Rules and Principles of Ethical Conduct

During the Academic English Program for Researchers all participants are obliged to abide by the following rules and ethics below

1. Rules of Conduct

Participants must follow copyright laws.
Participants must respect the personal information and the privacy of others.
Participants must always use respectful language when speaking towards their peers, and instructors during written and face-to-face communication.
Participants are responsible to follow every announcement made about the courses and the program. All participants are expected to check the e-mails sent to their Koç University email accounts and other communications channel.
Participants should be available and can be reached through online communication systems during the program hours.

Responsibilities of the participants regarding the courses:

Before the online lecture:
- Participants should make sure that their environment do not contain distractions.
- It is suggested to use a computer or a laptop to participate in online classes.
- Participants should make sure that their necessary systems and devices (internet connection, laptop, etc.) are ready to use before the online classes start.
- Participants must be logged into the system before the online classes start.
During the online lecture:
- Participants must choose an appropriate background that will not distract others and turn on their webcams in order to interact with the class. Participants not wishing to turn their cameras on will be allowed to do so.
- Participants must follow the rules which will be determined by the lecturer.
- Participants should turn off their microphones unless they are speaking.

2. Principles of Ethical Conduct:

Participants should always use an appropriate tone of language in online platforms, e-mails and all other communication channels.
Discourses should always be carried out appropriately, taking the mental and psychological health of the people into account.
The quality of communication within all participants is prioritized in the online platforms and any insult or harassment will not be allowed.
Participants should never intentionally jeopardize the online platforms through files containing viruses.
The electronic resources of the program should not be copied and shared with third parties.
The files and contents presented during the program should not be shared with third parties.
The courses offered in this program should not be recorded and shared with third parties.

3. Academic Honesty

Academic honesty and plagiarism should be in focus of attention while completing any project and assignment during the course of this program.
Every individual project and assignment should be completed without anyone’s help, by the participant her/himself.
All sources used should be referenced as appropriate.

Any violation of the described rules and principles of ethical conduct may result in the steps and consequence as stated below:

A record is made of the aforementioned behavior. The record includes an explanation of the violation, how it occurred and the result of this behavior.
The program coordinator has the right to ask to the participant to leave the program as a violation of the conduct.

Important Notice:

It must not be forgotten that other than the aforementioned rules and principles of ethical conduct, all participants are subject to Koç University “Classroom Code of Conduct”, “Student Code of Conduct” and “YÖK Student Disciplinary Code”.
There will be no refunds given for participants who are asked to leave the program due to violations of the Code of Conduct.
Some parts of this document have been adapted from the Student Code of Conduct, “Virtual Learning Center” and Leiden University‘s remote teaching guidelines.