Ethical Considerations in relation to Learning Module

There are many ethical considerations presented in this document.  There are ethical responsibilities between designers and users. There are ethical responsibilities for the designer and the content.  There are also considerations for intellectual property being used as content.  The designer must take into consideration the platform they are using to deliver content.

Addressing the last idea, I am using Blackboard CourseSites as a LMS.  In the FAQ webpage from Blackboard, one of the questions is, “Is CourseSites secure?”  (Blackboard, 2016)The answer is: “Absolutely.  CourseSites is a password protected site which requires all users to login using a current Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo account, or a chosen CourseSites username and password.”  (Blackboard, 2016) This is reasonably assuring because all of these other sites they are referring to can be hacked.  If somehow you have the password to another person’s Facebook then you can get into their CourseSites.  This brings up another ethical question. How can we be sure that somebody else is not submitting course work?  Another FAQ: “Can parents or guardians of K12 students be invited to CourseSites?”  (Blackboard, 2016) The answer is: “presently, only students can be invited to join CourseSites and participate in courses. Teachers can elect to have parents view their course(s) as guests.”  (Blackboard, 2016) These are ethical questions as addressed by Blackboard CourseSites.

The ethical responsibility of the designer with the intellectual property used within course content will be addressed in a later learning module within this overarching course.  This learning module on accessing information is a segment within the overall course Information Literacy.  Accessing Information is the 2^nd Standard of Information Literacy.  The ACRL writes: “The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.” (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2016) This standard teaches that students should learn about information issues such as: copyright, plagiarism, and intellectual property. They should learn about citations.  What is a citation?  Why do you cite?  How do you cite?

There are many ethical considerations when it comes to designing an online course.  This is just the beginning.  Other points raised in the ethical considerations document include questions: Will user content be tracked?  Will user data be sold to 3^rd party businesses?  I suppose that the answer is, No, in Blackboard CourseSites – and I also will not use student data for unethical purposes.

Ethical Statement:
1.  Your privacy is of utmost concern.  Your name or any other personal data will be used for advertising or any other types of data collection.
2. Your assignments and grades will remain private, accessed only by user name and password.
3. There will be no data tracking of user activity within this learning management system.
4.  The student is responsible for giving credit to the intellectual property of others in submitting assignments.  APA style citations are expected for this course. This includes in text citations as well as a references page.
5.  The students have the moral obligation to submit their own work.  Any students who plagiarize will fail the assignment or the course.  The instructors discretion will be applied.

References:

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016). The Standards: Step-by-Step. Retrieved from Americal Library Association: http://www.ala.org/acrl/issues/infolit/standards/steps#standard5

Blackboard. (2016). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from CourseSites: https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/faq.html#is-coursesites-secure