On college campuses, the responsibility of learning and applying academic ethics and integrity standards tends to fall upon the students. Young scholars are expected to understand how toevade contract cheating scams or navigate the line between plagiarism and proper citation. Even if faculty and librarians take the time to teach students the dos and don’ts of educational ethics and academic integrity, curriculum can still fall short. In today’s digital age, how can educators protect students from predatory services? How has COVID-19 and the rise of online learning complicated the ethical academic environment? What do educational ethics and integrity theories look like in practice?

This month, Dr.Sarah Elaine Eaton, Series Editor of Ethics and Integrity in Educational Contexts and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Educational Integrity, joins the Authority File to discuss the history and current issues of educational ethics and integrity. Sarah spotlights pressing topics like emergency remote teaching, artificial intelligence, and integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into the discipline. Critically, she explains the impact of new technologies on the subject, and how, despite the advantages, they cannot be used to solve the human problem of ethics.

In this first episode, Sarah introduces us to the field by highlighting significant values, scholars, and its development around the globe. She also discusses its interdisciplinary nature—academic dishonesty can form anywhere, from an English Lit essay to a biology test or coding project—and therefore, its widespread and far-reaching audience.

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