Launch of Tutorial on Scholarly Research and Academic Integrity for Students

The millennial students who come to campus as freshmen every year are digital natives who have known computers and Internet connectivity all of their lives. For them, technology and multitasking as well as staying connected are in their nature. Millennials are performance oriented, but they are more interested in the product than the process. These seemingly positive aspects of millennial students also represent a drawback in their culture of learning and collaboration. For millennials, information is available to be shared, reused, and manipulated. Millennials' Internet culture of information sharing without acknowledging the producers of the content clashes with the academic culture of rigorous information tracing back to the originators. It is more and more evident that millennial students come to college unprepared for the academic rigor of gathering and the ethical use of information.

 

To help focus new students on the academe culture of scholarly research and academic integrity before they even set foot in a classroom, the Weinberg Memorial Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) have jointly developed a tutorial addressing these issues. The Scholarly Research and Academic Integrity Tutorial uses scenarios to introduce freshmen and transfer students to a pertinent discussion about research at the college level as well as principles of academic integrity. The tutorial, adapted, with permission, from Georgetown University, will help students to understand research skills and the importance of research ethics, mainly how to find and use scholarly books and articles, keep track of sources, credit sources, and work in groups and share materials ethically.

 

The tutorial had been tested by several freshmen seminar and writing classes during the Spring 2007 semester in preparation for its launch in July, right after Summer Orientation. In addition to the scenarios, the tutorial includes practice questions that directly address issues raised in the scenarios, particularly proper citation and interpreting sources. Students are asked to complete the tutorial before the first day of class of the Fall semester and sign the honor pledge.

 

All businesses, organizations, libraries, educational institutions and non-profits that buy, sell, loan, or otherwise make available books and other content to the public utilizing RFID technologies shall:

 

More information about the tutorial and ancillary materials can be found online at www.scranton.edu/academicintegrity