Jane and Petra have been friends since childhood. They attended the same primary school and high school, and they’re now enrolled in the same program at uOttawa. Each term, they try to sign up for a few courses together, but they rarely manage to succeed due to conflicting work schedules. This term, however, they were able to sign up for the same ethics course. “Great! We can share notes and study together”, they thought. Unfortunately, shortly after the start of term, Jane ran into money problems. Now needing to take two extra shifts per week at the restaurant, she can barely make time for her study sessions with Petra.



Having mis-managed her time, Jane can’t even keep up with the weekly readings assigned in her courses. As time goes by, she becomes more and more worried. With her midterm exams and her assignments piling up, she has less and less time to get everything done. Jane’s stress is high when she realizes one morning that she has an assignment due in one of her more challenging courses later that day. Without Petra there to remind her of this deadline, she had completely forgotten about it.

1. Which campus service could Jane have used to help with time management?


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In an effort to meet her deadline, Jane rushes to do her readings from the past three weeks and summarize each of them in 200 words. It won’t be her best work, but at least it will be on time. When Jane gets her graded assignment back, she’s disappointed by her result. “I know it wasn’t great, but a D?” she thought. When she looks for an explanation, she sees a comment from her teaching assistant in the margins:

The use of in-text citations is not enough to ensure academic integrity. All your quotations must be placed within quotation marks. I expect to see this in your next assignment.


Jane had never received a warning like this before. Upset, she talks to Petra about her situation. Petra offers to help her save time by doing the research for their ethics assignment. They would each write their own paper, but Jane would use Petra’s reading notes instead of finding source material herself. At first, Jane isn’t too keen on the idea. “Isn’t that against the rules for individual assignments?” she thought. It took some convincing, but eventually Jane changed her mind.

2. Which form of academic misconduct are Jane and Petra planning to commit?


3. What could Jane have done differently to overcome her recent difficulties without committing academic misconduct?


On the day she receives Petra’s reading notes, Jane cancels a shift at the restaurant to look at the material and start preparing a draft. Satisfied with the result, she double-checks her quotations and hands in her assignment. When she receives her grade, Jane is overjoyed. “79 percent? Not bad!” she thought. But her happiness fades when the professor asks Petra and herself to stay after class. At that moment Jane is filled with regret. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to do this... I never should have agreed to it,” she thought.



After class the professor informs Jane and Petra that he noticed their source material was identical: same journal articles, same quotations. Since neither of them had been accused of academic misconduct before, he decides to talk to them directly to find out what happened. “We’re friends... we like to brainstorm together... it must have been a coincidence,” said Petra, not wanting to explain what really happened. Unconvinced, the professor turns to Jane, who tells him the truth about her arrangement with Petra.

4. In your opinion, why was Petra not as forthcoming as she should have been in her response to the professor?

5. Who would be subject to the academic misconduct process in this case?


After Jane and Petra recognize their error and express regret for their actions, the professor choses to address the matter using the pedagogical approach. He asks Jane and Petra which sanction would provide them with a learning opportunity: a written warning, a workshop on academic integrity, a chance to rewrite the assignment on another topic, or a 10-percent penalty. He tells them to think this through before suggesting a course of action. Although Jane and Petra agree that the written warning would be the easiest course of action, they don’t think it provides them with a learning opportunity.


They also agree that the 10-percent penalty would cause their final grade to suffer too much. After considering their options, they request a chance to rewrite the assignment on another topic. Deeming this sanction appropriate, the professor assigns them a new topic and informs the vice-dean of the faculty that offers this course.

6. If the professor had instead chosen to use the disciplinary approach, would Jane and Petra have been eligible for the accelerated process?


7. In your opinion, was the pedagogical approach appropriate?