On Using Online Images and Licensing

We received a Research and Reference query from one of our students on citing an image from Getty Images. Our student diligently cited the images on her paper and asked validation on the format and styling. It was correct following the APA Format. However, in our conversation, the student admitted that the photos are screenshots from the Getty Images website. This is an act of "reproduction" that needs additional attribution.

What could have been done before taking the screenshots?

• Read and understand what/who Getty Images is. A commercial platform for photos and images with licenses for commercial use. Applying due diligence in knowing a source, its content, when and how it can be used for academic purpose is a must.
• Read the conditions stipulated in the Rights and Clearance page and understand the Licensing Agreement. Pay attention to the clause on Intellectual Propert Rights. There are conditions and guidelines on use of content that is fair for the creator and the consumer.

What can be done in observance of Intellectual Property Rights, Academic Integrity and the APA Guidelines?

• Write a note or a disclaimer for non-commercial and non-editorial purposes.
• Attribution of source within the text must be visible or evidenced.

Let us know if this information is helpful.

Research Skills Instruction: Academic Honesty and Citations in APA Style

My session with our Business Management (BM12) students last week went as planned. My 20 minute lecture and demonstration on citations using the APA style/format was a review of what students already know and have, eventually, forgotten. Citing sources is emphasized as an important skill in research and in academic writing. Like all skills to be mastered, it has to be seen as part of a bigger set of composite skills like documenting sources and annotating them. It can be taught and learned in isolation, but context and real life application make the learning meaningful. When there is meaning in learning, the learner remembers.

Here are fundamental concepts I emphasized in my session.

1. Citing sources is part of documenting and annotating references and sources of information.

2. There are three preliminary steps before citation happens: understanding the task at hand; knowing the needed information to complete the task; identifying the source of information needed to complete the task. When these are all accomplished, engagement and transaction with the information begins.

3. As soon as sources are selected, taking note and recording of the sources' bibliographic data are important tasks as well.

I used the APA Style as requested by the BM teacher. Here is the poster of citation formats and basic in-text citation must-do. This is taken from Purdue Online Writing Lab.

On Friday, the last day of the week, we closed our advisory session with a discussion on Academic Honesty using a short film, Reluctance, as a spring board. Since it was a session with the entire cohort, we had breakout rooms for each advisory class over on Zoom. This strategy eased the students into expressing their responses over the material as well as the topic on Academic Honesty. It can be a big concept involving many factors and disciplines of thought.

The process of learning the skills and the big idea that drives them is ongoing. I will definitely blog them all here in as much and as frequent as I can.

The Lighthouse Diary Entry #27: Academic Integrity and Turnitin

I attended a webinar yesterday morning. Yes, another webinar. The local distributor of Turnitin, APAC Marketing organized a 2 hour webinar on Academic Integrity at the heart of teaching and learning processes. There is less talk of the Turnitin app and more of practices in teaching and learning. 

One takeaway I have from the webinar is the 70-30 approach in online distance learning. This means, 70% is allotted for asynchronous learning and 30% for synchronous learning. This may imply that the design of instruction for asynchronous learning will lean towards student agency, engagement and independent learning. Skills teaching is paramount. Synchronous learning would entail follow up, following through, tutorial type sessions, show and model strategies. Concepts and content, especially those that cover a prescribed curriculum may need to be revisited.

I appreciated the input session of Dr. Michael Dino on Academic Integrity. I was holistic, historical and culturally relevant to our teaching practices. The live online forum that followed right after the product demo of Gradescope was engaging. Gradescope helps teachers manage and administer grades and assessments. Pegged as easy to use, it generates data that may help inform teachers on skills and concepts that have been learned and would need improvement on.

During the open forum, there were many questions about plagiarism and citations. I had to involve myself on this topic. I just cannot. So, I gave some suggestions on citation processes and the necessity of following a citation format to guide students and researchers in the responsible use of information and varied media formats.

This led me to another insight on Academic Integrity. It is about relationships. Knowing the learner, first of all, and the teacher recognizing and seeing himself or herself as a learner too, are factors to building a caring and respectful relationship necessary for learning honestly and with integrity.

Turnitin is neat app to detect plagiarism, thereby upholding Academic Integrity. But at the end of the day, it is a tool. We need to make these tools work for our advantage and not the other way around.