I found an interesting article regarding some ethical issues that arise with eLearning, specifically the teacher or the institution providing the eLearning. The first issue that the article discusses, referred to as the most important moral challenge for the eTeacher, is the issue to maintain the quality of the educational process. The article states that although there is nothing that legally prevents the offering of illegitimate degree programs that have no inherent educational value, in the end, this becomes a moral issue.
A related but distinct ethical issue for the eTeacher is full disclosure of academic regulations and standards for eLearners. With a completely different platform of interaction between eLearner and eTeacher, the provider must be attentive to new ways of transmitting information and assuring genuine communication. Simply publishing the academic catalogue on a website may not be enough. In the process of all communication, the eTeacher must assure that it is the actual eLearner who is in communication and that no academic fraud is being committed. This is no different from the traditional teacher-learner relationship; it is just much more complex when the relationship is at a distance.
The last idea mentioned is an issue that education providers have always faced, this is the challenge of providing appropriate learning resources. Not only are books and learning equipment important, but providing a reliable network infrastructure with effective learning software becomes absolutely critical. The article concludes by explaining that with the implementation of this network infrastructure, issues such as network security and safety arise, which have genuine ethical implications. Furthermore, it emphasizes the fact that a range of duplication and copyright policies must be in place to protect against “softlifting” and illegal use of electronic resources.
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On another note, I believe that the main aim of e-learning is in itself of good moral, since it involves providing the most of education to most people. More importantly it is certainly of a good moral to provide online education to individuals who could not afford normal education due to reasons as money, location and others.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there still exist ethical risks in e-learning that must be managed accordingly because as e-learning is becoming widespread, hence managing ethical implications need to become more systematic too.
As highlighted in the paper read by Seafarer the more popular eLearning becomes the more work needs to be done in the ethics involved.
ReplyDeleteThe eLearning provider has to ensure that work is being done by the eLearner and not someone else. This could be verified, for example, by interviewing the learner from time to time. Another idea might be to save videos taken by web cams while the student is online and working on eLearning modules. A sample from all videos taken can then be checked to verify that the student working was actually the student that is enrolled with the eLearning provider.
I agree with what has been said so far. At the same time, I stand amazed with the complexity of human interactions and e-Learning is not exception in this. We have to ensure fairness because it is possible for anyone to 'subcontract' his/her e-Learning process to someone else in order to obtain better grades or for any other reason for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThe will to ensure fairness is obviously all the more important with e-Learning because although loopholes have always existed and will probably always exist, such technical loopholes stand to pave the way to whoever wants to cheat to do so in the comfort of his own home! On the other hand, technology enables the minimisation of certain loopholes and this augurs well for the learning process to be fair and ethical.
Besides the eTeacher and the eLearner, ethical issues arise for the administration of eSchools / eInstitutes / eColleges to ensure a computerised system which not only promotes fairness and an ethical approach but also tries to eradicate any chances of abuse.
I too agree with what others have said above. As educators we need to be sure of students providing their own work, and not someone else's, despite the fact that most of us have already met plagiarised work in various forms under the traditional methods.
ReplyDeletePrivacy and security are also noteworthy issues, and the administration will find themselves challenged to provide a safe platform that can prevent the possibility of abuse in any form.
As many said above, there is no way of knowing 100% that the work submitted through e learning is the students own. I also have another thought on the subject however. I think that through e learning there is more fairness in terms of 'favoritism'. Since there is no human contact, there can be no emotional attatchment, which might make marking more fair, since there is no element of being biased.
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