Do Ethics and Values Play a Role in Virtual Education? A Study on the Perception of Students and Teachers

Learning in virtual environments is an ethical experience. This research aimed to understand the ethical experience of a virtual learning environment from the perspective of university students and their teachers. The participants were 205 higher education students from different Spanish-speaking countries (Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, and Spain) and 30 teachers who acted as tutors in virtual education. The study used a design-based research method and quantitative instruments for the collection of empirical data. The data analysis showed that students and teachers perceive responsibility, commitment, and respect as values inherent to virtual education, and may have a moderately different ethical experience based on these values. With this research, we intend to contribute to a better understanding of the coexistence of human beings in virtual learning environments. We argue that it is necessary to question or rethink the pedagogical paradigms that guide virtual education, endowing them with humanity, and recognizing their ethical dimension as funda-mental.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10805-022-09459-z.