Discussion 1: Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Ethics and Moral Development

Prepare: In preparing for this discussion, you should first review the Week Two required resources that focus on ethics and morals. This will help assist you in examining your own development of ethical and moral responsibilities.

Reflect: Take a deeper look at your own life and determine which experiences have inspired ethical and moral reasoning. Were there any huge influences in this process?

Write: For this discussion you will address the following prompts:

Explain what it means to be ethical as it relates to personal, academic, and professional growth.

Provide at least one ethical dilemma you have encountered and describe how the issue was resolved.

Describe how your general education courses have influenced your ethical values.

Explain why a college-educated person might have different duties to society than someone not as educated.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length, which should include a thorough response to each prompt. You are required to provide in-text citations of applicable required reading materials and/or any other outside sources you use to support your claims. Provide full reference information of all sources cited at the end of your response. Please use correct APA format when writing in-text citations and references.

Respond to Peers: Review your classmates' posts, and respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7. In each response, provide comments that prompt further critical thinking and insight on your classmate's perspective on ethical values as they relate to their personal, academic, and professional lives. Each participation post should be a minimum of 75 words.

Discussion 2: Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Final Argumentative Essay Topic

Prepare: As you prepare to write your response to this discussion assignment, you may want to review the following resources as these will help you in developing a topic:

Develop a Research Topic

Incorporate Sources into Your Research Paper

It is also recommended that you review these tutorials from the Ashford University Library:

Searching in Databases

Evaluating Sources

You may also want to review the Week Five Sample Final Paper Guide, so that you can start preparing your rough draft that is due in Week Four.

Reflect: When considering a research topic, consider an interesting topic that is worth further research. For instance, having a strong opinion on a specific topic may deter you from thinking more critically, and therefore the research might end up being one-sided. It is a good idea to pick a topic in which you can provide a good argument for both sides of the societal issue.

Write: For this discussion you will address the following prompts:

Identify two global societal issues from the following list that you would consider researching further for your Week Five Final Argumentative Essay: adult illiteracy, funding for General Education vs STEM in primary and secondary schools, minimum wage, oceans desertification, overcoming the digital divide, refugee (escaping persecution, war, or death) crises, species extinctions (modern), tax havens, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), universal statement of human rights (pick one), airport security, or wealth disparity.

Describe effective methods you used in identifying and narrowing down to just one of the two topics to further research for your final essay.

Explain three ways you can critically analyze sources to determine if they are scholarly and credible.

For one of the topics chosen, summarize information from at least two peer-reviewed journal articles from the Ashford University Library that will support your claims.

Explain why scholarly sources should be used to support your writing on the selected topic.

Download and attach a PDF copy of one of the peer-reviewed scholarly articles that you found from the Ashford University Library to your answer using the "Attach" function located below your response.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length, which should include a thorough response to each prompt. You are required to provide in-text citations of applicable required reading materials and/or any other outside sources you use to support your claims. Provide full reference information of all sources cited at the end of your response. Please use correct APA format when writing in-text citations and references.

Respond to Peers: Review your classmates' posts, and respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7. In each response, provide comments on your classmate's topic idea and ask a question that prompts your classmate to think more critically about how to explore the research topic in more detail. Each participation post should be a minimum of 75 words.