Imagine you are taking an accounting data analytics class. The goal of the course is to help you learn how to use new and emerging technologies with hands-on experience. The course uses a unique instruction method that allows students to submit their daily homework assignment as many times as they want until the assignment is due. After each submission, the student receives feedback for each problem, including the right answer for any missed problems. The problems remain the same, so the student can rework the assignment and, if they are willing to put in the effort, receive a perfect score on every homework assignment.

The professor told students that she is using this teaching approach to help students learn the material in the best way possible. The professor believes that to learn technology, students need to be able to make mistakes and learn from their mistakes without being punished in their grades. She asks that students give their best effort on each assignment. She measures students' best effort on each homework assignment by asking students to respond yes or no to the question: "Did you put forth an honest effort to learn the material?" Also, to teach professional responsibility, the professor does not accept any late homework assignments.

At the end of each teaching unit, the professor gives the students an exam. The exam is a take-home, timed exam where students use newly learned technology to answer questions. The professor expects the students to be highly proficient in using the technology, but not to be perfect using it. Therefore, students are permitted and encouraged to use their notes, and even search for answers online, excluding the explicitly prohibited "cheating" sites like Chegg and others laid out in the course syllabus. The rules for the exam forbid consulting other people for help with exam questions. Also, the exam has a strict time limit and, if an exam is turned in late for any reason, a student is penalized 1% of the total exam score for each minute the exam is late. The time limit on the exam is instituted so that students must have a proficiency before they take the exam and so they do not have time to search for ways to solve each problem and try to learn the content on the spot. They are expected to have done the majority of the learning before the exam begins. The professor includes an affirmation statement at the beginning of the exam that requires students to confirm that they understand and agree to the exam rules.

At the beginning of the course, the professor expressed to the students that they were encouraged to bring forth any questions or concerns regarding the expected conduct for taking the course. After completing the first unit in the course, the professor received several complaints about students cheating on homework assignments and the exam. In deciding what to do, the professor asked the students to review the four components of an ethics mindset and then evaluate the different complaints to decide if the students acted ethically or not.

To have an ethical mindset, you must:

Desire to do what is right.

Understand what is right and wrong.

Avoid doing what is wrong

Commit to and do what is right.

Required

The scenarios below include a list of the different behaviors of students while completing the homework assignments and exam.

• For each behavior, indicate whether you believe the student did or did not behave in an ethical manner.
• For each behavior, provide support for your assessment

Behavior

1. A student finished the exam five minutes late because his computer crashed during the exam. He took 10 minutes to get the computer running after it crashed. The student went into the exam file metadata and changed the start time to look like he started the exam 10 minutes later due to his technical problems.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?
2. A student recorded the exam problems and then posted the problems and correct answers on a website. The student then distributed the website link to other students who had not taken the exam.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?
3. A student recorded the exam problems and then posted the problems and correct answers on a website. A different student learned of the website and used it to complete the exam.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?
4. A student recorded a video showing how they completed each question on a homework assignment and sent this to a friend. The friend watched the video to learn how to work out the answer to each question and then completed the homework assignment on their own.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?
5. A student was very busy, and so for a homework assignment, the student submitted a blank assignment to get the answers and then retook the assignment and put in the correct answers without trying to solve the problems on her own.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?
6. The two students worked together on one class assignment that was particularly challenging. Each student did their own work but would ask the other student to teach them something that they did not understand.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?
7. A student's mother was hospitalized, and the student went to the hospital to be with her. Knowing that she could not finish the assignment on time, the student gave her friend her password and asked him to complete the assignment for her. The student assured her friend that she would go back and do the work once her mom was well.
   1. Was this ethical?
   2. What is your reasoning?
   3. What do you believe is the appropriate consequence for the student's behavior?