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Developing Instructional Modules on Engineering Ethics

Hillary Hart, O. Christene Moore University of Texas at Austin

Introduction

Many U.S. colleges and departments of engineering are looking at ways to integrate the teaching of engineering ethics and professional responsibility into existing courses. The value of such integration seems obvious: the case studies and examples spring organically from the subject matter of the course, so that thinking about ethics and professional responsibility becomes demonstrably a part of the design or problem-solving process. And yet, what seems "organic" may nonetheless be time-consuming and awkward to develop into full-fledged teaching materials and methods. If he/she is not an ethics "expert," how does an engineering instructor create and use course-specific materials on ethics and professional responsibility?

At the University of Texas at Austin, the College of Engineering is attempting to answer this question by sponsoring a faculty team to develop a series o f Web-based teaching modules on topics ranging from research ethics to professional liability. Each module is designed to provide all materials necessary to assess what students already know about the topic, to prepare them for in-class discussion, to offer additional readings and resources, and to engage in follow-up activities. The goal is to create flexible instructional materials that will help instructors incorporate a discussion of ethical issues in their core engineering courses. The modules allow instructors to pick and choose those materials that best suit the contents and timing of their class. Suggested teaching time devoted to the module varies from one class period (with an out-of-class assignment) to several periods (with tests, homework and team presentations).

All materials will be made available on a Web site, part of which can be accessed by students and part of which will be reserved for instructors only. While there are several excellent Web sites on engineering ethics (www.onlineethics.org, www.engr.washington.edu/~uw- pp/Pepl/Ethics/index.html, and www.nspe.org/ethics/, to name a few), our modules are intended to be more pedagogically oriented. In addition to case studies, for instance, there will be pre- assessment and follow-up exercises that put that case in a pedagogical context. Our site will also contain an instructor's "manual" with suggestions on how to use the materials, how to fit them into a variety of courses, and how to handle student discussion and team exercises.

The pedagogical hypothesis being tested in this project assumes that engineering faculty teaching core courses will include ethics and professional-responsibility content in their courses more readily if instructional materials are · more readily available · technical subject-matter-specific · adaptable for individual courses and purposes · flexible in timing and purpose · diverse in the variety of scenarios, case-studies, and exercises from which to choose.

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Moore, C., & Hart, H. (2002, June), Developing Instructional Modules For Engineering Ethics Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10726