|
Ethics in Online Education Education is vital for the progress and prosperity of a person. Similarly, ethics are vital for educational system. In school, we are taught to respect our elders, to speak the truth and to do our duty diligently. This lays the foundation of ethical learning in a student’s mind. Without proper ethics, a student may not feel the need to learn the educational material since cheating can be done. What’s worse is that a lack of ethics during the educational process can result in a lack of ethics in the work force. Consequently, an employee without ethics will not only be in trouble for illegal operations but also earn disgrace and dishonor in the society. Today, we are in an era of online learning but the value and importance of ethics in education is intact. However, it would be interesting to explore the possibility of dissimilarities between ethics in traditional and online education. Ethics in education - Traditional vs. Online education It has to be admitted that both traditional and online student are expected to follow certain ethics. One perception is that the traditional student may be more inclined towards following fair and ethical behavior. It could bebecause he doesn’t have the access to technology that can help him with illegal yet assured success. An e-learner, on the other hand, has technology at his disposal which can be used for cutting the corners and achieving results in an unethical way.The flaw in this kind of thinking is that it leads to a dangerous notion that all online learners are or can be unethical. To be fair to both the traditional and digital learners, let’s bear in mind that value system can be equally followed or flouted by both. It’s just a matter of access and opportunity. Students are more technologically wired today than ever before (Tracey 2006, College and University). It’s no surprise then, that technological connections can influence a student’s behavior, his value system and code of conduct. Plagiarism This is one of the biggest problems facing online education system. Millions of students have fallen prey to the temptation called ‘Copy-paste’. It’s easy, it’s quick and it gets you grades – so why not? This is the attitude of most of those Ctrl+C –Ctrl+V fans. They do not hesitate from illicitly using material without proper referencing. To such students, plagiarism is an adventure that is exciting but the truth is it could be fatal to their academic career. To cite an example, in March 1996, two students at Ohio State University were found guilty of plagiarizing intellectual material belonging to others and using it in their disserations. The school’s plagiarism committee demanded that the department chair be dismissed after discovering that other acts of plagiarism took place for over two decades Student Substitution Some students use a proxy or a substitute who is more proficient in a task to complete an assignment. In online learning, this could be a major issue because the online instructor or teacher cannot be physically present to check who has completed the assignment. Making sure that the student has to read course material to complete the assignment and asking random questions from his submission could be a way to deal with the problem. Teaching Online Ethics It’s important that students begin to learn online ethics in classroom. It might not be easy considering the limitations of e-learning wherein a teacher does not meet his students. For online educators it is difficult to make an impression upon the minds of their student because they are not face-to-face. However, with due care and some preventive measures, online ethics can be taught and followed. For instance, teachers must run their students’ assignments through copyright checkers to confirm the originality of the content. Students must learn to give proper referencing for material used by them in their assignments/projects. Online teachers should also encourage discussions on ethics during the session. Onus lies on the teachers to lead by example. Some online tutors just keep recycling their course material and lectures which is not a healthy practice. Every teacher, be it tradition or digital, ought to put in effort to improvise and update their lecture and course material from time to time. More than anyone else, it’s the responsibility of a student to maintain integrity and follow the moral code of conduct while learning. Be ethical, learn the right things, the right way. For more details please visit: http://www.gyanfinder.com/blogs/1/42/ethics-in-online-education Gyan Web Solutions is a software product-based company. It was founded in December 2010, in Hyderabad, India by two enthusiastic and determined men with years of dynamic experience in the fields of electronic and computer engineering.
Related Articles -
online education, online learning,
|
