Devising Ethical Codes in Virtual Education

 Ethical codes are used as a practical guide to show the ethical behaviors of the owners of each profession in specific situations. Every organizational set has ethical codes appropriate to its professional structure, which is called professional ethics. Higher education is also a professional system, and professors and students must be aware of and adhere to the principles of professional ethics in e-learning. Adherence to the ethics of virtual education ensures the health of the teaching-learning process in the university and increases the commitment of professors to respond to the needs of students.

 This study was a developmental research that was conducted with the aim of extracting and compiling ethical codes in virtual education activities for professors and students by extracting the opinions of professors of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences as a research community in four stages. The first stage in the research committee in medical school education was prepared with the presence of 20 professors of the initial draft of ethical codes, including 75 codes. In the second stage, the subject was categorized in 4 areas and 66 codes in the ethics committee of university education. Then, in the third stage, the proposed codes were sent to the faculties for the comments of all professors and officials in the field of education.

Ethical Considerations:

 The purpose of the study was explained to the participants and individuals participated in the study voluntarily. Next, it was approved by the ethics committee of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences and received a code of ethics.

 After conducting four stages of study and obtaining comprehensive opinions from professors, and officials in the field of education in different faculties and reviewing them in the work of the Department of Ethics in Virtual Education, codes in four general areas and 58 codes including: 25 Ethical codes of professors in virtual education, 11 ethical codes of electronic content production in virtual education, 10 ethical codes of students in virtual education and 12 ethical codes in electronic exam were compiled.

 The result of this study was to explain the ethical codes in virtual education for professors and students of medical universities.