Faculty Ethics on Facebook - The Collaborative Project

Mark Clague, a faculty member at Michigan State, created a Facebook group titled Faculty Ethics on Facebook. The goal of the group is to collectively define a set of guidelines for faculty members to use when entering into the social networking world.

Here's the current list:

1. Keeping official course activities in official online tools and not on Facebook.

2. Never requiring students to participate in Facebook or having Facebook participation influence a course grade. (An exception is for class projects that might use Facebook for research purposes [such as a statistical analysis of how Facebook groups grow and fade] and make their connection to a course explicit.)

3. Not friending students unless they request the connection. Not poking students. Never pressuring students to friend the professor (such as repeated mention of a faculty profile in class).

4. Accepting friend requests from all students (unless the instructor makes the decision not to friend students at all).

5. Not looking at student profiles unless the faculty member has been friended by the student and even then using Facebook information judiciously and for educational purposes. In short, not spying on students, but getting to know them better when invited to do so.

6. Faculty members should avoid association with Facebook groups with explicit sexual content or views that might offend or compromise the student / teacher relationship. This guideline must be applied sensitively within the context of a diverse educational environment in which both students and faculty practice tolerance and accept competing views.

7. Taking extreme care with privacy settings and faculty profile content to limit profiles to information relevant to educational purposes. A broad variety of information may be appropriate, however, given the area of expertise / subject, the local customs of an instructor's school, and the personal dynamics of his or her classroom. Content should be placed thoughtfully and periodically reconsidered to maintain this educational standard.

8. Exercising appropriate discretion when using Facebook for personal communications (with friends, colleagues, other students, etc.) with the knowledge that faculty behavior on Facebook may be used as a model by our students.

9. Never misrepresenting oneself by using a false name or persona on Facebook, unless that characterization is connected explicitly with the real identity of the instructor.

10. Considering that the uneven power dynamics of the academy in which professors have authority over students, continue to shape the online relationship, even when the network tool (such as Facebook) is apparently democratic.

11. Keeping wall posts and other Facebook communication in concord with standard ethical practices of the educational relationship.

12. Never posting official course communication (feedback on an assignment, for example) in a public area of Facebook. Feedback might be given through private Facebook messaging when the student has asked a question via Facebook or a previous friend connection exists.

I previously posted a similar set of guidelines and think the two compliment each other well. What do you think about the guidelines? Would they work for you? If you were to add or change a point, what would it be? Join the discussion on this collaborative list and share your two cents.

Comments

[Greg Reiner]

My open questions with this project are:

1) What about the new "Professionals" who went through college using Myspace and Facebook? Are they expected to totally change behavior?

2) Why not use Facebook for official school work? Is it because not everyone has an account and so it would be unfair?

3) Legally, I am still confused.

[Jennifer Blackwell]

Tom, thanks for initiating a wiki discussion on the topic! It's one that needs further consideration as many professionals find themselves on a slippery slope regarding facebook/myspace with their institution.