E-Learning Sites Essay Example for Free

E-Learning Sites Essay E-learning has emerged as a revolutionizing concept in 21st century. It has given numerous opportunities to educational institutes and students in the form of flexibility, construction of knowledge and knowledge transfer using electronic media components. Contemporary services are more in need of e-learning facilities especially for educational institutes that aim at providing convenience and flexibility to students with better accessibility to course material/information content. E-learning websites have popularity due to its enormous benefits to individuals; however, raised several ethical and social issues that need to be addressed. E-Learning Sites Growth of internet and advancement in technology integration for supporting application processes has provided an opportunity to educational institutes to move towards e-learning educational facilities. E-learning sites provide user accessibility to course material from diverse places that increases the flexibility and information sharing capabilities of system. Majority of universities have developed e-learning management systems for its students that have multiple advantages both to university and students (Stair, 2008). These learning management systems involve the integration of technology and communication medium to enhance learning processes. Students have access to electronic features routing them to information sharing, customizability of information, presence of electronic contents and downloading features for supporting advance and better learning processes. Considering the advantages of e-learning sites several issues in dimensions of ethics, social, and professional principles arise that require evaluating the functionality and viability of e-learning sites. These issues place consideration on information system developers for proper analyzability and management to restrain the system effectiveness from potential risks associated with such issues. A number of social, ethical and professional issues have arisen concerning the development of e-learning sites for a university. These issues include the exercise of power, data quality, access to data and system, privacy and data protection, intellectual property rights of material available on website, plagiarism and copyright policy, prevention of fraudulent actions by users, equity for users, and impact of such information and communication system on the perception of individuals (Weert, 2003). E-learning Sites and Ethical Issues Electronic data is accessible to users irrespective of geographical boundaries. However, certain restrictions by regulatory authority may restrict the flow of traffic from specific IP locations. Development of e-learning sites although provided many benefits to individuals but also resulted in certain ethical implications for a professional. These ethical issues require proper management in order to maintain the practicability of system. It is essential for professional to analyze the component system of e-learning sites. Site should provide quality data to students based on their educational standard and need; such as availability of research papers and reference sections is being provided to university students. Data quality available on site must be proven for effective information and knowledge transfer ability to users that increase the understanding and enhance the knowledge level at better rate (Azari, 2003). Material available on e-learning websites is exposed to certain ethical challenges which include intellectual property rights; copy/pasting of text highlighting the principles of plagiarism, and use of owner’s content without his prior permission which directly affects the legal procedure for cyber theft crime (Azari, 2003). Such issues require maintaining the content material ownership rights and copyright policy in compliance with legal code of conduct. Students are given access to wider range of information and material content uploaded by teachers, and university management for students’ flexibility; such material content can be downloaded, easily transformed and integrated into other piece of content. This raises question on ethical responsibility of students for preserving the rights of material available on e-learning site and require considering it as theft, and cheating in case of plagiarised material (Weert, 2003). Cyber-technology provides accessibility to system development content which is exposed to serious threats for modification and alteration that reduces the effective functionality of such e-learning websites (Azari, 2003). Considering the role of e-learning sites in providing rich information benefit to students; viability issues raised on the ethical principles of information issue and subsequent loss risk for other student associated with such malpractices. E-learning Sites and Social Issues E-learning site development also encompasses certain social issues in relation to subjecting ethical obligations. System development professional must ensure that e-learning site for university does not result in discrimination at operative level. At some places, racial and cultural discrimination is observed by restricting the right of specific group to e-learning site (Adams McCrindle, 