Academic Integrity by Design: Universal Solutions for Face-to-Face, Remote, and Online French Classes

Academic Integrity by Design:Universal Solutions for Face-to-Face, Remote, and Online French Classes Jessica S. Miller Second language (L2) learning involves social interactions (Vygotsky). When a sense of community strongly connects a class, students' willingness to communicate (WTC) increases because they are not afraid to make mistakes. Their motivation potentially grows because they want to share personal information with people they trust, and they work harder because they know we care. A relaxed, friendly, non-judgmental, empathetic atmosphere can have a positive impact on attendance, homework completion, participation, and academic integrity. Variables outside instructors' control nevertheless play a significant part in fostering honesty in students. Additional challenges arise in virtual modalities, where cues from body language, tone of voice, and eye contact so important to build trust in relationships tend to be garbled. The sudden switch to the virtual format in spring 2020 made it difficult to not only teach content, but also to add an interpersonal element to the remote (virtual synchronous modality) and online (virtual asynchronous modality) formats. Because most of us have been L2 students and L2 teachers in face-to-face environments, we feel naturally more apt at building relationships with our learners in person. We may therefore believe that those interpersonal bonds cannot be accomplished otherwise though it is perhaps simply a matter of practice. Anecdotal evidence gathered from the three courses I taught during the "Covid semester" at a mid-size liberal arts public university suggests that academic integrity decreased significantly in students who had spent the least amount of time with me face-to-face prior to the switch in modalities. I hypothesize that one of the reasons that led to misconduct was my failure to develop a relationship of trust with those students. This article describes what I learned from discussing the issue with students and from reflecting on the end-of-semester course evaluations. I also suggest solutions that can be applied to any teaching and learning modality. Although technological approaches exist to reduce cheating in online environments exist (Brown), I focus on how designing a course with equity in mind can encourage [End Page 27] learners' academic integrity while increasing educators' preparedness to deliver French classes in any modality. The Importance of Course Design A course structure, in any format, should be clear and leave little room for the unexpected. Establishing trust can be done by laying a solid path taking students straight to success and giving them tools and techniques to tackle the scaffolded challenges we intentionally build for them, as well as those that emerge unexpectedly. By using backward design (Wiggins and McTighe), one can create courses whose outcomes match assessments, with grading criteria provided upfront, and with units and lessons that will logically help students meet the stated outcomes by allowing them ample practice opportunities. McAllister and Watkins make recommendations specific to online courses, such as maintaining online gradebooks and providing timely feedback, as well as assisting students with self-monitoring. Universal Design for Learning ("The UDL Guidelines") and design accounting for accessibility (Gierdowski and Galanek) are also important pieces in facilitating equitable access to learning resources. Finally, writing assessment prompts that follow guidelines of the Transparent Design Framework (Winkelmes et al.) help support equitable student success by clearly detailing the purpose of an assignment, the tasks involved, the steps to successfully complete them, and the scoring criteria. Whether face-to-face, remote, or online, those principles are worth applying so students can focus on the content of their classes, not on their mechanics. Another way to design a class that discourages academic misconduct is to offer numerous low-stake assignments, and to focus summative assessments on proficiency growth and communicative success. Students need to be reminded that learning a language, as any other skills, requires repeated practice and becoming comfortable with making mistakes. Many learners are already familiar with music and sport practice: those contexts thus provide fruitful analogies. For any of those skills, including L2 acquisition, repetitive drills are needed to improve (scales for music, weight training for sports, memorizing conjugation patterns for languages) and prepare a performance (a concert for music, a competition for sports, a conversation for languages). If high...