Academic honesty is essential to the learning process and practicing integrity is a core value in the College of Education. Academic misconduct does not align with these values, detracts from the educational experience, and may result in grade reduction and/or other serious penalties.

Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to:

  • not adhering to course policies on the use of artificial intelligence (AI),
  • presenting AI generated material or someone else's written or spoken words or ideas as your own;
  • using direct quotes with no quotation marks;
  • paraphrasing without crediting the source or in some other way suggesting someone else's work is yours;
  • copying all or part of someone else's exam, homework, etc.;
  • knowingly allowing another student to copy your work or to submit your work as their own;
  • misrepresenting your contribution in a group project;
  • referring to notes, texts, etc. during a closed book exam;
  • collaborating with others on a take-home exam when directed not to do so.

Please see additional examples of activities that constitute academic misconduct.

Academic Misconduct Procedures: 

To comply with university policy and best practices, the College of Education expects instructors to report all incidents of academic misconduct as follows:

  1. Instructors who detect academic misconduct first report the action to their Departmental Executive Officer (DEO) and consult with them to discuss potential assignment level grade sanctions in keeping with departmental policies. Sanctions may include failing or assigning a lower grade for the assignment or requiring the student to revise and resubmit their work, if appropriate. 
  2. Once an instructor has consulted with the DEO, they notify the student by email at their uiowa.edu account, offering to discuss the situation prior to making any final decisions about grade sanctions. After meeting with the student, or if the student does not respond within ten days, the instructor proceeds with the next steps. 

Note: TAs who are not the primary instructor for the course should report academic misconduct to the course supervisor who will take further action.

  1. Instructors then submit an official report using the College of Education Academic Misconduct Report Form, providing a statement of necessary facts about the misconduct incident and response, and outlining any assignment level sanctions.
  2. The report is provided to the course DEO and appropriate Associate Dean for review. The Associate Dean will confirm receipt of the report and acknowledge the assignment level sanctions, at which point the instructor may proceed in carrying out any sanctions. (Note: This is a separate email from the automatic confirmation generated by the report submission.)
  3. The Associate Dean then completes university reporting requirements and adjudicates the academic misconduct case to determine whether any further action or collegiate level sanctions may be applied. If a student's primary college of enrollment is not EDUC, then that college is notified and determines any collegiate sanction for the student.

For additional information:

Undergraduates

Undergraduate students and faculty may refer to the Dean of Students Academic Misconduct policy for more information. Students should also review and understand the Code of Academic Honesty to learn more about what constitutes misconduct and how to avoid it.

Graduate Students

For graduate students, faculty should consult the section on “Plagiarism by Graduate Students” in the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College (Part 1, Section IV. F.).

See also: 

Cross Enrollment Policy

Student guide on Ethical Considerations for AI Use

Faculty resources through the Center for Teaching