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Jeniffer Harrison
Foundations of Education – Spring 2010
Ethics Article Review

Ethics in E-Learning

According to our textbook, Introduction to Teaching: Becoming a Professional,

“Ethics are the sets of moral standards for acceptable professional behavior, and all

professions have codes of ethics intended to guide professionals as they make decisions

about how to act. In it’s code of ethics, the National Education Association (NEA), the

largest professional organization in education, addresses the behavior of teachers working

with their students” (Kauchak and Eggen, 19). In an effort to investigate the ethics and

safeguards of ethics in an online educational setting the following article was analyzed

“Ethical Issues in E-Learning: Insights from the Application of the Stakeholder Analysis

in Three E-learning Cases”. The article clearly states in the abstract and introduction as

the authors discuss how E-learning faces many challenges, which are pre-existing in

many educational settings. The authors note there are several other essential issues, which

need to be addressed regarding e-learning courses; however, their primary concerns

include the identification of the ethical issues which must be considered during the

conception and implementation of an e-learning class. Additionally, the authors

specifically concentrate on the issue of identifying “…ethical issues that concern the

stakeholders involved, and stress the need for their consideration when implementing an

e-learning course” (Kauchak and Eggen, 19).

The primary findings of the aforementioned paper clustered their findings into

five distinct categories – Management, Content Development, Teaching Staff, and

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Jeniffer Harrison
Foundations of Education – Spring 2010
Ethics Article Review
Students (Chozos, Lytras, and Pouloudi, 5-6) Within the perimeters of these

categories lie the authors’ suggestions for educators to “recognize the supreme

importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence, and the nurture of democratic

principle. Essential to these goals are the protection of freedom to learn and to teach and

the guarantee of equal educational opportunity to all. The educator accepts the

responsibility to adhere to the highest ethical standards” (Chozos, Lytras, and

Pouloudi, 2) In each category a clearly defined role in achieving the most ethical

behavior is spelled out for the reader. Below is a summary of each category:

1. Management is responsible for the inception and implementation of

projects in regard to ethical codes. The Institutional Policy Maker (a

sub-group of management) determines the strategy by which the

educational system will adhere to policies regarding e-learning

courses.

2. Content Development stakeholders comprise a group of individuals

interested in the information the professors/teachers are disseminating

to the students. Both the Content Authors and the Scientific

Coordinators generally have little experience with e-learning courses;

however their goal is to provide ethical boundaries for both the student

and the instructors via good practice standards.

3. Regarding the issue of ethics in an e-learning environment,

teachers/instructors are responsible for managing the learning process

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Jeniffer Harrison
Foundations of Education – Spring 2010
Ethics Article Review
by way of the e-learning framework set up by the other contributors at

the school/university.

4. Technology Relater Staff implements the system by which the

students and teachers will receive and send information. Inside this

group are several sub-groups; however, the E-learning Platform

Specialist is the crucial connection, which is situated between the

content provider and the learner. The findings of this information also

noted that a universal language between the content author and the e-

learning platform specialist is imperative for the success of this

endeavor.

5. Whether students volunteer or are forced to be E-learners the primary

interest of the student becomes the integration of knowledge and

obtaining a degree or certificate upon completion of their program.

The study found that too often the students are often disappointed by

the “static content of html pages, which are the containers of learning

content in e-learning implementation” (Chozos, Lytras, and

Pouloudi, 5-6).

It is clear that ethical concerns, which have plagued the educational system from

its inception, continue to plague our current school systems. The introduction of

computers, online classes, and remote learning has amplified these same issues. The

author’s of this article have set out some very realistic, straightforward, and insightful

ideas on how to begin to provide an educational environment, which limits the amount of
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Jeniffer Harrison
Foundations of Education – Spring 2010
Ethics Article Review
unethical behaviors on both the students’ and teacher/professors’ behalf. It should be

noted that without a plan for the present as well as a workable plan for the future our

school systems would never catch up to the exponentially maturing nature of the

technology age.
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Jeniffer Harrison
Foundations of Education – Spring 2010
Ethics Article Review
Bibliography

Chozos, Polyneikis, Miltos Lytras, and Dr. Nancy Pouloudi.

"Ethical Issues in E-learning: Insights from the

Application of Stakeholder Analysis in Three e-learning

Cases.." n. pag. Web. 6 Feb 2010.

http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~nick/papers/EL_%20paper.pdf: 1 – 10.

Kauchak, Donald and Paul Eggen. INTRODUCTION TO

TEACHING. 3rd. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 2007-

03-08, 2007: 19.