TY - JOUR
T1 - Developing and designing online engineering ethics instruction for international graduate students
AU - Austin, Katherine A.
AU - Gorsuch, Greta J.
AU - Lawson, William D.
AU - Newberry, Byron P.
PY - 2011/11
Y1 - 2011/11
N2 - The present project embarked on an educational intervention, consisting of a series of online ethics learning modules, to aid international graduate students in overcoming the acculturation barriers to understanding and inculcating normative ethical obligations associated with engineering practice and research in the United States. A fundamental initial step in the process of helping international, as well as domestic, engineering graduate students embrace ethical obligations is to provide clear instruction on fundamental engineering ethical principles and values relevant in the United States. Most institutes of higher education do not have a cohesive approach to basic graduate engineering ethics instruction, much less materials that have been calibrated for international students (National Science Foundation, http://www. nspe. org/Ethics/index. html, 2009). Herein the authors describe our instructional intervention, as well as to document the development, design, and assessment of the learning modules intended to provide students with a framework for learning ethical precepts and applying them in the engineering field. Think-Aloud Protocol and Cognitive Task Analysis results were used to improve the content modules and learning experience. Initial pilot findings indicate that the content modules increased student knowledge acquisition compared to pre-test performance, indicating a step-forward in the formulation of a useful learning tool for graduate engineering ethics instruction.
AB - The present project embarked on an educational intervention, consisting of a series of online ethics learning modules, to aid international graduate students in overcoming the acculturation barriers to understanding and inculcating normative ethical obligations associated with engineering practice and research in the United States. A fundamental initial step in the process of helping international, as well as domestic, engineering graduate students embrace ethical obligations is to provide clear instruction on fundamental engineering ethical principles and values relevant in the United States. Most institutes of higher education do not have a cohesive approach to basic graduate engineering ethics instruction, much less materials that have been calibrated for international students (National Science Foundation, http://www. nspe. org/Ethics/index. html, 2009). Herein the authors describe our instructional intervention, as well as to document the development, design, and assessment of the learning modules intended to provide students with a framework for learning ethical precepts and applying them in the engineering field. Think-Aloud Protocol and Cognitive Task Analysis results were used to improve the content modules and learning experience. Initial pilot findings indicate that the content modules increased student knowledge acquisition compared to pre-test performance, indicating a step-forward in the formulation of a useful learning tool for graduate engineering ethics instruction.
KW - Ethics instruction
KW - Instructional technology
KW - Online learning
KW - Usability
KW - Web-based learning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80054015969&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11251-010-9162-1
DO - 10.1007/s11251-010-9162-1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80054015969
SN - 0020-4277
VL - 39
SP - 975
EP - 997
JO - Instructional Science
JF - Instructional Science
IS - 6
ER -