By getting help from his friend, has Cedrick acted in a way that upholds academic integrity standards?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, restating the scenario helps frame what we’re evaluating: Cedrick sought assistance from a friend, and the question asks whether this action aligns with academic integrity standards.
Option 1: "Yes. Cedrick wasn’t specifically prohibited ... from getting help from others." This is flawed because, even if not explicitly prohibited, many institutions require work to be original or completed by the student alone. Simply not being prohibited does not automatically make assistance acceptable under most academic integrity policies. The nuance is whether the help preserves honesty and individual accountability, not just whether permission exists.
Option 2: "No. Cedrick attempted to receive a grade by means other than honest, individual effort. The work is not entirely his own." This aligns with the typical definition of academic integrity violations: accepting or incorporating help to produce work that should be the student's own. It emphasizes that the grade would reflect someone else’s input rather than the student’s independent effort, which is the core issue.
Option 3: "Yes, because the Academic Integrity Policy doesn't specifically forbid getting help from other students." Similar to Option 1, this rests on a loophole argument. Policies often require that the work submitted be the student’s own, with proper collaboration limits. The absence of a blanket prohibition does not guarantee compliance if the assistance compromises authenticity or violates collaboration rules.
Option 4: "Yes. Cedrick’s friend didn’t re-write any of the text; he just corrected facts, which is like correcting punctuation." This misconstrues how certain edits can still amount to non-original work. Even factual corrections can alter ownership, and many policies treat substantive assistance (beyond permissible guidelines) as a violation. The comparison to punctuation correction is a mischaracterization of what constitutes acceptable collaboration and authorship.
Overall, the reasoning hinges on the principle that academic work must reflect the student’s own, honest effort. Receiving help that meaningfully contributes to the final submission can undermine integrity, regardless of whether the helper rewrote text or merely corrected facts. Hence, Option 2 correctly identifies the integrity concern, while Options 1, 3, and 4 rely on misinterpretations of policy scope, permission, or the nature of the assistance provided.

AITUT_AY2526_TUT4 Scenario | Cedrick's Time Crunch

By getting help from his friend, has Cedrick acted in a way that upholds academic integrity standards?

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