Contents

· 1. Policy Statement

· 2. Purpose

· 3. Scope of Application

· 4. Core Principles

· 5. Definitions

· 6. Academic Integrity Standards

· 7. Responsible AI Use Standards

· 8. Permitted and Prohibited AI Use

· 9. Assessment, Portfolio, and Capstone Integrity

· 10. Research, Data, and Source Integrity

· 11. Digital Credential and Certificate Integrity

· 12. Faculty, Assessor, and Staff Responsibilities

· 13. Learner Responsibilities

· 14. Detection, Review, and Investigation

· 15. Outcomes, Sanctions, and Remediation

· 16. Appeals

· 17. Records, Privacy, and Confidentiality

· 18. Website Summary Version

· Appendix A: Learner Declaration

· Appendix B: AI Use Disclosure Template

· Appendix C: Examples of Academic Misconduct

 

1. Policy Statement

The Global Public Health Credentialing Board Inc. (GPHCB) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity, professional conduct, responsible technology use, and credential trust. Academic integrity is essential to the credibility of GPHCB certificates, digital badges, diplomas, degree pathways, portfolios, assessments, continuing education, and professional recognition.

GPHCB expects every learner, candidate, faculty member, assessor, reviewer, staff member, partner, and contractor to act with honesty, transparency, accountability, and respect for intellectual work. This includes the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI tools, automated writing systems, data tools, translation tools, coding assistants, and other digital technologies used in learning, assessment, research, portfolio development, or professional communication.

GPHCB may withhold, deny, correct, suspend, revoke, or annotate credentials where academic misconduct, assessment fraud, AI misuse, falsified evidence, impersonation, or credential fraud is substantiated through a fair review process.

2. Purpose

This policy establishes institutional expectations for academic honesty and responsible AI use across GPHCB programs and partner-supported learning pathways. It is designed to protect learners, faculty, partners, employers, communities, and the public by ensuring that GPHCB credentials represent authentic learning, valid assessment, and professional competence.

· Define academic integrity and responsible AI use within GPHCB learning environments.

· Clarify permitted, restricted, and prohibited uses of AI and digital tools.

· Protect the validity of assessments, portfolios, capstones, digital badges, and certificates.

· Provide a consistent process for identifying, reviewing, and responding to suspected misconduct.

· Support fair treatment, due process, confidentiality, and proportionate outcomes.

· Strengthen public trust in GPHCB credentials and partner-supported academic pathways.

3. Scope of Application

This policy applies to all GPHCB educational, professional, certification, credentialing, digital badge, continuing education, workforce development, and partner-supported programs, whether delivered online, self-paced, cohort-based, hybrid, or through an affiliated learning platform.

It applies to:

· All learners, applicants, candidates, and alumni seeking GPHCB credentials or partner-supported awards.

· All course assignments, quizzes, examinations, reflections, discussion posts, projects, case analyses, portfolios, capstones, presentations, and credential requirements.

· All faculty, instructors, subject matter experts, assessors, reviewers, mentors, staff, contractors, and external partners involved in learning, assessment, credential approval, or learner support.

· All AI tools, generative AI systems, writing assistants, chatbots, research assistants, coding tools, translation systems, data analysis tools, image generators, transcription tools, and automation tools used in connection with GPHCB learning or assessment.

4. Core Principles

Honesty: Learners must submit work that truthfully represents their own learning, analysis, contribution, and sources.

Transparency: Learners must disclose assistance, collaboration, sources, tools, or AI use where required by course rules or assessment instructions.

Accountability: Learners remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, evidence quality, ethical compliance, and final submission of their work, even when AI or digital tools are used.

Fairness: Assessment must provide a fair opportunity for learners to demonstrate their own knowledge, competence, judgment, and professional readiness.

Respect for Intellectual Work: GPHCB recognizes the rights of authors, researchers, instructors, institutions, communities, patients, and participants whose work, data, or lived experience may inform learning.

Public Trust: GPHCB credentials must remain credible, verifiable, and meaningful to learners, partners, employers, communities, and the public.

5. Definitions

6. Academic Integrity Standards

GPHCB learners are expected to demonstrate integrity in every learning activity. The following standards apply unless a course, assessment, instructor, or partner institution provides a stricter requirement.

6.1 Original Work and Attribution

· Learners must submit work that reflects their own understanding, reasoning, and effort.

· All sources, quotations, paraphrases, data, images, tables, frameworks, and substantial ideas from others must be properly cited.

· Learners must not copy, purchase, reuse, or submit work created by another person, service, platform, or AI tool as if it were their own original work.

· Prior work may be reused only where permitted and properly disclosed.

6.2 Assessment Honesty

· Learners must follow all quiz, examination, assignment, portfolio, capstone, and project instructions.

· Unauthorized collaboration, unauthorized resource use, answer sharing, impersonation, or falsification of completion is prohibited.

