Academic honesty is critical to the integrity and value of a university degree. I carefully check for, and aggressively pursue, all cases of academic dishonesty. See this video for my perspective on academic honesty. The university has a academic integrity page with useful practical resources for students.

This page gives an indication of the likely penalty I apply when a student is found to have broken SFU's academic honesty policy in my class. It gives a general idea of the penalties I have applied in the past; individual cases may be handled differently. This page is for your information only and may not be used to challenge a penalty applied for a specific academic dishonesty case.

General Philosophy: Students who do the work get the credit.

Explanation of Possible Resolutions

• Case Dropped: when a student is found to have committed no academic dishonesty the case is dropped without any penalty or letter on file.
• Mark Penalty: student is given a reduced grade (often 0) on the work in question when the work is found to have been copied. Always associated with a letter on file.
• Letter on file: a letter is placed on file with Computing Science and the SFU registrar which details the facts of the case. This letter only has an effect if there is a second case of academic dishonesty involving the students. When a second case occurs the university automatically reviews the cases and penalties become more serious. The letter on file allows the university to track cases of academic honesty violations for a student in different courses, with different instructors, across different faculties.
• Referred to Computing Science Chair: when referred to the chair, it is given to a committee of Computing Science faculty who review the case and are able to request more serious penalties than those stated above. For example, they can seek a greater mark penalty (such as 200%), a failure due to academic dishonesty (FD), or a suspension from the university. Generally only the more serious cases are referred to the chair.

Assignments

• If Student A does the assignment and gives some of his/her solution to Student B, then Student A gets 100% of marks earned and Student B gets 0% (likely on whole assignment, not just on part proven to be copied). Both students get a letter on file.
• If a student knowingly makes his/her solution available to others (a web forum, drop-box, online compiler that shows code publicly, non-password protected web page) then he/she gets a letter on file, and likely a mark penalty.
• If a student copies content from online, then he/she gets 0% on assignment and letter on file.
• If a student copies content from work another student submitted in a previous semester or for a different course, then he/she gets 0% on assignment and letter on file.
• If a student re-submits his/her own work from a previous semester or previous course without prior permission from Dr. Fraser, then he/she gets 0% on assignment and letter on file.
• If the assignment allows groups of size N student, but it is done by M students as a group (where M > N, and without permission), then each student gets at most (N/M)% of the marks earned and letter on file. Larger penalty quite possible depending on the situation.
• If a student buys or sells an assignment solution, or pays someone to write their solution, then he/she gets 0% on assignment, a letter on file, and referred to chair.

Exams

• All cases of academic dishonesty during an exam will likely be forwarded to the Computing Science chair for review and expected more serious penalty such as a grade of FD (Failure due to Academic Dishonesty).

Meetings

• When academic dishonesty is suspected, the student will be contacted by email.
• Students may optionally request a meeting with Dr. Fraser to present his/her side of the story.
• The truth is critical in these discussions.
• Attempting to misrepresent the facts (lying) is academically dishonest. Cases where a student lies about how he/she completed an assignment or exam can be referred to the Computing Science chair for review and expected serious penalty. For example, a student copying an assignment will get 0% on the assignment and a letter on file. A student who then also lies about it will get 0%, the letter on file, and may be referred to the chair for an expected more serious penalty.

If you have any questions about academic honesty, or how it applies to classes you take with me, please ask me before hand!