Understanding Academic Integrity

Outside of class time, many students use messaging apps to communicate with classmates. Communicating with your classmates in this way offers you many benefits, including:

• Increasing your understanding of a topic through group discussion
• Building relationships
• Gaining support and encouragement from your classmates

These are all good things. They help you learn how to work well with others while expanding your learning. 

However, you may find yourself in a situation where you're asked to help a classmate by sharing work or test answers through text message or messaging apps (e.g., WhatsApp, Discord, etc). You may even find that you're the one who is struggling, and may consider asking others for help. 

If you find yourself in either situation, please remember that this type of sharing is inappropriate: it is considered cheating. 

Both students are engaging in cheating: the student who asks for and uses the answers and the student who provides the answers (Sheridan College, 2016a). 

If you witness other students engaging in cheating through messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Discord:

• Please do not provide answers
• Please discourage this behaviour by reminding them of Sheridan's expectations for academic integrity
• Consider reaching out to your professor to let them know that students are collaborating inappropriately

Academic integrity is everyone's responsibility.