Introduction
This paper presents an analysis
of the ethical issues involved in a case study related to online learning and
presents potential solutions. This case study focusses on an instructor with
years of experience who is suspicious that her students are having family
members or others represent them in the faceless synchronous class as well as
doing their work for them. This teacher is also dealing with the schools
administrations advice to avoid confrontation with the students and parents.
Case Study
The case study used for this paper
involves Great Potential Academy (GPA) in Texas. This academy is an online
charter school for grades six through twelve. This charter school serves its
own county and five of its surrounding counties. Sixty percent of the students
are either special needs students or students who have failed at least one
grade in public schools. GPA has a synchronous classroom that uses written text
message or microphones for a means of communication between teachers and
students. Students are represented on the screen as a blue head with their name
under it. The classroom uses a whiteboard so the teacher can display
presentations and other instructional material to the whole class.
Sally is an experienced classroom
teacher at GPA who holds a Master’s in Education and feels comfortable in the
synchronous online environment but suspects that some of the students are not
doing their own work; perhaps parents or siblings are helping. Sally questions the
ethics of one student in particular Daniel, who is in eleventh grade and has
failed out of three previous schools. Daniel’s family is upper middle class and
desperately wants him to get his high school diploma; although, Daniel does not
seem to have the same motivation.
Daniel only replies to Sally via
text and does not use the microphone, his assignments are perfect, and he
scores very well on his tests. Sally suspects his parents or someone else is
impersonating him; based on all the aforementioned facts. Sally’s school
administrator does not want her to confront Daniel’s family due to the fact
that all evidence is circumstantial. If Sally does decide to confront the
family, she risks hurting her standing with the school, the student, and the
parents. The administrator even went so far as to suggest that if the classes
were more engaging she would not need to worry about participation.
Analysis of Case Study
While the
evidence in Daniel’s case legally looks to be only circumstantial, it is apparent
to most critical thinkers that there is a high probability plagiarism is in
play. The evidence suggests that a parent or sibling is impersonating Daniel,
resulting in good written work and high scores. The inability to communicate
with Daniel verbally when requested via text would lend one to believe that he
was not present at those times. There is a growing culture of people who are in
line with the utilitarian theory which “encourages decision making for the
common good rather than their own social class” (Klein, 2011). Utilitarian’s would
argue that “If earning a grade or a degree is considered the greatest good to an
individual or the family of the individual, perhaps choosing to plagiarize in
order to achieve the grade or degree is the option a utilitarian learner will
choose” (Klein, 2011).
As Plagiarism
becomes more prevalent due to the many number of opportunities the online environment
has for dishonesty, it must be dealt with to avoid the following effects:
- It gives the school a bad name when businesses hire a person with an online degree and they turn out to be incompetent because they really did not do the work.
- It is not fair to the students who have worked hard to graduate.
- The cheating student may fail in life due to the inability to hold a job because they did not have the necessary competencies.
- The instructor cannot administrate and grade works fairly if some of the students have aces doing their work for them. In many classes the instructor self-evaluates the effectiveness of the class throughout by the work being submitted and makes adjustments; they may even grade on a curve.
- Online schools can risk not being accredited or losing their existing if it is determined many of their students are cheating.
- It is ethically and legally wrong to impersonate another person who is liable to represent himself or herself under contract.
Potential Solutions
This case brings light to the
needed proof or solid evidence that a student is cheating. One of the problems
Sally is the absence of Daniel’s proven work to compare to that which has been
turned in online. A possible solution for future students would be to have a
live pre-entry essay each year which is completed by students to gauge their
basic skills and provide a comparative measure for future work; I am sure the students’
abilities will improve, after all, they are in school but there are certain attributes
that do not defy logic. In Daniel’s case, Sally could initiate an in-person
activity with each of her students and advertise it as such so that none of the
families would feel targeted or offended. This activity would be used to
validate works turned in were those authored by the student. Sileo & Sileo
agree with this strategy and take it one step further as they suggest that
online classes should be designed to include some seat-time to provide face-to-face
interaction that may help deter dishonesty (Academic
Dishonesty and Online Classes: A Rural Education Perspective, 2008). One day every few
weeks or whatever amount of time deemed appropriate would suffice; of course
there may need to be a virtual option for those with special needs or other
issues preventing this participation. The virtual would need to include real
faces not the ‘blue faces.’
Another option that may be more palatable
for students and parents would be to replace the ‘blue’ face with a video full-time
feed of the student; or at least a few days a week. This would certainly allow
the teacher time to validate the student’s presence and that desired learning
is taking place. To further reduce the risks of academic dishonesty “faculty
members and students should develop academic integrity policies collaboratively
and identify clear examples of cheating behaviors, such as cooperating on and
submitting assignments multiple times to meet different class requirements” (Sileo & Sileo, 2008).
Finally, Sally
needs to reconcile her role with the school’s administration and convey her commitment
to her students to ensure they meet the requirements and expectations for
learning and graduation.
Summary
This paper presented a case study
involving ethical issues surrounding online learning, providing analysis of
those issues along with potential solutions. In this case study an instructor
with years of experience was suspicious that her students are having family
members or others represent them in the faceless synchronous class as well as
doing their work for them. This teacher was also dealing with the schools
administrations advice to avoid confrontation with the students and parents.
Potential reasons for the dishonesty were discussed along with possible
solutions and the teacher’s inherent risks of confronting the issue.
Klein, D. (2011). Why Learners Choose Plagiarism: A
Review of Literature. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning
Objects, 7, 97-110.
Sileo, J. M., & Sileo, T. W. (2008). Academic
Dishonesty and Online Classes: A Rural Education Perspective. Rural
Special Education Quarterly, 27(1/2), 55-60.
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