2008). This results in serious destructive behaviour by students affecting the reputation of university. Focus must be given to equity principles for users to e-learning site functions and materials irrespective of gender, racial or cultural differences. E-learning sites now offer advantages to student to share their views in blog’s section page on e-learning site. Such functionality components although are encouraging students to be productive in information and views sharing, but in some cases it create discrepancies among students behaviour which results in destructive behaviour action by students (Weert, 2003). It must be ensured that such blog section provides access to students only to filtered blog content. Perception of student is also influenced greatly by the information available on website and communication system that directly impact their behaviour and constructive attitude building. However, in consideration to that social issues strengthen concerning e-learning site; therefore, greater emphasis should be on formal aspects of education. Discriminatory behaviour must be restricted and equitable social practices must be adopted towards providing facility to students irrespective of their social class (Cross et al. , 2002). This would enhance the equity principle for learning and enhance the effectiveness of system. E-learning Sites and Professional Issues A number of professional issues are associated with e-learning sites development. First of all, security concern of sites must be addressed. Plagiarism, data theft, and unauthorized accessed to secure and restricted contents by users must be prevented through proper security system management (Bullen Janes, 2007). Professional issues enlarge concerning the prevention of fraudulent actions by users, and managing the access rights for specific group. Such as teachers panel must not be viewable to students, and students must have access to material only related their subjects. Customizability of features and privacy in relation to intellectual property rights advances the responsibility of professional towards addressing the ethical issues. E-learning sites encompass application system to foster easy access to information content for students. Professional must ensure that system procedure manual is easily conveyable to students and users while maintaining their privacy rights. Copyright policy must need to be formed to address the potential risk of plagiarism and copy/pasting of material irrespective of owner’s consent (Adams McCrindle, 2008). Related to this site security and content access must be proactive to potential harms and risks of modification by unidentified identity. Students are more oriented towards cracking the shortcut methods for doing their academic works especially assignments. Hence they prefer copying it from source that can not be detected from plagiarism detection software (Khan, 2005). Including to this, material available on e-learning sites can be changed and uploaded on other e-learning sites without consent of actual teacher especially presentation files. Professionals criticize this activity by claiming it as malpractices and direct theft on the intellectual property of teacher. Hence cyber crime act protect individuals (owners) from such activities and enforce legislations for preventing issues like unauthorized access to e-learning site material resources, protect intellectual property owner rights, and specifies code line for legal obligations on e-learning sites (Cross et al. , 2002). RECOMMENDATIONS Considering the issues specified in the above text following recommendation will enable managing the issues effectively. First of all, a specific user id and password must be assigned to all individuals on equality basis. To limit the unauthorized access student must be allowed to view only contents of courses in which he is registered. To protect the unauthorized use of owners’ material downloading option must be removed; only view feature for specific files will allow university to protect intellectual property rights and avoid plagiarism cases (Khan, 2005). Access to data can be secured through encryption of data content which will enable to access only limited feature and restrict the unwanted users to decrypt the high quality data content. In order to effectively manage the social issues associated with e-learning sites complete freedom must be given to students irrespective of their cultural/racial differences. E-learning site should encompass a protection feature to avoid fraudulent actions by users; document sharing feature by students must be refine and only approved featured responses/sharing documents by students must be allowed to visible on e-learning site for user flexibility (Adams McCrindle, 2008). CONCLUSION E-learning sites are attractive solutions for university to manage its need for information and learning material sharing with students. However, certain issues related to security, fraudulent actions, and malpractices by students such as plagiarism content reduce the effectiveness of such system. In order to effectively manage the ethical, professional and social issues for e-learning sites system developer must use contemporary techniques being used by other e-learning sites developers that not only