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Thi s qualitative study provides a student & faculty driven ethical credo that can be used to promote a successful learning community within the digital classroom. The first phase of the research focuses on students' experience as online learners. Through surveys and discussion boards, a thematic analysis is used to create core ethical principles and associated behaviors found to promote virtual community and learning. The results are experience-based insights encapsulated in the Credo for Ethical Distance Learning. The credo includes a preamble and five core principles with practical, supporting student behaviors for each principle. The second phase of this research extends the Credo for Ethical Distance Learning to the instructors' experiences in teaching online. Using focus groups and surveys, faculty perspectives were used to create the Credo for Ethical Distance Learning: Faculty Implications. The results of both research phases serve a dual purpose. The first purpose is to provide strategies that will help develop interactive online learning environments. The second is that the credo will promote awareness about communication ethics and its impact on virtual learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication ethics as a field of study within the communication discipline has made significant contributions in a variety of areas, including teaching. This paper offers an historical overview of communication ethics, with special attention to four major approaches to pedagogy - ethics in human communication, moral psychology and intuition, a communication ethics framework, and a critical communication ethics pedagogy. For the department seeking to incorporate communication ethics through stand-alone courses or throughout curricula, the authors suggest ways for communication administrators to address questions of desired competencies for communication graduates, and to articulate related learning outcomes. Future recommendations for the field and administrators are offered. The authors conclude that while communication ethics pedagogy has made significant contributions to the discipline, its potential will only be fully realized when faculty and administrators together construct the right balance of offerings for their departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]