Georgia Tech aims to cultivate a community based on mutual trust, academic integrity, and honor. As such, all instructors and students are expected to act according to the highest ethical standards, and are bound by the Georgia Tech Honor Code. For more information on Georgia Tech's Academic Honor Code, please visit: https://catalog.gatech.edu/policies/honor-code/Links to an external site. and https://policylibrary.gatech.edu/student-affairs/academic-honor-code
"Academic misconduct is any act that does or could improperly distort Student grades or other Student academic records. Such acts include but need not be limited to the following:
- Unauthorized Access: Possessing, using, or exchanging improperly acquired written or verbal information in the preparation of a problem set, laboratory report, essay, examination, or other academic assignment.
- Unauthorized Collaboration: Unauthorized interaction with another Student or Students in the fulfillment of academic requirements.
- Plagiarism: Submission of material that is wholly or substantially identical to that created or published by another person or persons, without adequate credit notations indicating the authorship.
- False Claims of Performance: False claims for work that has been submitted by a Student.
- Grade Alteration: Alteration of any academic grade or rating so as to obtain unearned academic credit.
- Deliberate Falsification: Deliberate falsification of a written or verbal statement of fact to a Faculty member and/or Institute Official, so as to obtain unearned academic credit.
- Forgery: Forgery, alteration, or misuse of any Institute document relating to the academic status of the Student.
- Distortion: Any act that distorts or could distort grades or other academic records.
While these acts constitute assured instances of academic misconduct, other acts of academic misconduct may be defined by the professor. The Honor Agreement may reappear on exams and other assignments to remind Students of their responsibilities under the Georgia Institute of Technology Academic Honor Code."
COURSE-SPECIFIC POLICIES AND EXAMPLES:
We are navigating an interesting time with the increased access of both authorized and unauthorized tools as well as the advent of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and others. We will try to balance some of the usefulness of these tools with addressing the pitfalls and problems that can come up; however, such materials and tools are not a replacement for student's own understanding or work.
In addition to the general GATech list above, academic honesty violations in this course also include, but are not limited to...
- For any graded material
- Students giving/receiving answers to/from other students,
- Students reporting content from other sources that are not their own without attribution,
- Students providing answers that are not significantly original to themselves (e.g. cannot paste lecture content, even if cited, as the entirety of their graded response)
- Exam-specific
- Students giving/receiving any input or answers to/from other students or persons, aside from authorized clarification from the instructor or TA
- Students archiving specific exam question information that lends an unfair advantage to any student
- Utilization of any materials not provided by this semester's course, including online content outside of course materials, large language models (e.g. ChatGPT, etc.)
Assignments and exams are assessments of a student’s own understanding and capabilities related to the content covered during class. As such, each student is required to submit work according to their own knowledge, comprehension, and effort. The exams are open notes, where allowed material for each individual student includes 1) notes and submissions they created themselves in association with content covered during lecture, lab, and class assignments, or 2) content directly provided from this semester’s class; However, the use of unauthorized materials, including but not limited to LLMs (such as ChatGPT or similar), any external sources, or other people, is strictly prohibited.
Any violation of this policy is considered academic dishonesty and will result in an incident referral of the student(s) to the Office of Student Integrity (OSI). Suspected violations will result in OSI being contacted for advice and may result in either a formal submission to OSI or a student-optional Faculty Conference for which the resolution will still be submitted to OSI and attached to the student's record. The Office of Student Integrity will investigate the incident and identify the appropriate penalty for violations (which may include failure in one or more classes, and/or suspension from Georgia Tech)
Tips to avoid violations:
- Be sure to READ and UNDERSTAND any class rules and policies documents, as we have had situation in the past where students are called up on integrity violations and didn't realize it was in the document they signed in lab. If you have any questions or concerns, just reach out and ask.
- Your agreement and signature are important, and just because you didn't read or forgot something you signed doesn't mean you won't bear the consequences for what it says...(being an adult isn't always fun, but ALWAYS read these sorts of documents, whether for class, work, buying a house, anything financial or legal, etc.)
- It can be hard in a moment of panic to think of the larger picture, but when faced with a situation, try and walk through if and how an action could be seen as a violation (think from the perspective of an instructor or administrator).
- This is NOT one of those situations that it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission - you risk your class grade, academic probably, or even expulsion and your academic career with these actions. Further, it degrades the quality of everyone's degree, and unfairly treats students who have properly adhered to the rules, skewing grades against their honest work.
While we encourage students to help each other learn course material, each student must complete their own work without engaging in plagiarism or other false claims of performance. In addition, course materials, including assignments and notes, are not to be archived anywhere online, distributed, or provided to persons outside of this class. Materials are presented for your benefit and evaluation. Any student who breaches this policy and violates the Academic Honor Code will be reported to the Office of Student Integrity, who will investigate the incident and identify the appropriate penalty for violations (which may include suspension from Georgia Tech).
