Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a high priority for all teaching and learning at RWU. All students admitted to RWU are assigned a unique RWU User ID and password. In our Acceptable Use Policy students agree not to share this identity with others or try to gain access to another’s account. In addition, RWU adheres to FERPA regulations that protect student privacy while allowing verification of identity by instructors.

Roger Williams University Academic Standards

Academic Regulations & Requirements

Academic Integrity Report Form (download)

Student Appeal Form (download)

Academic Integrity Pledge

We, the students of Roger Williams University, commit ourselves to academic integrity. We promise to pursue the highest ideals of academic life, to challenge ourselves with the most rigorous standards, to be honest in any academic endeavor, to conduct ourselves responsibly and honorably, and to assist one another as we live and work together in mutual support.

Breaches of Academic Integrity

Roger Williams University exists to foster the mature pursuit of learning, which is premised upon the exercise of mutual trust and honest practice when representing data, findings and the sources of ideas used in an academic exercise. The University expects students to observe these principles of academic integrity that ensure the excellence of their education and the value of their diploma.

Examples of breaches of academic integrity include but are not limited to:

In face-to-face classes, there is no policy that requires an instructor to confirm the identity of each student who attends his/her classes each day. Spot checks of identity using RWU Photo ID cards or other official forms of identification can be used during proctored exams to verify that the name on the test matches the name and photo on the ID card.   In some in-person classes, attendance is checked using sign-in sheets or visual identification.  However, nothing prevents a student who is not enrolled in a class from entering a classroom. RWU policy also states that a student is not permitted to audit or take a class for credit without formally enrolling, and an instructor has the authority to ask any unauthorized person to leave the classroom.

RWU does have a high-stakes testing center on the Metro campus where students must show a photo ID and are proctored by a person during their test however this center is used primarily for certification testing.

RWU does recognize that online courses and programs require additional procedures to ensure that the student registered for the course is the person doing the work. RWU provides student ID photos as part of the course rosters available through the portal and also implemented the Citrix GoToMeeting/GoToTraining web conferencing program that can be used with students enrolled in synchronous online classes, or who participate in synchronous sessions as part of an asynchronous online course. Students are able to display their web camera images during the Citrix GTM/GTT session which allows the instructor to verify that the student matches up with the photo on record.  In addition, all online courses are taught using Bridges/Sakai, our Learning Management System (LMS). Unless a student is officially enrolled in an online class (according to the Student Information System) and logs into the LMS with the correct username and password, he/she will be denied access. Viewing course content, taking exams, submitting assignments, and interacting with the instructor and classmates is therefore restricted. In addition, Bridges/Sakai learning management system uses a secure LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) authentication which is controlled by IT administrators.  Sakai also has a sophisticated collection of tracking and reporting tools that allow us to identify the date and time when various course elements were accessed, and the amount of time spent in each course area.

In both face-to-face and online classes instructors may, at their discretion, ask students for additional information or documentation if they suspect plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty in work submitted by students; particularly work produced outside of class.

For written work, RWU makes use of plagiarism detection software. RWU used Turnitin anti-plagiarism software for 10 years that built and accessed an institutional repository of work as well as checking all available Internet resources. Effective Fall 2106  the University transitioned to using  VeriCite anti-plagiarism however this also included migrating the entire institutional repository built under Turnitin so there was no loss of data.   Students use these tools to ensure that they are properly citing their references. Instructors use them to check for similarities between current student paper submissions and previously submitted student papers and other published works.

RWU has an established student code of conduct (published in the Student Handbook) that deals with the issue of academic dishonesty. Students agree to this policy as one of the conditions of enrollment at RWU.