Simbala, Andi Te’a Mari O.

ID Number: 2204965
Bachelor of Science in Accountancy Midterm Exam in GEthics (Class Code: 1641)
Morality is different from ethics, identify their basic distinction. In today’s pandemic, how will you apply and
deduce the use of morals and ethics. Focus your answer on the possible effect of depression among young
people and how to cope with it.

Ethics is a process of reflection in which people’s decisions are shaped by their own values, principles and purpose.
Morality, on the other hand, is a reflection of social norms or the common thinking of the people around us. Simply,
“ethics” leans towards decisions based upon our individual characters where we individually assess values as relatively
good or bad, whereas “morals” emphasizes the widely-shared communal or societal norms wherein there is an
intersubjective community or societal assessment of what is good or bad.

“Depression is a common mental disorder which Globally, more than 264 million people of all ages suffer from” (WHO,
January 2020). With the alarmingly increase rate of persons suffering from mental health issues and more specifically
depression in our society, it is paramount that the public be made aware because I don’t think that people understand
the seriousness of mental illness. But it’s high time now, people need to understand that depression is important. It
even leads people to death, a death full of sufferings.

No one should underestimate the seriousness of depression. People dealing with it aren’t just sad or lonely but so much
more. Depression makes people suffering with it feel demotivated, gloomy, hopeless, upset and angry. It even makes
them start hating themselves. Depression makes people start to fight a war every single day within themselves, a war
no one knows about. They get intertwined in their own thoughts and couldn’t find an escape from it. There is darkness
in their heart and emptiness in their mind. All they come up with is negativity and hopelessness. They feel worthless,
hopeless and criticize themselves. And it is completely okay to not be okay. Let us all stop being rude and mean to
others. Instead, we should start being kind and supportive. Let us all stop bringing others down, instead, let us start
appraising and motivating them. Start accepting others for who they are instead of taunting them because we never
know what people are going through, because even smiling and cheerful faces hide a lot of secrets within them.

People dealing with depression needs love, care, support and understanding. What we could do for them is to listen to
their feelings without being judgmental, and to tell them that we will always be there for them no matter what.

Depression isn’t a joke, and people dealing with it aren’t mad or insane so we need to deal with them with patience and
utmost understanding. Be a compassionate listener and let them pour their hearts out and listen to them with no
judgements. Be supportive of them, motivate them and tell them that you’re always by their side. Tell them how
wonderful they are. Tell them what they mean to you. Let them know that they are important. They just want to get
heard. Assure them that you are there to listen to them. Let them lighten the burden they’re carrying in their heart, mind
and soul.

The point is that it is more about the people surrounding the depressed person, rather than someone who is suffering.
We are so self-involved that we often forget to ask our family, friends, and acquaintances about their emotions. We are
extremely busy in our lives, I know, but what about the people we love who have no one except us to talk to? If we’re
not there for them, who will? If we want to help someone, the first thing that we need to understand is the thoughts that
go through their mind.

Depression is more than just a mental illness. Mental illness is important. It is needed to be talked about. Spreading
awareness of mental illness is very important. One is never too late to bring about a change and we together can do it.
It is a silent disease and it does not come with warning nor symptoms. It is paralysis of one’s emotion, and a slow
poison of void and nothing but emptiness. I want to reflect a thought for today. Something you should consider. It’s high
time now, people need to understand that depression is important. Depression is lethal especially in the times like
these.

Essentially, ethics is about moral responsibility. How is this applied in a ‘new normal’ mode of Philippine
education today? Refer your answers to circumstances happening in our modalities of education.

“Can you hear me?”, “Can you see me?” and ‘Can you see my presentation” became the new “Good day class!” for
every student since the start of the semester. All owing to the fact that a pandemic was looming large over our heads
with no certainty of the future. However, educational institutions manage to continue imparting education even in these
tough times. The new makeshift arrangement to deal with this pandemic is online learning through platforms like Zoom,
Google Classrooms, Google Meet, Edmodo and other platforms.

The “new normal” replaced our classrooms with our comfy bedrooms, and instead of actually seeing our professors
and block mates, we see them virtually on our laptop or phone screens. A lot of professors and students have faced
difficulties in getting used to the online platforms. Not all professors and students have the means to buy smartphones
and laptops, nor the means to pay for internet connection which isn’t really up to par here in our country.
Simbala, Andi Te’a Mari O. ID Number: 2204965
Bachelor of Science in Accountancy Midterm Exam in GEthics (Class Code: 1641)
One of the strongest pillars for effective learning is communication and the practicality of e-learning seems to fall short
of it. For students to raise their queries during class discussions, they have to switch on their microphones. At times,
the students are refrained from using the microphones due to disturbances at home or technical problems. This has
resulted to doubts going unaddressed. Other troubles which accompanied online learning were professor’s voice
breaking due to technical problems. For many, the concern was not just internet connectivity but not having the means
to afford a reliable internet connection. It is important to understand that before the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t
mandatory to have a laptop or an internet connection for many university students. Suddenly expecting people to equip
themselves with these facilities, with an ongoing pandemic when resources are already stretched out, seemed
unreasonable.

Sitting and attending classes in comfort at home led to a furthermore loss in focus and attentiveness. Self – discipline
was the key to staying afloat this semester because it is way easier to find a mechanism to escape classes and
assessments when they are not happening the traditional way. We should also remember that despite the situation we
should have complete independence in answering our quizzes, and exams in order to see whether we are learning.
We should keep innate that it is up to us to help our professors by teaching ourselves of all the things that they could
not teach right now due to the pandemic that we are facing. Also, we should carry the responsibility that in the real
world we have to continuously adapt to everything that is happening in order to stay afloat.

Based from what I have previously stated, it might sound like the new learning medium was no good, but that would be
misinformed conclusion. Virtual learning has its own pros too. The flexibility that comes with E-learning is yet another
merit. The professors and students could negotiate and agree for keeping the lecture at a time which would suit both
their needs. Few professors even managed to make learning more interesting by changing their background screens
and make it appear as if they were still teaching from campus or sometimes some fancy mountainous region. Students’
“outside classroom” interaction with professors was comparatively more as they could set up personal meetings with
them on MS Teams and deliberate on issues that were part of their course or otherwise.

From a broader perspective, there needs to be a technological change. We need a dedicated software solution,
developed for the special purpose of conducting online classes which can provide more control to the professors with
respect to attendance and maintaining decorum in the class. If technology allows, class participation should be restored
as a component of the internal assessment as it ensures that students regularly attend lectures and have an incentive
to participate in class. With no end in sight to the current pandemic, it is important that schools, in particular, bring out
innovative ways to make learning over a group video call more engaging, considering that it is specifically a difficult
task to keep young minds engaged over a call. A helping hand from the parents in the form of providing their children
with a more study friendly environment and ensuring that they are actually attending classes could go a long way in
providing a wholesome learning environment even amidst the new normal.

Although chances are, this whole situation will have made us consider some permanent changes going forward, the
actual pandemic is only temporary. And like everything in life, this too shall pass. So, although it feels like it’s been
going on forever and feels like it’ll never end, it will. We just have to learn to be grateful with what we have now and be
patient.