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Code of Conduct

Aspen University is committed to fostering a spirit of honesty, integrity and respect. All members of the Aspen University student community and prospective students are responsible for following Aspen University’s Code of Conduct Policy. The Code of Conduct Policy is composed of two sections: Conduct (behavioral) and Plagiarism (academic). A violation of these policies will be deemed to be misconduct and will not be tolerated, even if the violation remains undiscovered until after credits have been awarded or a degree has been conferred. Consequences may include course failure, reversal of final course grades, revocation of credits and degrees or dismissal from the University.  Violation of Code of Conduct may result in consequences that include but are not limited to a verbal or written reprimand, immediate removal from the classroom, lab, simulation, clinical setting, or campus, or any other action deemed appropriate for violations of the student’s responsibilities. 

 

The following is a non-exhaustive list of actions that are considered student conduct violations, for which prospective and current students are subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal from the University:

  • Falsification, forgery, alteration, or invention of information, including, but not limited to, any document used for admission or eligibility to the University, or other official University documents
  • Communicating or behaving in any form that disrupts or interferes with the educational process or any institutional function
  • Communicating or behaving in any manner that creates a disruption, or a hostile or offensive educational environment for a student, faculty member, or staff member, including bullying, hazing, menacing, threatening, intimidating, use of profanity or offensive words in an angered or annoyed manner, or violent behavior.
  • Discriminatory or inappropriate comments and/or inferences towards or about students, faculty, or staff related to sex, race, color, height, weight, national origin, religion, age, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, physical or mental disability, medical condition as defined by law, or any basis prohibited by law.
  • Communication or behavior towards a student, faculty, or staff member that is disrespectful, derisive, or offensive in nature
  • Failing to comply promptly with any reasonable directive, including health and safety directives, from a faculty member or University official
  • Failing to cooperate with officials in a University investigation
  • Permitting anyone, with the exception of university-authorized persons, access to one’s classroom, to attend class in one’s stead, or to attend class for another
  • Sharing answers, information, or documents related to course materials and assignment submissions, soliciting, or hiring others to complete course assignments on the student’s behalf
  • Obtaining completed work or revising a work that was found on the Internet, or submitting work found or purchased from a website
  • Acquiring work that is written or produced by another person/organization as their own for submission under the student’s name
  • Giving, receiving or presenting any work or materials by a student with the aim of helping oneself or another with any academic work
  • Using unauthorized materials or access and/or obtaining unauthorized assistance on an examination
  • Sharing one’s university username/password or using someone else’s username/password for any University system or network
  • Using any University system, network, or other IT resources to upload, download, or otherwise share and/or distribute any copyrighted music, video, software, written works, or other materials without the written consent of the copyrighted owner
  • No student or person, individually or on behalf of any business or organization of any kind, whether for-profit or not-for- profit, is permitted to solicit, market, offer goods or services, or operate on behalf of such organization in any way on the University’s campus without the prior written consent of the University’s President or Provost. In addition, no student or person, individually or on behalf of any business or organization of any kind, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, may use the University’s name, marks, seal, logos or other identifying symbols, without the prior written consent of the University’s President or Provost.

Aspen University students reported for violating the conduct policy may be subject to sanctions. Any reported student is allowed due process according to Aspen University’s conduct violation procedure.

Plagiarism

Higher education requires a greater level of self-monitoring to ensure academic integrity. Aspen University expects accuracy and integrity in coursework submitted by students. Plagiarism occurs when students intentionally or unintentionally use work that describes concepts, structures, words, or anything else from another source without giving due credit to the original source. Forms of plagiarism include, but are not limited to, submitting bought, shared, or borrowed work; resubmitting prior assignments as original work in a current course; or copying and pasting directly from source material. All coursework submitted by a student must represent original work produced by that student. All sources used within an assignment must be documented through acceptable references and citations and the extent to which the sources have been used must be apparent to the faculty.

Faculty are responsible for reviewing the student's submission for potential plagiarism through Turnitin reports for a 20% or higher similarity rate and reporting for a potential code of conduct violation. Aspen considers a similarity index of up to 20% acceptable, as this threshold ensures a balance between originality and the proper use of sources, accounting for technical terms, direct quotes, and exact citations. Templates, copied assignment directions, literature reviews, etc., have the potential to drive the similarity index above 20%. Students should be aware that plagiarism violation procedures will still be followed should they withdraw from the course in which the report of suspected plagiarism occurred. Consequences for plagiarism may include warnings, reflective activities, assignment failure, course failure, reversal of final course grades, revocation of credits and degrees, and/or dismissal from the University.

 

Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) assistance in producing course assignments is on the rise at Aspen University and in higher education institutions across the country. These platforms, like Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and numerous others, are state-of-the-art large language models that can be used to write human-like text and computer code, produce marketing campaigns, answer statistical problem sets, create videos and PowerPoints, etc. Aspen University is committed to teaching the responsible use of this socio-technological phenomenon as it reflects one of our University Mission-Based Outcomes: Technology Literacy. One component of this expected outcome is that students can “access and use information ethically and legally,” skills that students can take into the workforce. The responsible use of AI technology in creating assignments is an opportunity to reflect this outcome.

The responsible use of AI technology is described below. If students choose to use artificial intelligence to craft any university course requirement, they are expected to adhere to the following points:

  • Many AI platforms have strong usage policies. For example, Open AI’s policies are found here: https://openai.com/policies/usage-policies. One of its disallowed usages is for fraudulent or deceptive activity including plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Students are expected to review the usage policy of any platform they are using and adhere to it.
  • AI can be used to brainstorm ideas, generate rough drafts, inform text, etc. It is a means to assist learning when used ethically, and not a quick fix to get an assignment out of the way or as a strategy for producing work without learning along with it.
  • Because this is a developing technology, be aware of what it might produce as misinformation.
  • AI can generate what appear to be valid citations and references to other sources but those may not be real. Check all of the citations an AI platform produces to ensure they are accurate and represent real sources. Ask who said it first?
  • Treat AI-generated material as any other direct quote and cite appropriately. Examples are found in this article from APA that governs Aspen’s writing style: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt.
  • AI technology, in and of itself, is not considered a scholarly source.

Students are responsible to produce and submit cohesive assignments and discussion question responses that demonstrate synthesized thought and an understanding of the topic and content, while supporting the work with scholarly sources and citations without plagiarizing beyond limits set by policy. Because of that, students are expected to critically review any AI-generated response before using it carte blanche.

Aspen’s plagiarism policy contains the following language: Plagiarism occurs when students intentionally or unintentionally use work that describes concepts, structures, words, or anything else from another source without giving due credit to the original source. Forms of plagiarism include submitting bought, shared, or borrowed work and self-plagiarized work. All coursework submitted by a student must represent original work produced by that student. How do you avoid plagiarism? Any submitted assignment must be “shaped” by you, the student. This means the assignment is written in the student’s voice and continually revised for clarity, conciseness, and accuracy prior to submission. That is what makes it yours and avoids plagiarism concerns. Simply copying, pasting, and then submitting an AI-generated assignment without shaping it into your own is unethical. Such submissions will result in overly high scores for the AI-generated report in Turnitin (greater than 20%). Currently through Turnitin, this report is only available to faculty who will connect with students to discuss needed revisions resulting from the high score. Failure to make requested adjustments in a timely manner, or repeated high scores for assignments in a single course, may lead to a Code of Conduct or Academic Integrity concern.