Ethical Statistics: The Honor Council Project

• Activity Number: 22
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 3, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Shannon McClintock*+
• Companies: Emory University
• Keywords: introductory statistics ; project ; service-learning ; pedagogy

Abstract

Recently our Introduction to Statistical Inference course implemented an optional service-learning project in the fall of 2013 (N=223), which was repeated in the spring of 2014 (N=273). In collaboration with Honor Council representatives and based on input from students during classroom discussion, we performed a study to assess the prevalence of academic misconduct and identify factors associated with academic misconduct. The project provided a unique opportunity for students to be involved in a client-driven study from start to finish. Data on more than one hundred variables were collected anonymously via SurveyMonkey. Participating students were required to perform data cleaning, create new variables, and write a formal ten page scientific paper prompted by the objectives of the Honor Council. Assessment of writing was performed in a two-submission process and was heavily weighted towards Methods and Results. Students found the process to be frustrating at times, yet rewarding and worthwhile. The Honor Council found the results to be quite surprising - nearly 75% of students admitted to at least one form of academic misconduct in the first survey.