Professional Practice, Ethics, and Compliance
What to know
Ethical practice covers confidentiality (learner data, assessment results), informed consent (especially for research or recording), intellectual property (copyright, licensing, attribution, fair use limits), and bias and fairness in assessment and content. Accessibility and privacy are also compliance obligations. Know the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism (attribution vs. permission). Creative Commons licenses vary by attribution, share-alike, non-commercial, no-derivatives terms.
Professional conduct includes scope of competence (don't teach beyond expertise), conflict-of-interest disclosure, and accurate claims about learning outcomes-avoiding overstated efficacy. Recordkeeping and data retention follow policy and law. Evaluation ethics: don't use assessment data punitively without transparency, and protect test security. Informed consent and anonymization apply when using learner data for improvement or publication.
Traps
Questions often blur copyright vs. plagiarism or assume "educational use" permits any copying-fair use is limited and context-dependent. Another trap is using learner data for marketing without consent, or sharing identifiable results with managers beyond need-to-know. Watch for conflict-of-interest scenarios framed as harmless, and for claims of guaranteed outcomes.
Rule of thumb
Before using any material or data, ask: Do I have permission, and have I attributed it? Before sharing results, ask: Does this person need to know, and did the learner consent? Worked example: reusing a colleague's diagram → check its license; if CC BY, attribute properly; if all-rights-reserved, seek permission or create an original.