Designing Ethical and Equitable Online Courses

Introduction: Online Courses and the Ethics of Technology

Online courses, lacking the face-to-face discussion component of conventional classroom instruction, must contain some forum whereby students and instructors can interact in a common and equitable environment. The meeting place of instruction often takes the form of online chat rooms, learning management systems such as Blackboard, or simply communication via email between the instructor and students. The medium depends upon the resources of the online institution and the nature of the course. As the medium and content of online courses change, so do the ethical concerns involved on the part of the instructor.

Equitable Access and Fair Assessment in Online Learning

First and foremost, in an online course environment, it is important that the instructor not have privileged access to only a few learners based on the capabilities of the technology those students possess. The instructor must strive to be equally attentive in responding to all students during an online chat session or on a discussion board, even if some students have more visually sophisticated avatars or message designs. Content, rather than the appearance of the student's work on screen, must be the basis for awarding a grade. The substance of the assignment — not its visual presentation online — is what matters. Nor should students be penalized for occasional ungrammatical emails, if those emails are not technically part of the grading criteria for the course.

Instructors must be mindful that the digital divide affects students differently. Differences in hardware, internet speed, and software access can disadvantage certain learners, and course design should not inadvertently reward those with greater technological resources over those with fewer.

Aligning Technology Use with Pedagogical Goals

Unless it is integral to the course, the instructor should stress content knowledge of the material rather than the production of visually impressive documents that do not demonstrate real course knowledge. For example, it would be entirely appropriate in an online computer graphics course to require that students have access to Adobe software and use it throughout the course to meet pre-specified requirements. However, it would be far less justifiable to impose the same requirement on a basic communications or literature course — making a final graded assignment on The Scarlet Letter dependent on a student's ability to design an interactive web page about Nathaniel Hawthorne, rather than to critically analyze the novel. This concern is especially acute for older students or those unfamiliar with technology, who might be disadvantaged by prior computer knowledge that other students happen to possess but that was never part of the course's intended content.

When designing the online course, the instructor must first ask the fundamental pedagogical question: what skills and values is this course designed to impart, beyond demonstrating basic proficiency with the online format? The instructor must then decide what types of skill-building activities can be employed that do not unnecessarily privilege users of more expensive computers and programs, while still meeting the aims of the course. Technology may be used in the course, but not in such a way that it becomes the centerpiece of instruction — unless that is the specific intent.