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Whether you want to earn a degree, improve your skills, get certified, train for a new career, or explore a new hobby, you can choose from many programs and courses.

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What type of student are you? New Student Returning Transfer Visiting International College Credit Plus Non-Credit All Student Types

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More than 1,000 credit courses are offered each semester in more than 200 career and technical programs. Tri-C also grants short-term certificates, certificates of proficiency and post-degree professional certificates.

View A-Z Program List

Workforce Training & Professional Development

Tri-C's Workforce Training provides both non-credit and credit training for individuals and businesses to assist individuals with skills leading to employment. Tri-C's Corporate College provides professional development and corporate training opportunities.

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Integrity Institute

Integrity Institute Information for Faculty Information for Students
Curriculum AI Generated Content Copy/Paste Plagiarism Insufficient Citation Paraphrasing Mishaps
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Information for Faculty

Refer a student to the Integrity Institute

If you suspect a student has plagiarized:

Assemble evidence to verify your suspicions. Examples include, but are not limited to:

  • Inviting the student to an in-person or Webex meeting to discuss the ideas presented in the paper. (During this oral defense of written work, a student who has plagiarized will often struggle to engage in a conversation about details presented in the paper.)
  • Using Turnitin to evaluate student writing.
  • Running suspicious excerpts though AI detectors such as Copyleaks, ZeroGPT, Huggingface, etc.
  • Copying and pasting suspicious excerpts from student work into Google.
  • Copying and pasting suspicious excerpts from student work into the library databases.
  • If you discover the source from whence the plagiarized work came, save, copy, or print that source for your records.

Options for faculty who discover an academic integrity violation: 

Option 1:
Student Conduct Reporting Route
⇒

Faculty member submits a Student Concerns Report.

⇒ Student and Assistant Dean meet to discuss the issue. Assistant Dean determines responsibility. The report may result in a sanction as appropriate. ⇒ Faculty receives confirmation.
 
Option 2:
Remediation
Route
⇒ Faculty member refers student to Integrity Institute. ⇒ The student receives corrective instruction. ⇒ Faculty receives summary of Integrity Institute session.
⇒ Optional: Faculty member submits FYI Student Concerns Report.
*If this is being filed in conjunction with the Integrity Institute, please mark it FYI.

The Student Conduct Code and Student Judicial System

See section (F) STUDENT CONDUCT SYSTEM PROCEDURES for information on the Student Conduct Reporting Process.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity refers to the upholding of ethical and moral behavior as it relates to academic pursuits including academic assignments, exams, and other works associated with the College and a student's learning experience. Academic dishonesty is the opposite of academic integrity and includes acts of plagiarism and cheating, which are prohibited per the Cuyahoga Community College Student Handbook.

Students can learn more about maintaining academic integrity by working with their faculty members, developing a deep understanding of their course syllabi, and utilizing College resources such as tutoring and the Writing Center.

In this course, the minimum penalty for academic dishonesty is [a zero on the assignment, etc.].

  • For the first offense in the course, students may be referred to the Integrity Institute for a one-hour meeting (virtual or in-person) with a Tri-C librarian or Writing Center consultant to review the assignment containing plagiarism/academic dishonesty. Upon completion of the Integrity Institute session, the student may be permitted to [revise the plagiarized assignment for full/partial credit, etc.].
  • If there is a second offense, the student will be referred to the Office of Student Affairs, which may initiate a formal Student Conduct process that could result in sanctions by the College.

Courtesy of Tri-C ESL Faculty: Becca Aronhalt Yokum, Alayna Klco, David Napuk, and Nick Prokup

ELLs face unique challenges with academic writing in English, often making them ideal candidates for referral to the Integrity Institute. 

Cultural Considerations

  • Writing from sources is demanding for students with developing English skills or limited academic writing experience (Schmitt, 2005).
  • Students with a non-English speaking background may have writing practices that are incompatible with Western intellectual property and scholarly norms (Marshall & Garry, 2006; Pecorari, 2008).
  • In the Eastern world, where group consensus is vital, plagiarism is seen, not as a negative, but as being respectful to the author (Dryden, 1999; Pennycook, 1996 as cited in Fuqua et al. 2015).
  • Many East Asian cultures, including Chinese and Japanese cultures, lack the word or definition for plagiarism in their first language, leading to confusion when faced with this problem in Western institutions (Ling, 2006 as cited in Fuqua et al 2015).
  • Cultural differences can affect learning and classroom interactions:
    • Individualist Cultures
      • Comfortable asking questions
      • Unafraid to speak up in class
      • Secure in seeking clarification
      • Used to working in small groups
    • Collectivist Cultures
      • Seldom ask questions
      • Not comfortable being called on
      • Won’t want to lose face by asking for clarification
      • More used to working alone or as a whole class
    • Low Power Distance Cultures
      • Open communication
      • Willing to question teacher
      • Easier to participate in discussion
    • High Power Distance Cultures
      • Hierarchical structures paramount
      • Struggle to engage in open dialogue with teacher
      • Disrespectful to challenge ideas or ask questions

Paraphrasing and Inferencing

After students understand what plagiarism is, they may still plagiarize unintentionally. These are two primary causes:

  • Patchwriting: Rather than copying a statement word for word, or paraphrasing thoroughly, the writer rearranges phrases and changes tenses, relying heavily on the vocabulary and syntax of the source material (Flowerdew & Li, 2007; Howard, 1995; Pecori, 2003).
  • Inferencing (reading between the lines to draw conclusions) is essential in paraphrasing sources but is rarely mentioned or explicitly taught. Making inferences in a second language can be quite challenging.

Resources:

Flowerdew, J., & Li, Y. (2007). Plagiarism and second language writing in an electronic age. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 161-183.

Fuqua, J., Gerber, H. R., & Votteler, N. K. (2015). Mitigating Plagiarism With English Language Learners Through Collaborative Writing Programs: A Review of the Literature. 영상영어교육, 16(1), 153-169.

Howard, R. M. (1995). Plagiarisms, authorships, and the academic death penalty. College English, 57(7), 788-806.

Marshall, S. & Garry, M. (2006). NESB and ESB students’ attitudes and perceptions of plagiarism. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2(1), 26-37. doi: 10.21913/IJEI.v2i1.25 

Pecorari, D. (2008). Academic writing and plagiarism.

Pecorari, D. (2003). Good and original: Plagiarism and patchwriting in academic second-language writing. Journal of second language writing, 12(4), 317-345.

Schmitt, D. (2005). Writing in the international classroom. In J. Carrol & J. Ryan (Eds.), Teaching international students: Improving learning for all (pp. 63-74). Routledge.

How to reach us

eastintegrity@tri-c.edu

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