COIT20249 ICT Professional Skills: Ethical Scenario Portfolio

This assignment is a portfolio entry addressing an ethical scenario related to ghostwriting and academic misconduct in an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) course. The student chooses to report the issue to the lecturer, prioritizing the integrity of the academic environment and the interests of hardworking students. The response analyzes the situation using the ACS Code of Ethics, highlighting violations in areas such as primacy of public interest (student interest), enhancement of quality of life, honesty, competence, professional development, and professionalism. The student emphasizes that reporting the misconduct is crucial, regardless of personal relationships, to maintain academic integrity and fairness.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR ICT
Professional Skills for Information and Communication Technology
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR ICT
Portfolio 3: Responding to an Ethical Scenario
Considering the situation presented in the case, my preferred action will be to report to
the lecturer but I will try to keep it anonymous or discuss the situation personally with the
lecturer when other class mates are not around (Dzombak, 2017). As per the given dilemma,
there may be a situation that some of the wrongdoers are my friends and I will not like to lose
them by reporting against them. However, the problem presented is not a simple or avoidable
one as it may risk the future careers of other students studying in the university. Ghost writing is
not only a massive form of academic misconduct as some students are buying their assignments
to receive good grades whereas other students who are working hard to get good grades are
actually getting lesser grades (Leicester, 2016). Hence, instead of hard work, cheating is
rewarded and they are getting better jobs in their career without even receiving proper education
or enhancing technical skills and knowledge.
The situation is further analyzed using the ACS Code of Ethics as follows.
Primacy of Public Interest – In this case, the term can be recoined as primacy of student
interest. Due to the cheating of some of the students, the interests of other students who are
hardworking are harmed.
Enhancement of Quality of Life – In this case, the future qualities of life of some of the
students are enhanced by getting good jobs even after cheating in the academic course whereas
the really deserved students may not find jobs as per expectations (Warren & Burmeister, 2017).
As a result, their qualities of life are not enhanced.

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Honesty – Academic honesty is largely violated by the blatant cheating done by some of
the students who are using ghost writing services. They are also committing crime as using
others’ work as own is considered as a type of crime not only in the academic field but also
outside (Burmeister, 2017). Hence, these students are not only dropping their academic honesty
but also dropping their honesty overall.
Competence – Competence is strictly violated as the non-competent students are getting
far better grades than the competent ones.
Professional Development – The professional development of the hardworking students
are hampered due to the cheating of the other students.
Professionalism – Professionalism is completely violated in this case.
Hence, it is the most appropriate action to report to the lecturer regarding the cheating of
some students and this must be done to maintain academic integrity regardless of personal
relationship and friendships.

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References
Burmeister, O. K. (2017). Professional ethics in the information age. Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society, 15(4), 348-356.
Dzombak, D. A. (2017). Crossing researcher-public boundaries. Environmental science &
technology, 51(3), 1057-1057.
Leicester, N. (2016). Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on
Professional Behaviour?.
Warren, M., & Burmeister, O. K. (2017). Research on Applied Ethics involving emerging ICT
technologies. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21.