Academic Integrity. Strict
compliance with the Wayne State
University Academic Integrity policies and the
Student Code of
Conduct are required in this
course. Any cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, or other academic
dishonesty will result in an automatic grade of E for this entire
course, irrespective of the specific context or assessment involved
(quiz, homework, exam, etc.). In addition,
charges will be filed with the
Judicial Officer of the Dean of Students Office. For more
information, see the
Student
Code of Conduct brochure. There is
zero tolerance of academic dishonesty in this course.
"
Make-up
Exams" are generally
not required in this course, because students are able to take their
exams online from virtually anywhere in the world during the
approximately 24-hour to 30-hour exam availability period. If a
student
experiences a genuine emergency, such as a health emergency requiring
hospitalization (for which documentation can be provided), a make-up
exam may be scheduled at the discretion of the instructor. Vacations,
wedding plans, work schedules, and the like, are not considered genuine
emergencies for purposes of determining whether a make-up exam will be
offered. Make-up exams are not offered online. Instead,
make-up exams are arranged to be proctored on campus (Main Campus)
during regular business hours, usually within a week of the regularly
scheduled online exam. Make-up exams do not necessarily follow
the same format, and do not necessarily have the same questions or the
same types
of questions, as the online exam.
Viewing
Grade
and Blackboard "Averages"
After
completing a quiz or exam, it is a good idea to Vew your Grades at the
Tools section of Blackboard to make sure you did not trigger a padlock
(see above). When you do, you might notice "class average" scores
on
Blackboard. Those averages are automatically calculated by the
Blackboard system, and have absolutely nothing to do with your grade or
your relative standing
in class (the Blackboard averages often include scores of zero for
students who have
dropped the class, or other irrelevant or confounding data). This
course is not graded on a curve, and your Points are calculated in the
manner described in the Syllabus. Just ignore the class average
statistics shown on Blackboard. They mean nothing.
- Disappointed in your performance
on the multiple choice portion of your exam?
Remember that your exam consist of more one part, and that only the
score for the multiple choice part appears automatically upon
submission. It is not uncommon for students to perform better on essay
exams than on multiple choice exams, especially if the essay exam
answers are thoughtful and well-written, and reflect the student's
engagement with the lectures, readings, and other activities in this
course. Also, as in the case of quizzes, students who
do not earn high scores on multiple choice exams, are often able to at
least partially offset those
lower quiz scores by earning 100 percent of the available points on
homework, surveys, class participation, email assignments, and other
tasks where thoughtfulness, timeliness, good grammar, and carefully
following the instructions, contribute more to the earned points than
the technical correctness of the work.
It is important to
write
well.
When responding to questions
about ethical or moral truth-claims:
- Try to avoid attempting to support a claim, with other
(unsupported)
claims. An assertion that something is morally wrong because it
is
abusive - or unethical or biased or disloyal or unfair or in violation
of an inherent right - is a circular assertion. This is the most common mistake made by
students in this course.
- Remember to distinguish between facts (e.g., the existence of
competing objectives or a conflict of interest), and behaviors that
favor self-interest from the interests of others to whom a duty is
owed. Conflicts of interests are often unavoidable;
behaviors that respond to such conflicts by violating duties in favor
such self-interests can be unethical.
- Remember to distinguish between that which is legally wrong, and
that which is morally wrong. If you answer a question that asks
whether something is morally wrong by making reference to legal
violations, you are missing the point.
- Harm - even as a result of actions - is not necessarily
unavoidable. In fact, moral and ethical decisions often avoid
choosing between actions when all possible choices are likely to result
in some unfavorable consequences.
- Try to avoid falling into the trap of assuming that any and all
harmful consequences are necessarily the result of immoral actions or
decisions.
- Try to use critical thinking, even when addressing the role and
obligations of the government.
- Try to avoid arriving at the conclusion that anything the
government does is correct or moral or right and proper, without first
establishing the moral foundation for such a conclusion.
- Remember that the board of directors, not executives, are drectly
responsible to the stockholders for setting executive salaries, and
have a fiduciary obligation to oversee executive compensation.
- When an essay question requires that an assumption, such as
reliable empirical data, be accepted or adopted for purposes of an
essay question that addresses an ethical question, an answer that
denies or quibbles with that assumption is nonresponsive.
- Try to deal with the ethical dilemma as presented, without first
attempting to change the premises.
- Try to avoid equivocation. When an essay question calls for a
claim, go ahead and make a claim and support it, rather than attempt to
straddle both sides of an issue.
- Try to avoid confusing moral arguments with prudential arguments
that point solely to the optimization of monetary or economic outcomes.
- Remember that the board of directors, not executives, are drectly
responsible to the stockholders for setting executive salaries, and
have a fiduciary obligation to oversee executive compensation.
- Remember to distinguish between a properly supported claim, and
general opinions, in response to an essay question. Claims that
may seem obvious to the student, remain unsupported unless the student
provides a well-articulated supportive argument.
In addition:
- Be sure to write full and complete sentences, not half-sentences
or short phrases.
- Be sure to proofread your essay answers, so that adverbs are not
written as nouns, or vice versa.
- Be sure to check your spelling before you submit your answers.
- Be sure to avoid slipping into the first or second person while
writing a response to an essay question. Instead, attempt to
maintain a scholarly and well-presented response to the specific essay
questions on the exam.
Essay exams should also be
well-written, using proper grammar, sentence
structure,
and syntax. For example:
Examinations
button, you might see a padlock 
symbol instead of a grade when you attempt to View your Grades in the
Tools section of Blackboard. In any event, always View your
Grades to check for a padlock immediately after submitting any
online multiple-choice or essay exam. Unless you are able to have your
essay
exam reset, you will end
up receiving zero credit for that exam, because a padlock