Academic Integrity, Professionalism and Policies

Academic Integrity for MD Students

Academic Integrity

Maintaining academic integrity is extremely important to all MD Program members, including our students, faculty, and staff. The key resources for academic integrity and expectations of MD Program students are outlined in detail here:

https://www.ualberta.ca/en/dean-of-students/policies/student-conduct-and-accountability/index.html

Use of Artificial Intelligence within MD Program

One area of academic integrity currently under discussion is using artificial intelligence tools (e.g., large language models and other generative AI programs such as ChatGPT, Bard, or Dall-E) for classwork and assignments.

The MD Program focuses on cultivating an equitable, inclusive, and accessible learning community that emphasizes individual critical, creative, and practical thinking and disciplinary problem-solving skills. To achieve the identified program learning outcomes, students must be given learning opportunities and tasks to develop and demonstrate their skills and knowledge across course and discipline-specific projects, assignments, and assessments.

While Course and Clerkship Coordinators may introduce new content, assignments, and assessments that incorporate AI tools as the technology develops, the use of advanced AI tools is strictly prohibited for all academic (written/creative/etc.) work, assignments, and assessments in this program. Each student is expected to complete all tasks without substantive assistance from others, including AI tools.

Any specific assignments that do allow for the use of AI tools must be guided by ethical and transparent principles. When allowed, clearly attribute and cite any AI-generated content in your work, including prompts and AI outputs, as part of your academic record. You may also be asked to include an additional reflection component in your assessments, discussing how AI tools contributed to your learning process. Any such assignments or assessments will be CLEARLY SPECIFIED by your course instructors.

IMPORTANT: AI use is strictly prohibited in assessments and assignments not approved by the instructor. Failure to abide by this guideline may be considered cheating and a violation, as outlined in the relevant sections of the University of Alberta Code of Student Behaviour.

Professionalism for MD Students

All MD Program students are expected to behave professionally and adhere to professional codes of conduct. This is a significant component of developing their professional identity as future physicians.

The Office of Professionalism provides the following forms to commend professional behaviours or report lapses.

Commend Professional Behaviours: Submit an accolades report for FoMD members and healthcare upholders, upholding the highest professionalism standards and exceeding expectations.
Report Professionalism Lapses: Use this link to submit a professionalism/mistreatment report for FoMD and healthcare providers exhibiting unprofessional behaviour and/or mistreatment. Students experiencing any form of racism can use this form to report a racism concern.

The Office of Professionalism reviews potential professionalism lapses. If concerns are identified regarding professionalism or student conduct, formal professionalism lapses may be documented and submitted to the MD Program. The MD Program Professionalism Committee reviews these to determine if any actions or remediation are required. Please see the Assessment and Remediation of Professionalism policy for further details.

Standards and codes of conduct exist for your role as a student at the University of Alberta, specifically within the Faculty of Medicine. Students are also expected to adhere to physicians' professional codes of conduct, as outlined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).

These resources outline the expectations for student conduct within the MD Program: