Week 1. Lesson 1

Week 1 Outline
Lesson 1. Introduction to the course. Academic Integrity (reading on importance of AI)
Lesson 2. An approach to academic writing. Writing strategies.
Lesson 3. An approach to academic writing. Audience. Style and organization.
Lesson 4. Language Focus: The vocabulary shift - verbs
and nouns

Lesson 1 Outline

1
Introduction

Introduce yourself

2
Syllabus review

Every week
4 hours of classes on campus:
2 classes on academic writing: explanation+practice
2 classes on grammar and stylistics for academic writing: explanation and practice
SIS: Coursera

The main tasks for the course:

Course description
1 What are the course objectives?
2 What skills and competences are you supposed to develop?
The course is designed to help develop students’ study skills in interpreting information, understanding spoken and written academic texts, identify relevant information, synthesising information from listening and reading texts, and recognising points of view and bias in research.
develop listening and speaking skills through practical classes and presentations within the academic context
develop academic reading and writing skills
develop students’ critical and analytical thinking skills.

Course description
3 What are the methods of assessment?
4 What will happen if you miss 30% of classes?
5 What will happen if your Midterm/ Enderm scores are lower than 25%?
The students need to be active in asking questions and/or sharing how to apply their knowledge and skills in their assignments. There will be writing and speaking assignments posted on Moodle/Microsoft Teams. Students need to cover all the assignments by the due date and time

Performance evaluation

3
Academic integrity

Give you responses to the questions:
What does academic integrity mean to you?
Why is it important?

5 main Academic Integrity values
The International Center for Academic Integrity defines academic integrity as a commitment to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility.

What is Honesty?
Honesty is an indispensable foundation of teaching, learning, research, and service, and a necessary prerequisite for full realization of trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility.
It is essential that academic policies and community practices send a clear message that falsification of data, lying, cheating fraud, theft, and other dishonest behaviors are unacceptable.
Dishonest behavior not only jeopardizes the welfare of academic communities and violates the rights of its members, it can also tarnish the reputation of the institution and diminish the worth of the degrees it grants

What is Fairness?
Students are fair to each other and to the community when they do their own work honestly, to authors when they acknowledge borrowed work appropriately, to administrators when they respect and uphold academic integrity policies, and to alumni when they maintain the good reputation of the institution.

What is Respect?
Respect in academic communities requires showing respect for oneself as well as others. Respect for self means facing challenges with integrity.
Respect for others means valuing diversity of opinions and appreciating the need to challenge, test, and refine ideas.

What is Trust?
Trust enables us to collaborate, to share information, and to circulate new ideas freely, without fear that our work will be stolen, our careers stunted, or our reputations diminished.
Trust is essential so that those outside academic communities can believe in the value and meaning of scholarly research, teaching, and degrees.

What is Responsibility?
Being responsible means standing up against wrongdoing, resisting negative peer pressure, and serving as a positive example.
Responsible individuals hold themselves accountable for their own actions, and work to discourage and prevent misconduct by others

Academic Integrity Scenarios
Discuss the following scenarios with your group/partner and be prepared to share your response with the class

1
A classmate says she did not have time to finish an assignment that is due today. She asks you what your answers to the last two questions were. The assignment is only worth a small percentage of the final grade, so it doesn’t seem like a big deal. What would you do?

2
A group research project is due tomorrow, but your group has been unable to gather all of the data you need. One group member says that he read some statistics a while back that would support your thesis, but he can’t remember the statistics precisely or what the source was. He suggests using what he remembers and crediting an author he thinks might have written it. Another student in the group agrees because she thinks the instructor rarely checks sources anyway. The last group member thinks you should include the information but not cite a source since you’re not sure which one it is. What would you do?

3
A friend keeps looking over at your paper during a test. You feel uncomfortable but don’t want to hurt your friend’s feelings. What would you do?

4
You just completed a final exam. Your friend is scheduled to take the same test from the same instructor two hours later. She asks you what to expect on the test. What would you do?

5
You were sick yesterday and missed your psychology class. This is a huge lecture class with 250 students taught by a graduate assistant. She gives extra credit for attendance on certain days by passing around a sheet of paper that everyone must sign their name on. Your roommate, who is also in that class, tells you that yesterday was an extra-credit day, and he signed your name on the attendance sheet for you. What would you do?

Resources
International Center for Academic Integrity. (2009). The fundamental values for academic inyegrity. Clemson University