborough University's Professor Sandie Dann and IDOA co-chair Professor Mary Davis.

Sandie is a member of a team from Loughborough which has led a new QAA-funded Collaborative Enhancement Project exploring and promoting good practice, acceptable use, equity and accessibility in student proofreading processes.

Mary is Professor of the Student Experience and Academic Integrity Lead at Oxford Brookes University.

Both Mary and Sandie also serve as a members of QAA's Academic Integrity Advisory Group.

Sandie and Mary's work in this area has put engagements with students at the forefront of developing principles and protocols which underpin the integrity of academic practices.

‘The idea really was very much about trying to collect an authentic student voice that wasn't curtailed by having academic staff present,’ Sandie explains. ‘Both of our experiences in that space have been that students are often afraid to say what they really think because they don't want to upset anybody or offend anyone. So, by making sure there were no academic staff present, we believe it was possible to get a lot more information from them.’

The impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on issues of academic integrity has become a matter of urgent concern among educators, students, policymakers and media commentators alike. Mary recalls the moment that ChatGPT exploded into common use - and when universities went into a sudden ‘downward spiral’ of uncertainty as to how to respond.

She describes how her own institution swiftly introduced user-friendly declaration forms whereby students submitting assessments could say which AI tools they were using and how they were using them. Her university's approach was intentionally positive rather than potentially punitive.

‘At the same time, there was a really urgent need for more than just student guidance but some student training to really understand how it would be okay for them – or not – to use artificial intelligence,’ she says. ‘Using about the first 500 declarations between February and August 2023, I started an analysis to think about which of the students' declared practices were acceptable or appropriate, which were definitely inappropriate, and which were in a middle area.’

She adds that there were a lot of calls at the time from both colleagues and students for her to issue black-and-white guidelines on the subject. In response, she developed a traffic light model, in which that middle area was amber and required students to stop, consider and check their use of AI, using a risk table she had developed.

‘We must establish clear guidance for students about what's okay,’ she emphasises. ‘We need to foreground what it means to be an author.’

How to tune in

QAA Membership podcasts can be found on Buzzsprout and other popular streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. On these platforms, you can explore our full catalogue of podcasts. Our recent topics include awarding gaps, evaluation, competence-based education, work-based learning, embedding employability, the TEF and the Quality Code.