Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 3441

ABET 2000 and Ethics: Partnering with Librarians to Embed Ethics Into Course Curricula Alice J. Trussell, Daryl Youngman Kansas State University

Abstract

The ultimate expectations that all Colleges of Engineering are challenged to meet are the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology [ABET] criteria. Included in the ABET 2000 criteria are very specific requirements for Colleges of Engineering to provide substantive course content focusing on ethical education and decisions that engineers will face in the real world. Ethics requirements are listed alongside technical and other social competencies.

Science and engineering librarians are in an excellent position to partner with engineering faculty to design and participate in course content and instruction. Specific issues involving ethics are woven through the fabric of library instruction. Information literacy focuses on educating engineering students about thoughtful evaluation of web and scholarly resources. As the presence of the Internet grows exponentially, we cannot assume that students are equipped with skills to objectively research and evaluate resources. In addition, the ‘Napster Generation’ can have an entirely different perspective on fair use and appropriation of information accessed, resulting in problems ranging from improper citation of resources to plagiarism. This paper will focus on the convergence of these important contextual elements followed by specific ways that engineering and library faculty can partner to include ethics within the context of both programmatic and course offerings. Engineering librarians and faculty are encouraged to share further ideas of specific subject content applicable to the infusion of ethics in course instruction.

Introduction

Changes in engineering education are visible on several fronts. ABET 2000+ introduced a host of challenging expectations that encompass values as well as scales of academic achievements. Colleges of Engineering are working more closely with partner corporations. New engineering students bring with them different educational experiences, different information-seeking patterns, and different attitudes and expectations about the proper access and use of information. Each of these factors can have appreciable impact on the perspective that students have relative to ethics. Engineering educators are challenged to grapple with these factors as they strive for program excellence and accountability.

Engineering librarians have enjoyed a positive, long-standing tradition of facilitating information access and retrieval to engineers, engineering faculty, and engineering students. In the days of paper-based information, this remained a stable relationship based upon decades of tradition. The librarian organized and warehoused the information and the patron came to the library in Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Trussell, A. (2004, June), Abet 2000 And Ethics: Partnering With Librarians To Embed Ethics Into Course Curricula Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13174