School of Languages at XJTLU Conference 2024

For a number of years now IT has provided an important channel by which to deliver and enhance learning. Musheer (2018) notes how, as a result, many educational providers have sought to integrate IT into their systems. This has not always made life better though as the sheer volume and variety of electronic devices, and always available internet access (see Jordan, Bai and Morris, 2017), has often impeded or adversely affected learning as much as it has enhanced it. Aung and Khiang (2015) and Sahar Shweiki et al. (2021) have drawn attention to how ethics related issues have become more pronounced due to the increased use of technology. According to Vermaas et al. (2011), values, norms, virtues and responsibility are some of the core ethical principles in technology uptake and use. Álvarez (2014) adds to the technology debate by advocating the importance of being ethical as a language educator perspective. For online learning, Salhab et al. (2021) have advocated that ethics be a key feature of all educational content, methods and evaluation tools. To define more clearly what is meant by ethical considerations, the implication here is that we are considering the expectations and concerns which feature in and influence educational delivery, output and evaluation. This is because when academic ethics are lacking, or these are not communicated with clarity, it is likely that malpractice through accident, ambiguity or design may result. On that note, this presentation will address a variety of interrelated areas. It will begin by briefly introducing the topic of ethics, and more specifically the area of ethics as this pertains to teaching and assessment. It will then look at some of the areas which in 2024 present the greatest concern for academic ethical issues and misconduct, and suggest ways in which these can be mitigated against.