maintains system security but also provides flexibility and customization feature to both students and faculty members while managing the issues related to intellectual property rights, plagiarism, and quality of data availability including accessibility based on equity rights. REFERENCES Adams, Andrew A. McCrindle, Rachel. (2008). Pandoras box: social and professional issues of the information age. Edition: 1. John Wiley and Sons Azari, Rasool. (2003). Current security management ethical issues of information technology. Edition: 1. Idea Group Inc. Bullen, Mark. Janes, Diane P. (2007). Making the transition to E-learning: strategies and issues. Edition: 1. Idea Group Inc. Cross, John A. et al. (2002). Implementing e-learning. Edition: 1. American Society for Training and Development Khan, Badrul Huda. (2005). Managing e-learning: design, delivery, implementation, and evaluation. Edition: 1. Idea Group Inc. Stair, Ralph M. (2008). Principles of Information Systems. Edition: 9. Cengage Learning Weert, Tom J. Munro, Robert K. (2003). Informatics and the digital society: social, ethical, and cognitive issues. Edition: 1. Springerlink

Drama piece using different extracts from other plays and social :: Drama

Drama piece using different extracts from other plays and social references from television programmes Drama essay one part two In our drama piece we are using different extract from other plays and social references from television programmes. We have also used song lyrics, which fitted the mood and context of the piece to inspire us and add to the drama. The portrayal in books and film has helped us to build up our characters and to see the reactions from the different times in which book like 'The cement garden' and films such as 'Girl, interrupted' are set. We used an extract of Macbeth's which we adapted to fit the performance using Lady Macbeth and the doctors lines, symbolising the problems as well as the cure all represented within one character shows the personality of the character, ie that she is self-aware, and tries to solve her own problems. The style and way it is performed as well as the difference in language makes it easily recognisable as Shakespeare, the genre is similar, with murder and influencing characters such as the Witches or our masked characters. Both Macbeth and our performance have an influential lead female, and also the male lead who is very confused with conflicting feelings. The times are very different; ours is modern whilst Macbeth is Shakespearian, written at the time of James I and was based on real characters, whilst ours is fictional. In Shakespearean times, Lady Macbeth would be washing her hands like our female character and may even be washing her hands in blood, this would all be on stage as Shakespeare likes the audience to see everything. Lady Macbeth is a very unstable character, similar to our female lead, and the washing of hands is a classic sign of mental instability. In The Crucible the style is quite different to our piece as there are much more main characters in The Crucible, but also similar because of the two female and one male relationship in both pieces. The Brother in our piece is similar to John Proctor, as they both have two love interests and choose the 'right' person. The Crucible is also set in early America, very different to our modern piece. The cultures at the time of The Crucible portray stereotypical views of young women and relationships and would look down on anything different. This is displayed within our performance with the brother being ashamed of himself for loving his sister; Proctor is also ashamed of his feelings for Abigail. We used songs with lyrics that fitted the mood and context of the scene and looked at the way incest is portrayed on television.

Boeing Case Study

Q1: How would you describe Boeing’s unethical culture. So called rotten to the core (5)? The unethical culture inside Boeing was widespread, and affected multiple geographic areas and there were cases across all divisions of such unethical behaviour. The promotion of the well-being of stakeholders was no longer being practised. Managers were no longer taking the claims of all stakeholders into consideration in their decision-making, and as such all stakeholder groups were at threat from this unethical behaviour, including the stockholders, employees, suppliers and distributors and the customers.The problem is that the relentless pursuit of self-interest was evident, and this seemingly led to a collective disaster inside the company, as one or more people started to profit from being unethical in the company, which likely encouraged other managers and employees to act in the same way. As a result, the efficiency and effectiveness of the company and its performance was compromis ed (e. g. failing to capitalise on cost savings initiatives).All in all, this resulted in reputation loss (e. g. humiliating ouster of Harry Stonecipher). As unethical behaviour was evident from the former CEO (affair with colleague) to his executive and other lower level managers (imprisoned employees), it is understandable and appropriate to refer to the culture and being ‘rotten to the core’. The culture that existed was simply unacceptable. Q2: What kind of factors resulted in