Honor Code

Effective as of January 1, 2023.

All users of learning materials hosted on the Academy Certificate platform are expected to abide by the following standards to ensure the integrity of learning within Academy Certificate learning experiences. Learners are expected to familiarize themselves and comply with the Terms of Use for the Academy Certificate platform and any code of conduct, academic policy, honor code or or any institution's requirements associated with programs which a learner has enrolled onto through the Academy Certificate platform has established.

Academic misconduct undermines the value of Academy Certificate hosted credentials and devalues the authentic efforts of other learners. Learners who engage in misconduct are therefore subject to consequences as described below.

Academic misconduct is defined as any activity which circumvents, or attempts to circumvent, the learning experience provided by the course through violation of course learning policies or specific policies provided by the instructor or outlined by the syllabus, or misrepresentation of the authorship or conditions of completion of course activities. The following standards provide clarification of the most common types of academic misconduct, but the list is not exhaustive. Other behavior may constitute academic misconduct in a particular course or across the Academy Certificate platform.

Definitions

Work within a Academy Certificate activity - all activity on the Academy Certificate platform including logins and all course activities is subject to these policies. Work includes but is not limited to exams, quizzes, peer review activities, assessments, discussion board contributions, guided projects, and labs. Furthermore, activities outside the platform that pertain to coursework on the platform are also covered by these policies.

Unauthorized - activities that violate Academy Certificate’s Terms of Use, course or platform policies, activities which are illegal, or those activities which violate academic standards or standards of integrity that a learner on the Academy Certificate platform should be expected to know are considered to be unauthorized.

Violations

  1. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is when you copy or reproduce words, ideas, or any other materials from another source without giving credit to the original author. Plagiarism also includes the practice of employing or allowing another person to alter or revise your work, and then submitting the work as your own. Learners may discuss assessments among themselves, or with an instructor or tutor, but all assessment submissions must be original works done independently by the learner. This includes work paraphrased, translated or otherwise modified using automated means. Plagiarism can also include self plagiarism, where a learner submits the same work that they had already submitted for another assessment or module, where this is not disclosed and permitted.
  2. Use of Unauthorized Materials: using or consulting unauthorized materials (including electronic materials) or using unauthorized equipment or devices on any work within a Academy Certificate activity, unless expressly permitted.
  3. Unauthorized collaboration: working together with any person on any work within a Academy Certificate activity unless expressly permitted.
  4. Contract cheating: paying, trading, or otherwise getting another person or an automated tool (including, but not limited to, ChatGPT, or similar software or applications) to create work for submission to a Academy Certificate course or for work within a Academy Certificate activity.
  5. Impersonation: completing work within any Academy Certificate activity (including but not limited to exams, assessments, and learning activities) when logged in as another user or having another user complete work within a Academy Certificate activity when logged in as you; otherwise misrepresenting the authorship of work submitted on Academy Certificate.
  6. Unauthorized sharing of resources: making any information about or solutions to homework, quizzes, exams, projects, and other assessments available to anyone else (except to the extent an assessment explicitly permits sharing solutions). This includes both solutions written by you, other learners, outside resources, or any solutions provided by the course staff or others.
  7. Fraud: any misrepresentation about the authorship or the conditions under which work within a Academy Certificate activity was performed not otherwise specified or falsifying any evidence in support of any mitigating circumstances claim.
  8. Other: any other behavior that confers an unfair advantage to you or someone else or any activity that attempts to dishonestly improve your results or improve or harm the results of others in the performance of work within a Academy Certificate activity.

Consequences for Non-degree Products

Academy Certificate will determine relevant sanctions based on the kind of misconduct, the severity of the behavior, the stakes of the assessment, and any previous history of misconduct by the user.

No refunds will be issued in the case of any corrective action for such violations. Honor Code violations will be determined at the sole discretion of Academy Certificate and Academy Certificate partners. You will be notified if a determination has been made that you have violated this Honor Code and you will be informed of the corresponding action to be taken as a result of the violation.

Consequences for Degree Products

For Degree, MasterTrack, and University Certificate Programs, consequences are at the sole discretion of the content provider.