Ethics is currently one of the most common topics that are discussed in almost all sectors, including education sectors where active learning takes place. The definition of ethics varies from one industry to another. For instance, in the government sector, ethics is defined as the legal rules of conduct that public employees must adhere to while in the corporate world it is referred to as compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. However, despite different definitions of ethics, it is universally defined as systems of moral principles or values that govern human behavior or conducts ( Fox et al ., 2010) . Ethics, therefore, can be described as moral principles or values that are aimed at governing the conduct of individuals or a group of people, especially in the workplace.
Instructors are affected by many issues such as copyright infringement, cheating, plagiarism, and improper instructor-student relationship. Instructors are always required to adhere to copyright laws or properly use copyrighted teaching materials. For instance, in the USA, the Fair Use rules that are contained in the Copyright Act allows instructors to use copyrighted materials for teaching ( Crews, 2001) . However, Crews (2001) further points out that the indiscriminate use of copyrighted materials is termed as copyright infringement. For instance, a teacher who prints copyrighted materials and sells it to students for financial gain has committed copyright infringement. Therefore, one of the main effects of copyright infringement on instructor is that it can lead to legal penalties. Instructors who are convicted of copyright infringement can face criminal fines based on the nature of the offense. Besides, instructors can incur court courts and attorney's fees, which may be cost.
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According to Kamenetz (2014), e ven though cheating is always associated with students, many instructors have also been accused of cheating. The main form of cheating that is common among instructors is the manipulation of test results to favor some students. For example, in Atlanta, 12 educators were charged with cheating when they were conducting state tests in the city’s public schools. The 12 instructors were manipulating tests results in favor of some students. The example shows that one of the main effects of cheating on instructors is legal consequences, as convicted instructors are fined or sent to prisons. At the same time, instructors who are found cheating are expelled. Besides, cheating can ruin an instructor-student relationship.
Plagiarism is also another common ethical issue that affects many instructors. An instructor may be accused of plagiarism when he or she is using instructional materials that were prepared by another instructor without authorization or permission. Therefore, plagiarism mainly affects instructors by damaging their reputations. Besides, plagiarism ruins the relationship between instructors and students when the latter is the victim. For instance, Harvard University was forced to discipline dozens of students were involved in plagiarism in 2013. Therefore, plagiarism can directly or indirectly affect instructors (Greenberger et al ., 2016).
Also, an improper instructor-student relationship can affect instructors in many ways. For instance, in the cases where an instructor and student have a verbal conflict, the instructor may be biased when awarding marks to the student, leading to unethical behavior. An improper relationship can also reduce the productivity of the instructor, especially when he or she has a conflict with many students in a classroom ( Robinson, 2007) . A proper instructor-student relationship is important.
Finally, ethics is an important topic for army instructor mainly because moral and ethical conducts and behaviors are highly valued in the military. Morality plays an important role in the military, and army instructor must ensure that soldiers understand and internalize ethics and ethical standards ( Robinson, 2007) . Army instructors can only instill ethics in their students if they adhere to the ethical requirements. As a result, ethics is important for army instructors.
References
Crews, K. D. (2001). The law of fair use and the illusion of fair-use guidelines. Ohio State Law Journal , 62 , 599.
Fox, E., Bottrell, M. M., Berkowitz, K. A., Chanko, B. L., Foglia, M. B., & Pearlman, R. A. (2010). Integrated Ethics: An innovative program to improve ethics quality in health care. Innovation Journal , 15 (2), 1-36.
Greenberger, S., Holbeck, R., Steele, J., & Dyer, T. (2016). Plagiarism Due to Misunderstanding: Online Instructor Perceptions. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 16 (6), 72-84.
Greenberger, S., Holbeck, R., Steele, J., & Dyer, T. (2016). Plagiarism Due to Misunderstanding: Online Instructor Perceptions. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 16 (6), 72-84.
Kamenetz, A. (2014). When Teachers, Not Students, Do The Cheating . Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/09/29/352494603/when-teachers-not-students-do-the-cheating
Robinson, P. (2007). Ethics training and development in the military. Parameters , 37 (1), 23.
