PORTFOLIO_3: Responding to an Ethical Scenario (5 marks)

Task

In week 9 you learnt about making decisions in various ethical situations. Understanding who you are and how you relate to others in both your personal and work life can make you aware of the values that are important to you as well as the values that you may need to work on to improve your professional standing. This portfolio item is designed to make you think about how to respond to an ethical scenario as a good ICT professional. As you are training to be an ICT professional you should refer to the ACS Code of Ethics and/or ACS Code of Professional Conduct in your response. It should be approximately 400 words.

Scenario:

You are currently working as a trainee database administrator in the same organisation where you are studying for a qualification. You are working hard to pay your fees and study expenses while managing your personal finances as well with an annual income below the average wage in Australia. A few weeks ago, you were undertaking some maintenance work in the student and finance databases of your organisation. While doing that you found that your organisation has given a lucrative scholarship to a student who you do not think as having the required level of academic performance to receive that scholarship. You have access to the marks of the students undertaking the same study units as this student and yourself. The scholarship guidelines clearly state that eligibility for the Scholarship is based on academic performance. Some of you think that the parents of the student who has received the scholarship may know some senior staff in your organisation. You are not happy that you and the other high performing students who also have financial concerns have lost the opportunity to lighten your financial burdens that impact on your studies while you believe that a potentially less deserving student has benefited due to personal links. You can do nothing and continue with your maintenance work as required, or report your concerns to your supervisor, or inform the other students about what you uncovered and even go public with this information. You are clearly unhappy with the situation as you believe your employer has not done the right thing but wondering what to do since you work in that organisation.

Write about 400 words (in 2 – 3 paragraphs) outlining how you will respond to this ethical dilemma – do not explain the situation again. Consider your options in this hypothetical scenario. What will you do in this situation? Will you tell your friends and/or go public with this information, or will you inform your manager about your dilemma and ask for advice? Or will you take any other actions? Explain what you will do and the reasons for your actions, referring to the ACS Code of Ethics and/or the ACS Code of Professional Conduct. You must correctly reference the document/s in APA style.

Marking Criteria

To achieve full marks the submission must be:

• Focused on the correct task to be considered for marking and feedback,
• Grammatically correct,
• Well-structured, and easy to read and understand; and
• Within the recommended length (350 – 450 words) and submitted as an MS-Word file.

Your response should include:

1. What would you do in this situation and why? (2 marks)
2. What elements from the ACS document/s would you consider as reasons for your actions? Indicate the particular element/s in the document/s you are referencing. (1 mark)
3. Referencing – cited the relevant ACS document/s as per the requirements; and correct citation and reference list formatting according to APA referencing style (2 marks)

PORTFOLIO_4: Successful Completion of COIT20249-Professional skills in Information Communication Technology,Term-2 2017 (10 marks)

Task

This portfolio item requires you to justify that you have successfully achieved the Unit Learning Outcomes and to provide feedback about your experiences with the Unit. The response should have two parts and should not be longer than 2 A4 pages.

Part A – Justification

The Unit Profile provides a list of Learning Outcomes you are expected to have achieved after completing this Unit.

From the Unit Profile:

On successful completion of this Unit, you will be able to:

1. Describe the basic principles and importance of effective interpersonal communication, active listening and reading for meaning.
2. Demonstrate teamwork skills.
3. Communicate ideas effectively both verbally and in written form using appropriate language.
4. Create and deliver effective oral presentations.
5. Argue the importance of ethics, codes of behaviour, and societal, privacy and legal issues within the ICT industry.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of common work practices and values operating in the Australian workplace.
7. Assess how ICT can be used to improve organisational processes.
8. Evaluate the application of emerging technologies to communication and collaboration.

Write a reflective analysis that demonstrates you have satisfied all eight (8) learning outcomes that are listed in the Unit Profile for COIT20249 Professional Skills in ICT (they are listed above). Justify how the work you have completed this term has satisfied all eight (8) Unit Learning Outcomes. Please note it is important that you JUSTIFY how you have satisfied the Unit Learning Outcomes with examples. Do NOT just summarise the Unit content and/or assessment items OR define the Unit Learning Outcomes.

In short paragraphs, respond under the following themes (use relevant headings) and refer to relevant Learning Outcome/s from the above list. Use examples from the assessments you have completed in this Unit and/or the competencies you have achieved after completing the Unit. You might refer to some Unit Learning Outcomes more than once in your response. This part should be 1 to 1.5 A4 pages (approximate guideline).

1. Describe an example where you used interpersonal skills along with listening and verbal communication skills effectively (1 mark).
2. How did you use reading skills to effectively develop an academic document? Provide an example (1 mark).
3. Provide an example of using your teamwork skills during your presentation. Provide specific examples of what you did and which teamwork skills used. What other skills from the above list did you use in this situation? (1 mark).
4. Provide an example of an assessment where you discussed the importance of ethical behaviours, and social, privacy and legal aspects within the ICT domain. Explain how this task helped you to understand ethical behaviours, and social, privacy and legal aspects within the ICT domain. (1 mark).
5. Discuss how you learnt the skills to work with staff and/or students from different cultures and demonstrate the knowledge of cultural diversity. Use example/s from COIT20249 (1 mark). Describe how you learnt to evaluate ICT technologies to improve organisational processes. Give an example of an assignment/topic and the technology (Network and Information Security)from COIT20249 (1 mark).
6. Describe two examples of communication and collaboration technologies you learnt after completing this Unit. Briefly explain how each of these technologies could be used in an organisation and their potential benefits (2 marks).

Part B – Feedback

Write two things you liked about this Unit and provide the reason or reasons you liked them. Also describe two suggested improvements to the Unit and justify why they would improve the Unit. This could be around half an A4 page in length (guideline only) (2 marks).

Upload the Successful Completion document into Moodle.

Marking Criteria

To achieve full marks the submission must be:

• Focused on the correct task to be considered for marking and feedback,
• Grammatically correct,
• Well-structured, and easy to read and understand;
• Within the recommended overall length and submitted as an MS-Word file.

Justification:

Justify with examples from COIT20249 that you have successfully achieved all eight (8) Unit Learning Outcomes (1 mark per each of the first 6 points and 2 marks for the last one). Please note that a summary of the Unit content and/or assessment items or defining the Unit Learning Outcomes will receive ONE mark only for the entire section as you will not have addressed the assessment criteria.

Feedback:

1. Two things you liked about this Unit plus reasons (1 mark).
2. Two suggested improvements to the Unit plus justification (1 mark).