400: New Integrity Workflow Tool, Free. For Now.
Plus, President of University of Maryland Eastern Shore is accused of plagiarism. Plus, whistleblowers say LA Film School was a fraud. Plus, ICAI 2026.
Issue 400
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Issue 400
This is Issue 400 of The Cheat Sheet.
If we’re being sticklers, it’s probably closer to 406. I misnumbered a few. There were special editions and year end summaries. Maybe 408. But officially, this is 400.
We’re also approaching 5,000 subscribers, which I find amazing. I remember being shocked when 50 people subscribed. I’m dumbfounded we’re at nearly 5,000.
Anyway, I wanted to point out the milestone as we rode past it.
I also want to thank you for reading, and for caring about academic integrity. I value you, and your attention. Thank you.
New Integrity Management and Detection System — Limited Grant-Funded Trial
In Issue 398, I wrote about a new integrity solution out of the UK winning a grant in order to establish a pilot in colleges and universities. In 398, I wrote:
I’m not familiar with it, but I will ask for a demo and report back.
Well, I did ask. And Dr. Stephen Langston, the Founder/CEO, gave me one. Literally the next morning.
And I have to say, I am impressed. Maybe a tad more than impressed. The software is called IntegraGuard and it’s kind of brilliant.
Let me do this now, early.
Free Grant-Funded Trial
Under the grant that Langston secured, he can license the platform for free. But there are limited spots. From Langston:
Actually have five signed up now but really keen to get our American friends on board. We can partner with ten institutions (colleges/universities) within the funding bracket and there are no fees within that ten. However. If demand is high then we will extend the trials to above ten institutions, but anything above ten will pay a nominal setup fee of £4,000 reduced from the expected £15,000 at full launch in 2026).
So, there are five free spots left as of the weekend. And there may be reduced spots after that. Contact Stephen.langston@uws.ac.uk to inquire. Whether you get in on this or not, getting a view of IntegraGuard is worth it, in my opinion.
The AIMS
AIMS is my term — academic integrity management system.
And it is the most impressive academic integrity workflow and management platform I’ve seen. Langston built it to make the entire process fast, easy and inclusive because he understands that the workload and lag for faculty is a major impediment to initiating misconduct cases. The extra work sucks. And many teachers would prefer not to do it, so they don’t bother.
According to Langston, the new system has reduced the instructor time required per case from five hours to five minutes. That may be hyperbole. But I also buy it. Everything from starting a case, to collecting the evidence, to setting a hearing — even the hearing itself — is handled in the system. Students see everything and can quickly file a no contest disposition, which Langston says somewhere around 90% of students do when they see the evidence.
The system, Langston says, has increased the number of teachers participating and increased the number of filed cases, which makes sense. Both of which are good. The school is also getting fewer repeat offenders, Langston says, adding:
Before, we had to fill out an 18 page form. Now it’s a simple drop-down menu.
I also like that it can generate an academic “heatmap” showing what courses, what professors (optionally), even what assessments, are generating the most integrity issues. Or worse in my view, which are not.
The system also has an automated compliance checklist which won’t let a case close until every compliance issue has been satisfied.
Seriously, it’s pretty impressive. And if it can increase participation and therefore increase enforcement, eventually reducing misconduct, I am all in.
The AI Detector That Isn’t
Nested inside the AIMS is a system called Lochi — short for Sherlock Holmes. And it’s an AI detector that does not detect AI, which is also kind of brilliant.
Simply, Langston says, Lochi takes 45 things that an AI detector would look for and finds them. It flags things such as common AI phrases, overuse of adjectives, essay formats, and language shared with other students. The system uses these to create a score and, importantly, it flags these indicators in the document, creating a visual evidence — not of “AI,” but of what would likely be AI if someone were to look for it.
Because it’s not an AI checker, schools that bizarrely refuse to use an AI detection system can use Lochi. It’s not an AI detector. Langston says:
We sort of built our own checker – look at what is AI using. And it started to bloody work.
Great. Adding:
You can actually see the pattern. It’s evidence. You can actually see it’s AI.
Frankly, I’m super interested to see if the schools that have rolled their eyes at AI detection embrace a system like this. I’m betting they won’t, because, as I’ve said many times, I don’t think their resistance has anything to do with AI detection. But that’s me. And we will see.
