Academic Honesty
You are expected to maintain the integrity of the College by maintaining academic honesty for yourself and by expecting academic honesty from your fellow students. One of the requirements for passing the courses you take at Del Mar College is that you do your own work. Meeting this requirement means avoiding plagiarism, collusion, and cheating.
At Del Mar College plagiarism occurs when a student uses the words, ideas, or structure of another, whether in print or digital form, as if they were the student's own original work. Plagiarism can happen in several ways, including, but not limited to, the following:
- A student copies verbatim (word for word) another’s work, but the student does not (1) indicate the copied material is a quotation or (2) acknowledge the original source through citation and/or attribution.
- A student puts another's ideas into their own words, but the student does not acknowledge the source through citation and/or attribution.
- A student duplicates another’s structure of thought or organization of ideas, but the student does not acknowledge the original source through citation and/or attribution.
Collusion is working with or attempting to work with another to commit academic dishonesty. One form is collaborating with another individual on an academic assignment without the authorization of the instructor. Other examples include but are not limited to: Allowing another to copy answers or work during a course assessment. Providing questions or test material before release to the students by the instructor sharing questions and information about a completed graded work with a student who has yet to take or complete the graded work.
Cheating includes, but is not limited to, a student looking at another’s work; using unauthorized materials or electronic devices during a test or written assignment; or fabricating data, methodology, results, or findings from those in an official document, publication, or research and claiming them to be authentic.