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Concordia University Lectures and conferences

InSITE 2012 Conference at Concordia U

The Call for papers is open for one more month for the InSITE Conference to be held at Concordia University on June 22 & 23 2012.

There are 4 “tracks” for the conference, according to the conference website:

Connect:

Consists of workshops and panels that connect delegates with industry and business to promote the transfer of skills, information and knowledge.

TeachIT:
Focuses on research topics related to teaching IT, including curricular issues, capstone courses, pedagogy, and emerging topics in IT.

TeLE:
Focuses on research topics related to using IT to teach (technology-mediated). For example, these topics may include e-learning, m-learning, clickers and other technologies that aim at making the classroom teaching more effective.

InForm:
Solicits papers in any area that explores issues in effectivley and efficiently informing clients through Information Technology (IT).

Academic Integrity Concordia University

How many students cheat?

Interesting read about cheating:

Nouvelle recherche sur la probité intellectuelle – Peut-on éradiquer la tricherie chez les étudiants ? by Catherine Bolton, Mebs Kanji and Soheyla Salari in Le Devoir Oct. 24th 2011

The authors remark, about a recent study presented at the International Conference on Academic Integrity :

Jusqu’à présent, les données que nous avons recueillies sont plutôt encourageantes. La vaste majorité des étudiants obtiennent leur diplôme sans jamais être accusés de tricher — la plupart ne trichent pas, car ils souhaitent apprendre, travailler fort et réussir. Nous avons aussi constaté que l’Université Concordia applique les normes les plus rigoureuses en matière de probité intellectuelle.

Aussi préliminaires soient-elles, nos données révèlent cependant des tendances dont la constance justifie une attention particulière. Nous avons en effet constaté que la majorité des cas de fraude rapportés concernent des étudiants inscrits à des programmes de sciences sociales. Qui plus est, nos données laissent penser que ces fraudes surviennent habituellement dans le cadre de cours de première année.

Les fraudes ne sont par ailleurs rapportées que par un contingent relativement restreint de professeurs rattachés à quelques départements seulement. Se pourrait-il que les professeurs ne déclarent pas toutes les affaires de fraude? Le cas échéant, les universités vont devoir trouver un autre plan d’attaque. Nous devons mettre en place des mécanismes pour vérifier si des tricheurs parviennent bel et bien à passer entre les mailles du filet.

So, cases of academic misconduct stem mostly from the social sciences, from first year students, as reported by a small set of professors. Interesting !

Interesting – also because these are my colleagues at Concordia University !

I stumbled on this article in Le Devoir, a daily Montréal newspaper, via the ACFAS newsletter (the biggest learned society in Quebec).

Assessment Concordia University Guidelines - recommendations

AACSB Accreditation Standards

I am very lucky to be a business librarian at Concordia University – this is true on so many levels! Of all the reasons, the fact that the John Molson School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) may be a boon to work towards integrating information literacy in the curriculum.

As their website shows, the AACSB has Accreditation Standards to which JMSB must adhere to. These include the concept of total quality management – or making the most of the resources you have. It also assists in comparing business school together. Every so often, accredited schools must undergo a review process (audit), which serves as a nice entry point should you want to propose changes to how things are done – an external review fosters the feeling of continuous improvement.

For example, the “Assurance of Learning Standards” offers a few points where a library could have a positive impact… these are straightforward issues that school educators must report back on – so they are easily actionnable!