In any case, the combination of an AI non-checker checker and a streamlined AIMS has the potential to be quite powerful. And, in my view, easy to sell. If it’s faster, more efficient, more transparent for students, and catches AI use without an AI detector — please tell me why schools won’t use it.
I know the answer.
Et cetera
Langston says Lochi can be spun out separately, as its own tool. He and his company are still working on pricing for that.
He also says that neither Lochi nor IntegraGuard sit in the workflow like Turnitin does, scanning submissions proactively. Although he says it could, at some point. Now, educators have to tag the submissions they want to check, which no doubt still lets some professors not bother.
Not related to his new tools, Langston says that integrity cases at his school have gone up dramatically. Some, of course, is due to the better reporting and tracking system. But not all. Langston also said that:
70% [of the cases] is AI.
Then he paused and said:
Everything that crosses my desk is AI – every single one
I believe that too.
Anyway, I was really impressed with Lochi and IntegraGuard. I hope some schools give it a try.
President of University of Maryland Eastern Shore Accused of Plagiarism
A few minor or local news outlets have picked up the story that Heidi M. Anderson, President of University of Maryland Eastern Shore, has been accused of plagiarizing her 1986 doctoral dissertation at Purdue University.
Quoting the conservative and agenda-driven Daily Wire because it was the only story not behind a paywall:
Portions of the dissertation, which deal with the use of computers in pharmaceutical education, appear to be a repurposed and uncredited copy of a 1984 paper by Donna E. Larson, a professor of nursing, about the use of computers in nursing education, with simply the name of the field changed.
The story has photos and excerpts of the alleged unattributed copying.
Another point:
A significant stretch of Anderson’s paper is identical to “Introduction to Instructional Media” (1978) by David H. Jonassen, even though Jonassen’s name never appears in her paper. That includes mirroring Jonassen’s language that something was “recent” in the world of computers, without the reader knowing that it was actually new almost a decade prior.
Obviously, I pass no judgement on the plagiarism accusation and also note that the journalism source is not generally credible — though other local papers did cover it.
This is not the first time in recent years a university or college President has been accused of plagiarism — see Issue 26, Issue 315, or Issue 60.
Whistleblowers: LA Film School Was a Fraud
While we usually cover student misconduct or credential fraud, we’ve also occasionally shared incidents of teacher or administrator misconduct. So, passing along what probably ought to be a bigger story — according to coverage of a whistleblower lawsuit, the LA Film School was a “Massive Scam.”
The coverage says:
Two former executives at the Los Angeles Film School allege in a lawsuit that the school has operated a massive student loan scam for years that involves arranging for thousands of fake job placements for its graduates.
And:
Dave Phillips, the school’s former VP of career development, and Ben Chaib, the former VP of admissions, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the school in 2024. The suit, unsealed earlier this year, alleges that “nearly all” of the tens of millions of dollars the school receives each year from federal student aid programs is the result of fraud.
More:
LAFS receives about $85 million per year in federal assistance, of which about $60 million comes from student loans, the suit states. Another $19 million comes in veterans’ education grants.
The coverage also says that the owners of the school own Full Sail University in Florida as well. The Florida school also awards degrees in film and entertainment. Full Sail takes in $377 million a year in public funding, according to the reporting. Other coverage indicates Full Sail may be facing the same, or similar, accusations.
All I can say is that, in the very best of circumstances, it’s a challenge to get students to understand, appreciate, and invest effort in their own educations. When schools break faith with students so openly, so brazenly, the bargain is broken. It’s inexcusable.
I’m in no way saying that these allegations are true. I have no idea. But I do know that, either way, this would not be the first investor-owned, for-profit career school to scam its students and taxpayers.
I also have no idea why, at least so far, no higher education publication has covered this. The above article ran in Variety.
ICAI 2026 Annual Conference Registration Opens
In case you’re not on their outreach list, the ICAI, the International Center for Academic Integrity, has opened registration for their 2026 Annual Conference:
Registration is officially open for the 2026 ICAI Annual Conference! This year’s theme, Elevate Integrity, invites us to rise together—sharing ideas, building strategies, and advancing a culture of integrity in education.
Early bird rates are available now through January 9, 2026—don’t miss your chance to lock in savings and secure your spot.
Join us as we take academic integrity to new heights.
Register today: https://academicintegrity.org/aws/ICAI/pt/sp/annual
Lift Your Voice. Elevate Integrity.