Boeing’s unethical culture (10)?There are a number of factors that led to and resulted in culture at Boeing being unethical in nature. Some of these helped to create the environment for poor ethical decisions (e. g. poor ethics), and some of the factors were direct breaches of ethical conduct that served to stimulate further acts of ethical breach in the organisation. a)Environmental The four rules for ethical decision-making had been violated inside Boeing. Utilitarian rule – th e greatest good for the greatest number of people was not being pursued †¢Moral rights rule – decisions were not protecting the fundamental rights and privileges of people †¢Justice rule – distribution of benefits were not fair, equitable, and impartial †¢Practical rule – people in society didn’t not find these decisions and behaviours acceptable The breach of the environmental factors is supported by the complacency amongst the management that existed. Management was used to hiding behind bureaucracy, and there was a lack of effective and centralised leadership.Thus McDonnel-Douglas and Boeing was cultures were still evident in the same organisation. Management also had a culture of excess – they went away on posh getaways for their executive breakouts, â€Å"played golf, and closed down the bar†. The culture in the organisation was a closed culture and a â€Å"culture of silence†. There was no whistle-blowing on ethic s breaches. There was a general lack of attention to factors that create an enabling environment for productive and efficient work execution within ethical norms.Appropriate incentives were lacking and not in place, when the company grew as a result of the merger, there was no strong central control or corporate governance – which resulted in ethical breaches throughout the organisation. Also as a result of the merger, there remained internal conflicts and rivalries by the management teams which were not addressed, resulting in two cultures that didn’t integrate and work together. This led to a number of challenges such as good ideas not being shared, and internal cost cutting measures being hindered. b)Breach of ethical conductThere were also breaches of ethical conduct which only served to perpetuate and entrench the rogue ethical culture: †¢The former CEO’s relationship with his female Vice-President †¢The abuse of attorney-client privilege in cover ing up internal studies †¢Unethical pay discrepancy where females earned less than men at Boeing †¢The theft of 250000 pages of proprietary documents Because self-interest can lead to a collective disaster when others are encouraged to follow suit, it is likely that these acts further the company as a collective in terms of its adopted culture and reputation. The lack of legislation banning some behaviours (e. g. iaisons and affairs with colleagues) may have contributed to such conduct. However, neither law or ethics are fixed principles, and the managers should have used the combination of individual, organisational, occupational, and societal ethics to guide their the behaviour and conduct. All in all, the standards by which the Boeing managers ought to have governed themselves in terms of their individual, organisational, occupational and societal ethics were violated, resulting â€Å"in a tragedy of the commons†, where the company’s performance was compro mised, and the company suffered a reputation loss (the publicised Palm Springs affair).Q3: What steps is the new CEO taking to change Boeing’s culture and make ethical behaviour the centre of attention (10)? McNerney embarked on a process to re-establish business ethics at Boeing, putting individual, organisational, occupational, and societal ethics back at the centre of decision-making. He confronted the unethical culture directly and head-on by giving a â€Å"wake-up call† to his executive management team at the company’s annual executive retreat. This included the reading out of prison numbers at the retreat.He was honest and direct when telling the managers that they had â€Å"gotten carried away with themselves†. An important step was to encourage managers to talk about ethical lapses, and undo the culture of silence that permeated the company. He encouraged people to â€Å"speak up and take the risk†. McNerney paid attention to detail, includ ing remembering employee’s names, to ensure that they feel important and valued, and thereby defusing the need to take ethical short-cuts in their work conduct and behaviour.Some of the direct tools he used to achieve his culture change was centralising leadership to exert more influence and control over the 3 divisions in Boeing. Also, he aligned pay to ethical values and behaviours, rewarding collaborations amongst teams and divisions, and rewarding those who were living Boeing’s values. These values included the promoting of integrity and the avoiding of abusive behaviour. McNerney realised that he had a direct influence on the culture he wanted to create and chose to lead by example.He adopted an understanding and caring type leadership style, asking less technical questions in meetings with staff, and focusing on the human element. This form of leadership quickly established trust. People were able to have faith and confidence in him, and as a result he â€Å"win s praise from