· Learners must not attempt to bypass LMS controls, proctoring controls, identity verification, time limits, plagiarism checks, or other assessment safeguards.

6.3 Professional and Ethical Conduct

· Learners must communicate respectfully with faculty, staff, peers, partners, and communities.

· Learners must not misuse confidential, patient, institutional, employer, community, or partner information.

· Where case studies, field examples, or community data are used, learners must protect privacy and avoid harmful or misleading representation.

7. Responsible AI Use Standards

GPHCB recognizes that AI tools can support learning, accessibility, research assistance, language refinement, data exploration, and professional productivity. However, AI use must never replace the learner’s required demonstration of knowledge, judgment, competence, ethical reasoning, or professional accountability.

7.1 General Position

· AI may be used when permitted by course instructions, assessment rules, or faculty guidance.

· AI use must be disclosed when it materially contributes to the submitted work or where disclosure is required by the course.

· AI output must be critically evaluated. Learners are responsible for verifying accuracy, citations, facts, methods, calculations, and claims.

· AI must not be used to fabricate sources, fabricate data, impersonate another person, complete prohibited assessments, or hide misconduct.

7.2 Learner Accountability for AI-Assisted Work

A learner who uses AI remains fully responsible for the final submission. The statement “the AI generated it” is not an acceptable defense for inaccurate, plagiarized, biased, fabricated, unethical, or noncompliant work.

8. Permitted and Prohibited AI Use

The following table provides general guidance. Course-specific instructions may be more restrictive. When in doubt, learners must ask the instructor or program office before using AI for graded work.

9. Assessment, Portfolio, and Capstone Integrity

GPHCB programs may include applied assignments, professional portfolios, capstone projects, competency demonstrations, digital badges, and stackable credentials. These learning artifacts must represent authentic learner achievement.

· Portfolio artifacts must be created by the learner, except where collaboration or tool use is explicitly allowed and disclosed.

· Capstone work must demonstrate the learner’s own synthesis, evidence interpretation, strategy development, ethical reasoning, and professional judgment.

· Learners must retain drafts, notes, data sources, AI prompts/outputs where required, and evidence of contribution when requested for review.

· Unauthorized outsourcing, ghostwriting, paid completion, impersonation, or submission of another person’s work is prohibited.

· Group projects must clearly identify individual and group contributions where required.

10. Research, Data, and Source Integrity

Learners must use evidence responsibly, especially in public health, healthcare, Medical Affairs, AI, community development, nonprofit management, and health communication contexts.

· Sources must be accurate, relevant, and traceable.

· Learners must not fabricate, alter, or misrepresent data, citations, quotations, patient narratives, community findings, interviews, or research results.

· Confidential, proprietary, employer, institutional, patient, or partner data must not be entered into public AI tools unless explicit authorization and appropriate protections are in place.

· Health-related communication must avoid misleading claims and must distinguish education from clinical, legal, regulatory, or professional advice where applicable.

· Learners must respect privacy, dignity, cultural context, and equity when using community or patient-related examples.

11. Digital Credential and Certificate Integrity

GPHCB credentials, including certificates, diplomas, digital badges, credential IDs, and verification records, are institutional records of completion and competence. They must not be altered, misused, or misrepresented.

· Learners may not edit, forge, sell, transfer, or falsely claim a GPHCB credential.

· Learners may not share credential IDs in a way that falsely implies another person earned the credential.

· GPHCB may revoke or correct a credential if it was issued in error or obtained through misconduct.

· Public verification will display only limited credential information necessary to confirm validity, while private learner records remain protected.

12. Faculty, Assessor, and Staff Responsibilities

GPHCB faculty, instructors, assessors, reviewers, and staff are responsible for supporting a culture of integrity and fair assessment.

· Communicate academic integrity and AI use expectations clearly in course materials.

· Design assessments that support authentic demonstration of learning and reduce opportunities for misconduct.

· Use detection tools cautiously and fairly, recognizing that automated tools can generate false positives and must not be the sole basis for serious findings.

· Protect learner privacy during integrity reviews.

· Report suspected misconduct through the appropriate GPHCB process.

· Avoid conflicts of interest in assessment, review, investigation, or appeal processes.

13. Learner Responsibilities

· Read and follow this policy, course instructions, assessment rules, and program requirements.

· Ask for clarification before using AI or outside assistance where rules are unclear.

· Cite sources and disclose AI assistance where required.

· Submit authentic work and maintain evidence of authorship or contribution when requested.

· Protect confidential information and avoid entering sensitive data into inappropriate tools.

· Cooperate honestly with any academic integrity review.

14. Detection, Review, and Investigation

GPHCB may review suspected academic misconduct or AI misuse when concerns are identified by instructors, assessors, staff, learners, partners, automated tools, originality checks, assessment anomalies, verification reviews, or external reports.

