Newlane Academic Integrity Standards and Policies

Plagiarism and cheating are not tolerated by Newlane University, and students involved in such activities are subject to disciplinary action. Specifically, plagiarism is defined as: “the use, whether by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another without full and clear acknowledgment”. 

Cheating is summarized as follows: “the giving or receiving of unauthorized assistance on quizzes, examinations or written assignments from any source not approved by Newlane or its Faculty.” Cheating occurs when a student attempts to get academic credit in a way that is dishonest, untrustworthy, irresponsible, or unfair. Cheating misrepresents a student’s knowledge and abilities, and undermines an expert’s ability to honestly and fairly assess student knowledge and mastery of learning objectives, or an expert’s ability to honestly and fairly assess whether a student has fulfilled the rubric guidance on projects. Cheating also undermines Newlane’s ability to honestly, fairly, and accurately verify student mastery of course goals and objectives. Plagiarism is an example of cheating.

Plagiarism and cheating are serious academic offenses that can be easily avoided with a proper understanding of citation guidelines. You’ll usually have resources in your course to help you learn or review citation guidelines. If you have questions, you can reach out to Newlane Student or Academic support.

The minimum punishment for plagiarism or cheating violations is a zero for the assignment. This means that the student would need to re-do and re-submit the assignment. At the first cheating violation, the student can re-do and re-submit the assignment. At the second violation, the student is put on academic probation and must meet with an academic advisor. At the third violation, the student is dismissed. The student can appeal the violation by completing the suspected academic violation appeal form. Appeals are reviewed by the Safety, Ethics, and Integrity Committee, whose decisions are final.

The second and any following suspected plagiarism and cheating violations must be submitted by the reviewing faculty member to the committee on academic integrity–even if the student re-works and re-submits the assignment.

If you (as a student) are unsure whether you may be cheating or plagiarizing, here are some general rules to apply: 

• Complete all academic assignments by yourself.
• Don’t use any unauthorized aids during an exam or course hearing.
• Acknowledge and cite source material in your projects, papers, or assignments.
• Don’t copy another student’s assignment, in part or in total, and submit it as your own work.
• Don’t copy anyone’s work, in part or in total, and submit it as your own work
• Don’t purchase help or assignment completion from anyone (while purchasing help may mean you “own” the material in a transactionary sense, it does not make it “yours” in an academic sense)
• Don’t copy your online quiz or assignment answers from the internet or from anyone.
• Don’t share your online quiz or assignment answers with any unauthorized individuals or groups.

IDENTITY AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

By signing the enrollment agreement, students sign the following Identity and Academic Integrity Statements: 

Identity:

I verify that I am who I am presenting myself to be, and that I, and I alone will conduct all required coursework for which I am responsible for any course in which I enroll at Newlane University. 

Academic Integrity:

I affirm my commitment to the standards of academic integrity in the Newlane University community. I will be honest and truthful and will strive for personal and platform integrity at Newlane University — that I will be honest in my purported identity and I pledge to uphold the integrity of the learning platform so that it can be trusted to validate mastery by the individuals purporting to have mastered learning content. I recognize that in submitting any project, taking any test, quiz, or exam of any kind at Newlane University, I am implicitly affirming this pledge:

“On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this academic work, nor am I aware of others doing so.”

Newlane University is committed to being a reliable, trusted worldwide resource and platform for verifying mastery of learning objectives. In order to maintain this trust requires the shared commitment of all community members to academic integrity. By this we mean that every community member is honest in their presented identity, and every community member completes their work and presents their work for other members of the community (e.g. a student turns in an assignment to be reviewed by an expert) without unauthorized aid. It means that cheating is not tolerated.

In our commitment to academic integrity, we celebrate that it is better to not yet know a subject well, than to feign mastery of a subject prematurely. At Newlane University, there is very little downside to not yet having mastered one or more learning objective. It is a simple judgment by an expert, who is also a resource to help community members identify pathways for mastery. This idea is captured in a tenet from our manifesto: 

Education should not be competitive or judged by other students’ achievements. Students should only be assessed on whether they have mastered the stated objective or ‘not yet’. Removing competition decreases the incentive for cheating or cutting corners.