Rethinking information ethics education in Ghana: Is it adequate?

Abstract

This paper highlights the importance of information ethics and gives an overview of the various aspects of the subject taught at various institutions of higher learning in Ghana. The study notes that information ethics is not taught as a specific or whole subject at any level in the tertiary institutions and questions the depth of education given to students in the light of some serious information ethics violations such as plagiarism, copyright violation, cybercrime and social network abuses. Data for the study were collected mainly from the different university websites, university handbooks, course outlines as well as interviews with librarians and a few faculty members of the respective universities. The study recommends the introduction of information ethics as a university required course for all freshmen, a stand-alone course in information ethics at the Department of Information Studies, adequate sensitization programmes on academic integrity and plagiarism policies, and the enforcement of laws and policies in Ghana. These measures are meant to safeguard individual rights to ownership, privacy, confidentiality and security.