co-workers†. He was able to salvage and restore Boeing’s reputation as a result of the combination of steps taken above. However, there was still room for improvement in that of adopting a change and transformation programme.Such a programme would have set very change objectives, been communicated throughout the organisation, and measures established to track progress towards the desired culture and ethical changes. â€Å"Giving speeches about management virtue† and then following through with concrete actions – has a place on the change and transformation programme towards an ethical culture. McNerney could have also drawn-up a code a conduct for his team. This approach would have been more directive, and would have sent a clear and strong message in terms of the importance of ethical conduct and behaviour. Boeing Case Study Q1: How would you describe Boeing’s unethical culture. So called rotten to the core (5)? The unethical culture inside Boeing was widespread, and affected multiple geographic areas and there were cases across all divisions of such unethical behaviour. The promotion of the well-being of stakeholders was no longer being practised. Managers were no longer taking the claims of all stakeholders into consideration in their decision-making, and as such all stakeholder groups were at threat from this unethical behaviour, including the stockholders, employees, suppliers and distributors and the customers.The problem is that the relentless pursuit of self-interest was evident, and this seemingly led to a collective disaster inside the company, as one or more people started to profit from being unethical in the company, which likely encouraged other managers and employees to act in the same way. As a result, the efficiency and effectiveness of the company and its performance was compromis ed (e. g. failing to capitalise on cost savings initiatives).All in all, this resulted in reputation loss (e. g. humiliating ouster of Harry Stonecipher). As unethical behaviour was evident from the former CEO (affair with colleague) to his executive and other lower level managers (imprisoned employees), it is understandable and appropriate to refer to the culture and being ‘rotten to the core’. The culture that existed was simply unacceptable. Q2: What kind of factors resulted in Boeing’s unethical culture (10)?There are a number of factors that led to and resulted in culture at Boeing being unethical in nature. Some of these helped to create the environment for poor ethical decisions (e. g. poor ethics), and some of the factors were direct breaches of ethical conduct that served to stimulate further acts of ethical breach in the organisation. a)Environmental The four rules for ethical decision-making had been violated inside Boeing. Utilitarian rule – th e greatest good for the greatest number of people was not being pursued †¢Moral rights rule – decisions were not protecting the fundamental rights and privileges of people †¢Justice rule – distribution of benefits were not fair, equitable, and impartial †¢Practical rule – people in society didn’t not find these decisions and behaviours acceptable The breach of the environmental factors is supported by the complacency amongst the management that existed. Management was used to hiding behind bureaucracy, and there was a lack of effective and centralised leadership.Thus McDonnel-Douglas and Boeing was cultures were still evident in the same organisation. Management also had a culture of excess – they went away on posh getaways for their executive breakouts, â€Å"played golf, and closed down the bar†. The culture in the organisation was a closed culture and a â€Å"culture of silence†. There was no whistle-blowing on ethic s breaches. There was a general lack of attention to factors that create an enabling environment for productive and efficient work execution within ethical norms.Appropriate incentives were lacking and not in place, when the company grew as a result of the merger, there was no strong central control or corporate governance – which resulted in ethical breaches throughout the organisation. Also as a result of the merger, there remained internal conflicts and rivalries by the management teams which were not addressed, resulting in two cultures that didn’t integrate and work together. This led to a number of challenges such as good ideas not being shared, and internal cost cutting measures being hindered. b)Breach of ethical conductThere were also breaches of ethical conduct which only served to perpetuate and entrench the rogue ethical culture: †¢The former CEO’s relationship with his female Vice-President †¢The abuse of attorney-client privilege in cover ing up internal studies †¢Unethical pay discrepancy where females earned less than men at Boeing †¢The theft of 250000 pages of proprietary documents Because self-interest can lead to a collective disaster when others are encouraged to follow suit, it is likely that these acts further the company as a collective in terms of its adopted culture and reputation. The lack of legislation banning some behaviours (e. g. iaisons and affairs with colleagues) may have contributed to such conduct. However, neither law or ethics are fixed principles, and the managers should have used the combination of