Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity/Plagiarism 

Academic integrity is a core value of ExCEL Virtual Learning Academy. Students are expected to complete and submit their own original work while demonstrating honesty, responsibility, and respect for the work of others.

All assignments, assessments, projects, and written work must reflect the student's own knowledge and effort. Students who submit work that is not their own may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with West Shore School District policies.

What Is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is presenting another person's words, ideas, or work as your own without giving proper credit.

Examples of plagiarism include:

• Submitting work copied from the internet as your own.

• Copying another student's work, in whole or in part.

• Using information from books, websites, databases, or other sources without citing the source.

• Using another person's ideas, opinions, or research without proper attribution.

• Using quotations without giving credit to the original author.

• Paraphrasing another person's work without citing the source.

Students are encouraged to ask their teacher if they have questions about citing sources or completing assignments with academic integrity.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

While AI is a useful tool for learning, it is never acceptable to complete an assignment from beginning to end by putting a prompt into an AI tool, copying and pasting the assignment into an ExCEL course, and claiming the work as one’s own.

If a monitor teacher suspects that a student is asking AI to complete assignments, the teacher will reach out to the student to initiate a conversation and allow the opportunity to redo the assignment. Should the misuse of AI continue, administration will become involved and appropriate consequences will be determined.

Here are some acceptable uses of AI:

• Ask to find materials to complete a project

• Ask to explain a concept in an easier way

• Ask to correct grammatical errors in an original piece of writing