Vanquishing the Cyberbully

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Vanquishing the Cyberbully

• Policies of Prevention and Prohibition
• Jennifer Summerville John Fischetti
• University of North Carolina Wilmington

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There is a difference between a complaining
student and a bully

• A complaining student may whine about the textor
  the amount of work in class
• A bullys online verbal behavior is both abusive
  and disruptive.
• A bullys online behavior can have a chilling
  effect on class discussion
• Would you have a policy in place today that would
  allow you to remove a bully if you found one was
  enrolled in your online class?

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A little bit of background

• Precipitating events
• Classroom performance and attitude issues
• The violation
• The existing policy that allowed Dr. S to deny
  Mr. Bully access to the course

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The OLCOC

• Thats Online Code of Conduct, for those of you
  who like acronyms!
• How it began
• How it evolved
• Student perceptions and comments
• Developing your own policy

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Key Items

• The OLCOC must be a part of your syllabus (which
  is, in essence, a contract with your students)
• Start with existing policiesa computer use
  AUPstudent guidelines in the handbookcodes of
  professionalism within your college or school

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Must Haves (cont.)

• Explain what would constitute a violation of
  classroom ethicsbe specific. For bulletin board
  discussions, these might include
• Personal issues with course content
• Personal issues with amount of work
• Personal issues with grades
• I include a policy on not complaining about the
  number of postings in another message (as it only
  adds to the number of postings)

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Must haves (cont.)

• Include a list of hotwords
• Offends
• Insulted
• Angers
• Remind students that others are entitled to their
  opinions
• Explain what ALL CAPS means in the online word
  (and when its OK to use them)
• Suggest use of emoticons when postingespecially
  if humor is involved

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Critical Additions

• Explain the specific consequences of a violation
  of the policy
• Explain your level of tolerance on the policy
  (Zero tolerance, for example)
• Get it in writinghave students sign a course
  agreement
• Be prepared for spats versus serious infractions

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Future Directions

• We suggest a university-wide policy as an
  addition to an AUP-type document
• We suggest being proactive as opposed to reactive
• The more online classes that are taught, the more
  off-campus students who enroll, the greater the
  potential issue of Cyberbullying

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Questions?

• Article Due out SOON
• Summerville, J (2005). Developing an online code
  of conduct. AACE Journal, 13(2), 127-136.
• Coming to the AACE.org cite within the next few
  weeks.
• http//www.aace.org/pubs/aacej/