Welcome to Switch Education for Business
We believe that part of what makes learning on Switch Education for Business enjoyable is the chance to interact with other management and leadership professionals from all over the world, and learn from each other. Being a part of the Switch leadership community means behaving with honesty, respect and kindness to fellow scholars and educators.
Therefore, as a Switch Education for Business, you agree that:
You are at least 18 years old.
Any owner or user of a Switch Education for Business account must be at least 18.
You will communicate in English only (or the specified language of a course).
This is because communicating with lots of people becomes very difficult if everyone comments in a different language.
You have registered for one account only, and use an appropriate profile name
You will not share your personal contact details on the Switch Education for Business platform, or ask another learner for theirs.
We consider personal contact details to include email address, postal address or telephone number, or direct communication tools such as Skype or Snapchat.
This is for safety and privacy reasons: you don’t know who might be reading your comment and who may contact you other than the person you thought you were sharing your details with. It is fine to provide links to a social network such as Twitter or LinkedIn, but please make sure you are happy with your privacy settings before you do.
The comments, journal reflections and assignments/assessments you post are your own work, and if you quote anything from another place (including other comments), you credit the author.
You are respectful of others, and do not use words or share content that is offensive or inflammatory.
This includes, but is not limited to, language, names or content that is sexist, racist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive, contains swearing or is otherwise likely to cause offence. Remember that you are in an inclusive learning environment shared with people who may be of different ages, nationalities, religions, cultures and backgrounds, with different knowledge, ability and experience to you. Communicating online through text can lead to misunderstandings, so it is important to give other people the benefit of the doubt, and be kind in your interactions: sometimes it’s difficult to know or fully appreciate the situation of the person you’re talking to.
If you disagree with someone’s ideas you will discuss their ideas. You will refrain from criticising or attacking them personally.
We consider a personal attack to be any negative comment directed to or about an individual that is about them personally, or uses personal information against them.
This applies to comments directed at educators and course contributors, as well as learners, for example comments about the physical appearance of a contributor in a video.
If a comment is believed to be libellous, it may be hidden for legal reasons.
Do not persistently argue with another learner or an educator. If you aren’t able to resolve your differences, you should stop communicating with them, otherwise you may have to leave the course.
You take part in assessments honestly, and don’t share the answers.
It’s fine to share the answers when the course or educator requests you to do so.
You are supportive and constructive when offering feedback to other learners in activities such as comments and discussions.
Feedback should be offered in order to help the recipient, rather than make them feel bad. Giving constructive feedback is a skill in itself and extremely valuable to the learning process.
You are law-abiding and do not participate in, condone or encourage unlawful or potentially harmful activity.
This includes threatening or encouraging suicide or self-harm, as well as breach of copyright, defamation, or contempt of court. You must not offer unsolicited health advice to other learners, even if you are qualified or knowledgable in that area.
You are here to learn, not to advertise products or services, and you will not use Switch Education for Business as a platform for campaigning.
This includes personal and not-for-profit websites.
It is fine to include a link to your personal website in your Switch Education for Business profile. It is also fine to link to commercial websites when requested to in activity as part of a course. However, if you repeatedly post comments to promote or campaign for something, even if it is not commercial, this will be considered spam (see below).
You add to conversations and do not ‘spam’ other learners by posting the same comment multiple times, or by posting comments that are unrelated to the course.
Completely off-topic comments and identical (or near-identical) comments posted repeatedly will be considered spam. Off-topic comments are not related to the overall subject of a course or to the specific subject of the step. It is natural for conversation to drift, but completely unrelated comments can be disruptive and frustrate other learners.
You will help the Switch Education for Business community by reporting comments that you believe have broken this Code of Conduct.