Student Integrity and Academic Honesty Policy

Student integrity and academic honesty are a cornerstone for any educational institution and paramount to the integrity and quality of the programs offered. California Coast University expects its students to conduct themselves in an ethical manner demonstrating integrity and honesty. The University will uphold these expectations and respond with the same behavior.

Students are provided with the University’s policies and the consequences should any part of those policies be violated, either intentionally or unintentionally. When the University discovers instances of questionable behavior, misconduct, or blatant disregard/infractions of the rules, actions are taken. To help students understand the expectations the University has for them, California Coast University publishes clear and specific policies related to student integrity, academic authenticity, and academic honesty. The following are a list of common violations of the Student Integrity and Academic Honesty Policy:

Academic Misconduct

Misconduct is a violation of the Student Integrity and Academic Honesty policy, whether intentional or unintentional and includes all forms of academic dishonesty. This includes but is not limited to acts that result in creating an unfair academic advantage to themselves, the student, or to others. Examples of academic dishonesty are:

• Submitting the same work for multiple courses or assignments
• Tampering with grading in any shape or form
• Attempting to obtain or obtaining answers to examination questions
• Fabrication, falsification, or forgery
• Bribery
• Inventing or creating data
• Citing a false source
• Submitting academic records (e.g., transcripts, training hours, resume) that have been altered in any way or that are fraudulent
• Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, or soliciting contents of a written examination, record, or assignment

Cheating

Obtaining or attempting to obtain, or aiding another to obtain credit for work, or any improvement in evaluation of performance, by any dishonest or deceptive means. Examples include:

• Lying or being deceptive to student officials, faculty, staff
• Copying from another’s test or examination
• Discussion at any time of questions or answers on an examination or test, unless such discussion is specifically authorized by the course instructor or California Coast University
• Taking or receiving copies of an examination without the permission of the instructor or California Coast University
• Using or displaying notes, “cheat sheets” either online or in person
• Allowing someone other than the officially enrolled student to represent the same
• Attempting to alter an examination
• Submitting work that was not written or created by the student. Examples are papers written by someone other than the enrolled student, such as a ghost-writer or paper/essay mill, or AI applications, such as ChatGPT, BardAI, BingChat, etc.

Collusion

Knowingly assisting, attempting to assist, or receiving assistance from another student, previously enrolled student, California Coast University graduate to commit academic misconduct, or conspiring with any other person employed with California Coast University or outside of the university to commit misconduct.

Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United Stated Code).

• Unauthorized downloading, uploading, sharing, and/or duplicating course materials including, but not limited to, assignments, exams, slides, videos, email or Student Portal correspondence and any other material created and/or provided by the instructor without the instructor’s express permission. This includes, but is not limited to: downloading, uploading, viewing, sharing, or selling copyrighted material found on commercial notes-sharing websites such as Course Hero and GitHub.

Fabrication, Falsification, Forgery

Deliberately falsifying, altering, or inventing student or proctor records, information or citations. Any of these acts may lead to a course, certificate, and/or degree being revoked.

• Falsification of any written examination, record, or assignment
• Representing oneself as another student for the purpose of taking an examination
• Furnishing false or misleading information to California Coast University staff or on official records
• Forging, altering, or misusing the University name, the name of the University employees, documents, records, or identification

Plagiarism

Plagiarism consists of taking and using the ideas, writings, or inventions of another, be it a person or AI, without giving credit to that person or entity and presenting it as one’s own. Examples include:

• Intentional
• Inadvertent
• Paraphrased
• Improper Citations