Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Concerns Moving Forward: Academic Leadership Lens

The transition to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light many issues in the academic integrity realm, many of which already existed but were magnified by the influx of identified cases being addressed by colleges and universities across the world. This chapter is intended to dissect the many lessons related to academic integrity that were learned by senior administrators from the challenges faced by faculty, administrators, and students during one of the most challenging times the world has faced in modern history. Lessons learned were about contract cheating through the use of technology, case adjudication and the importance of educational outcomes of cases, as well as pedagogy and student success and how critical these elements of the educational process are to academic integrity. These lessons are critical to learn as the influence the COVID-19 pandemic had on academic integrity in higher education has changed the landscape of higher education irrevocably. As educators, we can choose to learn from the past and move forward, and while this is an opportunity to reflect upon what did occur, it is further an opportunity to take the reflections on the lessons in academic integrity from the COVID-19 pandemic and apply them to future happenings in academic integrity that are bound to occur.