The PRiME ProjectThe PRiME Project: A College of : A College of Engineering initiative to integrate Engineering initiative to integrate ethics into core coursesethics into core courses

Hillary Hart (CAEE)

Christy Moore (ME)

Professional Responsibility Modules in Engineering

University of Texas at Austin

The Chair of Free Enterprise (UT Austin)The Chair of Free Enterprise (UT Austin)

Vision:To create and nurture a culture of technology innovation, creativity, leadership and enterprise at The University of Texas at Austin and the global community that we serve.

The Chair of Free Enterprise and The Chair of Free Enterprise and Professional ResponsibilityProfessional Responsibility

The Chair seeks to:

– Promote critical thinking in the area of engineering professional responsibility

– Support the ability to identify, develop, and analyze issues in professional responsibility.

– Safety and Welfare of the Public (and of Clients)

– Technical Competence

– Legal Liabilities of Engineers

– Environmental Responsibilities

– Quality

– Standards

– Communication/Publication

– Intellectual Property

– Professional Ethics

Ethics are involved in all of these Ethics are involved in all of these Professional Responsibility Professional Responsibility topicstopics..

Adding professional responsibility Adding professional responsibility to the curriculum is easier said to the curriculum is easier said than done.than done.• Difficult to add a free- standing course (Davis,

2004).

• Faculty don’t have the time to research, invent, and develop new material on topics they aren’t familiar with (Herkert, 1999).

• Students don’t see the relevance.• Unless we make ethics “seem a routine part

of engineering,” students will resist our best efforts (Davis, 2004).

Davis, Michael, “Teaching Ethics Across the Engineering Curriculum,” The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science Case Western Reserve University: 2004.

The The PRiMEPRiME Model Model for Ethics Instruction for Ethics Instruction in Engineeringin Engineering

• Objective: to enable any engineering instructor to teach ethics and professional responsibility in any course, no matter how much classroom time is available.

• Secondary benefit– ABET a-k

• PRiME achieves this objective by producing web-based materials in an easy-to-use format that can be used in any engineering class.

Six PRiME lessons have been Six PRiME lessons have been completed and piloted in the classroom.completed and piloted in the classroom.

Professional Ethics

1. Introduction to Professional Ethics

Leadership

2. Ethical Leadership

Credibility of Sources

3. Evaluating Web Sites

4. What to Report?

Ownership of Information

5. Copyright

6. Plagiarism

PRiME: PRiME: Professional Responsibility Modules in Engineering

The lessons were created by The lessons were created by Engineering Communication faculty.Engineering Communication faculty.

Mark Carpenter EE Ethical Leadership

D’Arcy Randall ChemE Evaluating Web Sites

Copyright

Hillary Hart CAEE What to Report?

Christy Moore ME Intro to Professional Ethics

Plagiarism

The Challenge

a case study or scenario

• Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

• Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

• Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

• Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

• Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

The Cycle guides students through The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, the steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.analyzing, and making judgments.

The Cycle guides students through the The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.analyzing, and making judgments.

•The Challenge

a case study or scenario

•Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

•Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

•Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

•Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

•Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

The Cycle guides students through the The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.analyzing, and making judgments.

•The Challenge

a case study or scenario

•Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

•Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

•Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

•Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

•Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

The Cycle guides students through the The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.analyzing, and making judgments.

•The Challenge

a case study or scenario

•Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

•Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

•Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

•Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

•Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

The Cycle guides students through the The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.and making judgments.

•The Challenge

a case study or scenario

•Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

•Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

•Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

•Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

•Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

The Cycle guides students through the The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.analyzing, and making judgments.

•The Challenge

a case study or scenario

•Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

•Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

•Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

•Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

•Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

The Cycle guides students through the The Cycle guides students through the steps of reflecting, investigating, steps of reflecting, investigating, analyzing, and making judgments.analyzing, and making judgments.

•The Challenge

a case study or scenario

•Generate Ideas

records students’ prior knowledge

•Gather Multiple Perspectives

resources that shed light on the challenge

•Research and Revise

readings or exercises that foster analysis

•Test Your Mettle

a test or exercise to demonstrate learning

•Go Public

connects the lesson to the course, the institution, or the profession

Our goal is to integrate professional Our goal is to integrate professional responsibility into the core curriculum. responsibility into the core curriculum.

• To encourage students to see professional responsibility as a relevant and routine part of engineering.

• To engage students by demonstrating the societal context in which engineers operate.

• To give faculty not trained to teach professional responsibility the tools, guidance, and materials to do so easily.

Moore, C., Hart, H., Randall, D., and Nichols, S. (2006) “PRiME: Integrating Professional Responsibility into the Engineering Curriculum,” Science and Engineering Ethics. Volume 12, no. 2.

Each lesson starts with a purpose Each lesson starts with a purpose statement and a list of objectives.statement and a list of objectives.What to Report?

The purpose of this lesson is to provide you with experience in considering what data should be reported and what data are not relevant or appropriate to report.

Objectives • Make decisions regarding what are credible and non-

credible sources of information• Decide what information can be ethically

disregarded ･ • Realize your responsibilities as an engineer when

communicating information in a professional capacity

link

The lessons use topics that students The lessons use topics that students find relevant.find relevant.• Case studies

– Introduction to Professional Ethics -- Buffalo Creek– Copyright -- Napster

• Scenarios– What to report?– Plagiarism– Defining Ethical Leadership

• Original resources created to demonstrate relevance and make the lessons more engaging– By Mark Carpenter– By Theresa Jones

The use of the web allows us to use The use of the web allows us to use and create engaging sources.and create engaging sources.

• Print, visual, and audio sources available on the web

• Video footage from existing sources

• Video of lectures or interviews created for PRiME

The modules give engineering faculty The modules give engineering faculty tools, guidance, and material.tools, guidance, and material.

• Lesson plans• Readings• Tests• Assignments• Exercises• Instructor Guides

The hyperlinked Instructor’s Guide makes The hyperlinked Instructor’s Guide makes the materials easy to use. the materials easy to use.

• One part of the Guide is a stand-alone web-based document describing the PRiME modules – theory behind them, system of modularity, and the Quickstart options.

Guide also consists of notes integrated into Guide also consists of notes integrated into student-view pagesstudent-view pages

• Only instructors can see these notes, after they log in.

• Once instructor logs out, student view is all that remains.

Notes give summaries of content, alternate Notes give summaries of content, alternate instructional options, and further materials.instructional options, and further materials.

• Video segments for What to Report?– Students can read the basic question addressed in

each segment.– Each question corresponds to “information” given in

the Challenge scenario. – Only instructors can see summaries of each video

segment – helps them guide student discussion of the segments.

• Some lessons include PowerPoint slides for instructors to use as they wish.

The PRiME modules promote critical The PRiME modules promote critical thinking.thinking.

1. Help students identify, develop, and analyze issues in professional responsibility.

2. Give instructors tools to teach ethics and make it seem relevant.

Development is ongoing.

The PRiME modules strive to enrich The PRiME modules strive to enrich engineering education.engineering education.

• To fill a gap in undergraduate teaching materials

• To nurture analysis, creativity, and ethical leadership

• To challenge the current generation of students to excel

ReferencesReferences

• Davis, Michael. (2004)“Teaching Ethics Across the Engineering Curriculum,” The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science Case Western Reserve University:”

• Herkert, J. (1999). "ABET's Engineering Criteria 2000 and Engineering Ethics: Where DoWe Go From Here?" OEC International Conference on Ethics in Engineering and Computer Science, March 1999. http://onlineethics.org/essays/education/index.html