individual, organisational, occupational, and societal ethics to guide their the behaviour and conduct. All in all, the standards by which the Boeing managers ought to have governed themselves in terms of their individual, organisational, occupational and societal ethics were violated, resulting â€Å"in a tragedy of the commons†, where the company’s performance was compro mised, and the company suffered a reputation loss (the publicised Palm Springs affair).Q3: What steps is the new CEO taking to change Boeing’s culture and make ethical behaviour the centre of attention (10)? McNerney embarked on a process to re-establish business ethics at Boeing, putting individual, organisational, occupational, and societal ethics back at the centre of decision-making. He confronted the unethical culture directly and head-on by giving a â€Å"wake-up call† to his executive management team at the company’s annual executive retreat. This included the reading out of prison numbers at the retreat.He was honest and direct when telling the managers that they had â€Å"gotten carried away with themselves†. An important step was to encourage managers to talk about ethical lapses, and undo the culture of silence that permeated the company. He encouraged people to â€Å"speak up and take the risk†. McNerney paid attention to detail, includ ing remembering employee’s names, to ensure that they feel important and valued, and thereby defusing the need to take ethical short-cuts in their work conduct and behaviour.Some of the direct tools he used to achieve his culture change was centralising leadership to exert more influence and control over the 3 divisions in Boeing. Also, he aligned pay to ethical values and behaviours, rewarding collaborations amongst teams and divisions, and rewarding those who were living Boeing’s values. These values included the promoting of integrity and the avoiding of abusive behaviour. McNerney realised that he had a direct influence on the culture he wanted to create and chose to lead by example.He adopted an understanding and caring type leadership style, asking less technical questions in meetings with staff, and focusing on the human element. This form of leadership quickly established trust. People were able to have faith and confidence in him, and as a result he â€Å"win s praise from co-workers†. He was able to salvage and restore Boeing’s reputation as a result of the combination of steps taken above. However, there was still room for improvement in that of adopting a change and transformation programme.Such a programme would have set very change objectives, been communicated throughout the organisation, and measures established to track progress towards the desired culture and ethical changes. â€Å"Giving speeches about management virtue† and then following through with concrete actions – has a place on the change and transformation programme towards an ethical culture. McNerney could have also drawn-up a code a conduct for his team. This approach would have been more directive, and would have sent a clear and strong message in terms of the importance of ethical conduct and behaviour.

Ethics Ethical And Ethical Dilemmas - 1473 Words

Ethics Help the Helper in Ethical Dilemmas Fred L. Slack University of the Rockies Abstract In ethical decision-making, there is an established way to address resolving ethical dilemmas systematically and following established decision-making steps to resolve ethical dilemmas effectively. Applied established ethical-decision making steps along with an understanding of established ethical codes is essential Here we will comprehensively discuss how a professional would apply systematic steps toward a resolution of an ethical dilemma, and discuss the steps to consider taking in the process of making an ethical decision. What is the process to include the client in making your decisions? In what way or ways is†¦show more content†¦My obligation to help the client is one example of the moral principle fidelity in other words, keeping the trust in this relationship with my client. This client is making progress and is benefiting from therapy. Here are the systematic steps towards resolution of this dilemma? Here are the steps in order to make a reasonable decision about a problem or dilemma. Step one; identifying the problem or dilemma. Ascertain all of the information the client has about the problem or dilemma, also any collateral information from an outside source like his primary care doctors or drug treatment counselors and legal sources. This will enable the professional to get to the specific nature of the problem (Corey, 2011). Kevin has lost his employment and cannot pay for his therapy. That is the scenario describing the problem. Step two; identify potential solutions, like Kevin receiving unemployment insurance or the possibility of county social services picking up the cost of his medical bills. Are there any cultural issues that need to be taken into consideration? Kevin could be an African American and have some mental disabilities that might qualify him for Social Security disability support. Step Thr ee; Review the ethical codes that are pertinent to this type of problem. The code of conduct has some ethical codes Kevin’s problems might be identified under such as the code 6.04-