Professional Integrity and AI in Practice

The project will research, develop and pilot an asynchronous digital badge that supports students to develop their sense of professional and academic integrity while on professional placement practice. The digital badge will be tested with year 3 students across disciplines, and with domestic and international students. This project will incorporate students that join the Sustainable Farm Management & Argi-business degree in year three from our Chinese partner, CICT. Research specifically relating to Chinese students suggests they may require assistance adjusting to the professional practices when undertaking work-based learning in a country other than China1. Professional Integrity can be understood as the practice of upholding ethical principles and values including honesty and trustworthiness 2 in professional contexts. The NAIN definition of academic integrity is “the commitment to, and demonstration of, honest and moral behaviour in an academic setting”3. As placement is an academic assessment, this project aligns to the best practice in upholding and cultivating academic integrity funding theme. The project is informed by two SETU documents: SETU Strategic Plan and Work Placement of Learners Regulations. Strategic Objective 5 reflects the University’s vision to meet the future employment needs of SETU graduates, central to this is the inclusion of work placement (5.3.1).4 The latter more specifically notes that preparation programmes in advance of placement should illustrate how placement contributes to support students’ awareness of ethical considerations, confidentiality and intellectual property rights (10.3.7).5 The project will be co-created with a multidisciplinary team of Programme & Placement Module leaders, current students preparing to go on placement, students currently on placement and students recently returned from placement. To ensure all stakeholders are engaged, placement providers and recent graduates will also be invited to inform the research and developments stages of the project.