Lived Experience of Faculty Members of Ethics in Virtual Education

The use of virtual education in teaching has provided a wide range of new educational opportunities; but the combination of ethical and legal risks associated with accessing and exchanging information in the form of ethical issues in the digital space has challenged this type of education. In this regard, in the present study, an attempt has been made to express the faculty members' experiences of ethics in virtual education. The research method was qualitative and based on this, 15 samples were interviewed from two groups of experts in technology and computer science and the field of social and humanities sciences. Content analysis method was used to analyze qualitative data. The results showed that faculty members' perceptions of the issue of ethics in virtual education originates from two approaches: ethical character and ethical security. Also, the results of research related to the ethical issues of using virtual education in higher education by faculty members show that these issues are raised in four dimensions of learning environmental health, cultural dimension, security dimension and identity dimension. In addition, the results show that ethical standards can be placed in three levels of civil liability to students, civil liability as a professional faculty member, and civil liability to the virtual education system. These ethical standards can include ethical issues try to solve them.

Cyber ethics adherence and the use of electronic information resources by undergraduates in public universities in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the adherence to cyber ethics by undergraduates in public universities in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria when using electronic information resources (EIRs).

Design/methodology/approach

Descriptive survey research design was used for this study. A total of 7,771 undergraduates of University of Uyo (UNIUYO) and Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Nigeria constitute the study population. The sampling technique used for the study is the multistage technique. A sampling fraction of 5% was used to arrive at a sample size of 389.

Findings

This study revealed that in UNIUYO, more than four-fifths of the undergraduates – 55 (84.6%) in science, 55 (82.1%) in engineering and 61 (81.3%) in education – noted that they used the internet on a daily basis, and in AKSU, almost all the respondents in science (50, 90.9%) and about four-fifths in engineering (45, 80.4%) observed that they also used the internet on a daily basis for academic work. Adherence to cyber ethics guidelines was high at UNIUYO in education (44.2) and science (43.0) and at AKSU in engineering (42.9) and science (44.7).

Practical implications

The use of EIRs in universities has brought enormous changes, especially on how information are accessed and used by undergraduates. As EIRs have become important component in university libraries and continuously used by undergraduates for academic work, there is the possibility that frequent accessibility and utilization could increase the chances of unethical usage. This study is therefore significant in taming the tide of abuse and misuse of e-information resources in universities.

Originality/value

The correlation between adherence to ethics guidelines and the use of EIRs was positively significant at both UNIUYO (r = 0.139*; df = 206; p < 0.05) and AKSU (r = 0.136*; df = 168; p < 0.05). A high level of adherence to cyber ethics by the undergraduates can be encouraged and maintained through the formulation of cyber ethics policy in the universities by academic librarians.

The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure University Teachers’ Attitude towards Ethical Use of Information Technology for a Sustainable Education

A self-administered measurement tool was developed and validated to provide data regarding ethical attitude of university teachers for a sustainable education. The research was based on several factors involved in forming attitudes towards the unethical information technology use. The sample: 334 Romanian teachers’ respondents who teach in the higher education system contributed to this research. A successions of factor analyses and structural equation modeling showed that a second-order model is a good fit for experimental data (χ2/df = 1.75, comparative fit index = 0.958, root mean square error of approximation = 0.045), however the partial least square (PLS-SEM) CFA approach revealed higher scores of factor loadings, implying the best fit to the model. This research suggested a structural model of ethical attitude of university teachers, composed by four factors measured by 13 indices. The results demonstrated that PLS-SEM CFA is appropriate for creating a valid structural model to measure university teachers’ ICT ethical attitude. The current research predicted a theoretical contribution to the field of ethical attitude of university teachers within a sustainable education context.