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Dealing with Ethical Issues in MOOC Design and Delivery: A Case Study

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Blended Learning: Aligning Theory with Practices (ICBL 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9757))

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Abstract

This case study provides a contextualized description of the various ethical issues faced by an instructional designer in the design and delivery of a MOOC. The defined characteristics of MOOCs in general (e.g., massive enrollment, open access, diverse student population) and the uniqueness of specific cases require a set of ethical decisions to be made for dealing with issues such as bias, fairness, copyright, and disruptions. Those decisions, along with their rationale and effects are elaborated and discussed in this study from the aspects of theoretical assumptions, pragmatic considerations, and empirical evidence. Based on the case study findings, this paper concludes with a list of informed advices and learned lessons to guide instructional designers and instructors to deal with similar ethical issues in future MOOCs.

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Acknowledgement

This study has been supported by the research project named “Educational and Instructional Model Research Supported by Information Technology” (Project No. 14JZD044), which is funded by China’s Ministry of Education as a Critical Research Project in the fields of Philosophy and Social Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Educational Information Technology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Heng Luo & Mingzhang Zuo

  2. Collaborative and Innovation Center for Educational Technology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Heng Luo & Mingzhang Zuo

  3. College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, USA

    April Millet & Richard Alley

Authors
  1. Heng Luo
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  2. April Millet
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  3. Richard Alley
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  4. Mingzhang Zuo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heng Luo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Open University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Simon K.S. Cheung

  2. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Lam-for Kwok

  3. Peking University, Beijing, China

    Junjie Shang

  4. Peking University, Beijing, China

    Aihua Wang

  5. Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong, China

    Reggie Kwan

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Luo, H., Millet, A., Alley, R., Zuo, M. (2016). Dealing with Ethical Issues in MOOC Design and Delivery: A Case Study. In: Cheung, S., Kwok, Lf., Shang, J., Wang, A., Kwan, R. (eds) Blended Learning: Aligning Theory with Practices . ICBL 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9757. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41165-1_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41165-1_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41164-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41165-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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