Academic Integrity in Online Learning
NJCU’S Procedures and Policies to Verify Student Identity and Promote Academic Integrity in Online Learning
The United States Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), Public Law 110-315 requires that institutions that offer distance education courses have procedures in place to verify that “the student who registers in a distance education or correspondence education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the course or program and receives the academic credit.”
New Jersey City University has established the following procedures and policies to verify student identity and promote academic integrity in online learning.
Student Identity Verification
Access to online courses is restricted to registered students who are required to access their course(s) in the Blackboard Learning Management system by using their GothicNet IDs and passwords. The University uses Microsoft Active Directory to authenticate students via their unique GothicNet ID and password. Students must use their GothicNet ID and password to register for courses and access other University systems and services. This unique GothicNet ID is provided to the student after fulfilling all the requirements of admission and provides access to NJCU resources until graduation.
For security purposes, it is strongly recommended that students change their initial password as soon as possible and not share their GothicNet ID and password with others. Students are alerted of the age of their password each time they log into the GothicNet portal and are required to change their passwords on an annual basis.
Protection of Student Privacy
In accordance with the Family Education and Privacy Act (FERPA), the University is committed to protecting the privacy of student information. When requesting password changes, students are required to provide two pieces of personally identifiable information collected by NJCU (e.g., last four digits of SSN, DOB, etc.) in order to successfully reset their passwords. Password resets are facilitated through a secure, encrypted website to protect the data during transmission.
Pertinent Policies
The University has a Responsible Use of Computing Resources policy. The General Principles and Guidelines of this policy prohibit University members from using another person’s User ID, password, file system or data or attempt to circumvent or subvert system security measures.
The University has an Academic Integrity policy that clearly delineates the roles of faculty and students and provides information regarding acts of academic dishonesty and their consequences. Online students are made aware of these policies via a link that is provided on each student’s My Web Courses page in Blackboard, as well as on the Online Learning website. The University subscribes to Turnitin, a plagiarism detection service designed to help faculty to identify unoriginal work submitted by students. Training in the use of the Turnitin system is provided to faculty upon request.
Responsible Offices
NJCU system access and authorization procedures are established and maintained by the Department of Information Technology. The Department of Online Learning administers the Blackboard Learning Management System application and the Turnitin plagiarism prevention service and provides training to faculty in using the tools of Blackboard to promote academic integrity in online teaching and learning.
References
NJCU Academic Integrity Policy