1. Initial concern is documented and reviewed for credibility and relevance.

2. Learner is notified where appropriate and given an opportunity to respond.

3. Evidence may include submitted work, drafts, metadata, LMS records, similarity reports, AI-use disclosures, oral defense, assessment logs, communication records, or other relevant materials.

4. A decision is made based on the available evidence, seriousness, intent, prior history, and impact on assessment or credential validity.

5. Outcomes are communicated in writing, including appeal options where applicable.

Automated plagiarism detection or AI detection tools may support review, but such tools should not be treated as infallible. Human academic judgment is required before significant sanctions are imposed.

15. Outcomes, Sanctions, and Remediation

Outcomes will be proportionate to the nature and seriousness of the conduct, the learner’s intent, prior history, the assessment stakes, and the impact on credential integrity.

· Educational warning or required integrity coaching.

· Required resubmission or revision with disclosure.

· Reduced grade or no credit for the assessment.

· Failure of the course or credential requirement.

· Suspension from program access or assessment eligibility.

· Withholding of certificate, digital badge, diploma, transcript, or completion record.

· Revocation or correction of an issued credential.

· Restriction from future enrollment or partnership-supported pathways.

· Referral to partner institution procedures where the credential is partner-awarded.

· Other corrective action deemed necessary to protect learners, partners, communities, or credential trust.

16. Appeals

Learners may appeal an academic integrity decision according to the GPHCB Complaints and Appeals process or the applicable partner institution process. Appeals must be submitted within the stated deadline and must identify the basis for appeal.

· Procedural error that may have affected the outcome.

· New evidence that was not reasonably available during the original review.

· Disproportionate sanction relative to the finding.

· Demonstrable factual error in the decision.

Disagreement with the outcome alone is not sufficient grounds for appeal. Appeal decisions should be made by an individual or committee not directly responsible for the original decision where practical.

17. Records, Privacy, and Confidentiality

Academic integrity records will be handled confidentially and retained according to GPHCB recordkeeping procedures, applicable partner institution requirements, and relevant privacy obligations. Public credential verification will not disclose grades, private assessment evidence, contact information, payment information, or confidential learner records.

Where a matter involves a partner-awarded credential, GPHCB may share relevant information with the partner institution consistent with program agreements, learner consent where applicable, and privacy requirements.

18. Summary

Academic Integrity & Responsible AI Use Policy – Public Summary GPHCB expects all learners to complete coursework, assessments, portfolios, capstones, and credential requirements with honesty, originality, transparency, and professional responsibility. Learners must not plagiarize, cheat, falsify information, impersonate others, misuse AI tools, fabricate sources or data, or misrepresent their academic or professional work. AI tools may be used where permitted by course instructions, but learners remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, evidence quality, and ethical compliance of all submitted work. AI-assisted work must be disclosed when required. GPHCB may review suspected misconduct and may withhold, correct, suspend, or revoke credentials where academic misconduct, AI misuse, or credential fraud is substantiated. Private learner records, grades, and assessment details are protected. Public credential verification displays only limited information necessary to confirm credential validity.

Appendix A: Learner Academic Integrity Declaration

Recommended text for LMS checkout, enrollment form, assessment submission, or capstone submission.

I confirm that the work I submit to GPHCB is my own authentic work except where properly cited, acknowledged, or permitted by course instructions. I understand that I am responsible for any AI-assisted content, source use, data analysis, citations, claims, and final submissions made under my name. I agree not to plagiarize, cheat, fabricate evidence, impersonate another person, misuse AI tools, or misrepresent completion of any learning or assessment requirement. I understand that GPHCB may review, withhold, correct, suspend, or revoke credentials if academic misconduct or credential fraud is found.

Appendix B: AI Use Disclosure Template

Learners may be required to include an AI disclosure statement where AI materially contributed to submitted work or where course instructions require disclosure.

Disclosure Field	Learner Response
AI tool used	[Learner completes]
Purpose of use	[Learner completes]
Parts of the work supported by AI	[Learner completes]
How output was verified	[Learner completes]
Sources checked independently	[Learner completes]
Learner confirmation of final responsibility	[Learner completes]

Appendix C: Examples of Academic Misconduct

· Submitting an AI-generated essay, portfolio, or capstone as if it were fully original learner work.

· Copying content from a website, article, classmate, paid writer, or prior student without citation.

· Inventing references, citations, patient examples, community data, interviews, or research findings.

· Using AI during a closed-book quiz or no-AI assessment.

· Uploading confidential employer, patient, learner, or partner information into a public AI tool without authorization.

· Having another person complete a course, assignment, quiz, or capstone on the learner’s behalf.

· Editing or forging a GPHCB certificate, digital badge, transcript, or credential ID.

· Claiming to have earned a credential that has not been issued or has been revoked.

· Submitting the same work in multiple courses without permission.

· Using translation, paraphrasing, or rewriting tools to disguise copied work.