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Code of Conduct

Code of Professional Conduct for Online Participants

Commitment to ethical and professional conduct is expected of every participant in a NEFEC online training. Behavior expectations for the online environment are outlined below in NEFEC’s Code of Professional Conduct.  Before beginning an online training, participants must agree to abide by these guidelines.

Acceptable Use Policy

1. Participants may not engage in practices that threaten the integrity of Blackboard, NEFEC’s Online Training Management System, or the NEFEC network (e.g. knowingly downloading or uploading files that contain a virus).
   
2. Participants may not use NEFEC’s Blackboard system or available resources for any illegal activities including the violation of copyright law and/or software piracy.
   
3. Participants may not access anyone else’s Blackboard account, nor may they share their Blackboard account passwords with others.
   
4. Participants may not write, use, send, download or display deliberately hostile and insulting (inflammatory), obscene, threatening, harassing or otherwise offensive messages, postings, pictures or other forms of communication.
   
5. Participants may not discuss private issues about the training via the threaded discussions and other communication tools.  If you have issues and/or concerns about the course content, amount of work, grades given, etc. contact the online instructor directly and privately.
6. Participants may not post negative comments such as the amount of time spent on assignments on threaded discussions.  This invites others to join in and complain which is not a professional use of class discussions. Feedback is welcome and should be submitted to the instructor, NEFEC Training Manager and/or through the course evaluation.

Netiquette

1. Participants will act in a professional, responsible, ethical and legal manner, in accordance with the school, district and state policies, and in compliance with state and national laws.
   
2. Participants will conduct himself/herself in a manner that facilitates learning in the online environment.
3. Participants will use proper punctuation, spelling and grammar in emails, threaded discussion postings and assignments.

Copyright

1. Participants may not reproduce course content and assessments without explicit written permission. Unauthorized use of course content is prohibited.
2. Participants may not copy other participant’s work and submit as their own.

Participant Expectations

1. Participants are responsible for his/her own learning. If you are unable to login, access lessons and/or complete assignments, nor receiving emails, contact the instructor or NEFEC Training Manager immediately.
2. Participants will actively participate and complete all assigned work according to the Training Schedule.
3. Participants will access the course a minimum of two times per week in order to respond and participate in the discussion threads and complete assignments.
4. Participants who wish to withdraw from a course must do so by notifying the instructor and NEFEC staff in a timely manner.

Academic Misconduct

1. Participants may not engage in any of the following acts of academic misconduct:
   • Cheating: The act or attempted act of deception, in which a participant falsely represents that he or she has adequately learned information on an academic exercise.
   • Plagiarism: Knowingly representing the words, data or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.  Submitting all or part of another's work as one's own in an academic exercise including unauthorized collaboration with other participants. (Learn about NEFEC's Tools for Preventing Plagarism.)

   • Collusion: Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another commit academic misconduct such as substituting for a test or completing an assignment for someone else. Collaborating with others when taking online tests including group test-taking where participants gather together in the same location, and printing and distributing copies of online tests or quizzes.
   • Misrepresentation: Any action or omission with intent to deceive a teacher so as to affect a grade.

Online participants should be advised that in an effort to maintain system integrity and to ensure responsible use, files and communications through Blackboard are monitored and recorded.  Under no circumstances should online participants expect that messages or discussion postings that are created, modified, transmitted, received or stored on NEFEC servers are private. 

Online participants who violate any of the above conditions will be subject to the suspension or termination of their Blackboard user account and access to the online training, as well as other disciplinary action as determined appropriate by NEFEC. Please NOTE: All violators of the Code of Professional Conduct will be reported to their school and district administration where additional disciplinary action may be taken.

Once you have logged into your online training, you will be asked to indicate your agreement to abide by this code through the Blackboard Assessment Manager. If you decide to disagree with the Code of Professional Conduct, you will be dropped from the training and given a refund if a training fee was paid. If you have questions about the Code, please contact Garnette Knapp at NEFEC.