Title: Ethics%20Across%20the%20Curriculum
1Ethics Across the Curriculum
- Dr José A. Cruz
- Dr. William J. Frey
- Dr. Halley D. Sanchez
2Introduction
- Team Introductions
- El Centro Para La Etica En Las Profesiones
(Center for Ethics in the Professions) - Series of EAC Workshops
- 4 ABET workshops for UPRM College of Engineering
- 1 EAC workshop for UPR Deans of Academic Affairs
- Series of Dissemination Workshops (APPE and ASEE)
- Paper on Workshop in ASEE 2002 Proceedings
3Our goals for today
- Present ABET 2000 ethics requirements
- Advocate EAC as an effective and efficient
response to these requirements - Model two successful ethics integration modules
- Develop short scenarios to include in templates
of these modules for engineering - Identify pilot ethics integration projects for
mainstream engineering courses - Set forth tools for documenting and assessing
pilot projects
4ABET Ethics Criteria
- ABET, Criterion 3, f and h
- f an understanding of professional and ethical
responsibility - h the broad education necessary to understand
the impact of engineering solutions in a global
and societal context
5ABET Ethics Criteria
- Criterion 4
- Mandates a major design experience
- based on the knowledge and skills acquired in
earlier course work and incorporating engineering
standards and realistic constraints that include
most of the following considerations economic
environmental sustainability manufacturability
ethical health and safety social and political
6Three things to remember
- Bean-counting is not enough
- ABET requires outcomes-based assessment
- Program identifies desired outcomes
- Implements a process of documentation and
assessment to show success in achieving these
outcomes - ABET requires the implementation, documentation
and assessment of a program that allows for
continuous improvement.
7Ethics Across the Curriculum
- Holistic
- Interdisciplinary
- Misconceptions
8What is EAC?
- Ethics Across the Curriculum
- One of the leading trends in ethics pedagogy
today is to have an ethical component or module
incorporated into the actual professional or
occupational course to supplement the
freestanding ethics course.
9EAC is holistic
- EAC requires establishing an overall plan that
coordinates a series of activities - Freestanding Course (Required or Elective)
- Ethics Integration Projects for mainstream
engineering courses - Special Activities
10Freestanding Course
- Course in engineering ethics taught by an
ethicist, engineer, or both - Repository of Research, Knowledge, and Innovation
- Effective means for faculty to keep up to date in
the field of engineering ethics. - Viable option for engineering students who want
to study ethical issues in more depth - But it need not be required for all students
- Remaining students can be reached through special
ethics integration activities or projects
11Ethics Integration Activities
- Todays Two Examples
- Introductory Ethics Module for Introduction to
Computers (Dr. Cruzs exercise) - Introduces students to ethical issues in
computing - Introduces students to ethics cases and basic
ethical frameworks - Gray Matters (Module that Frey uses in Mechanical
Engineering Capstone Design Class) - Promotes integration of ethical issues into a
rational decision-making process
12Special Activities
- These activities occur outside the the main
curriculum - Examples
- Special Presentations (Three UPRM engineering
professorsindustrial, mechanical, civilpresent
on super-aqueduct accident in Puerto Rico) - Student Activities (UPRM students revise CIAPR
code of ethics for Co-Op students) - Competitions (APPEs Ethics Bowl)
13Coordination is Important
- These activities must be recognized, documented,
and coordinated - to provide interventions for all engineering
students - to form a multi level sequence in which later
interventions build on earlier ones - to target core curriculum classes
- to realize a coherent set of targeted outcomes
- to allow for assessment and documentation
- to be synthesized into a plan that allows for
continuous improvement
14EAC is Interdisciplinary
- EAC recognizes that ethical problems in
engineering practice must be approached from an
interdisciplinary standpoint - Ethical issues in the design of coolants
- Cases that integrate ethical, technical and
mathematical components - Extended interdisciplinary study of Challenger
Case - Engineering Ethics (like Medical Ethics) has
entered a stage where problems and solutions are
interdisciplinary
15Misconceptions about EAC
- EAC is not realized by forcing engineering
professors to teach ethics in their classes
against their will - EAC does not mandate that teachers devote
substantial parts of their classes to teaching
ethics at the expense of engineering content. - You do not have to stop teaching engineering to
teach ethics (Satisficing ethical and
engineering content not trading one off against
the other) - While EAC requires sensitivity to ethical issues
arising in engineering, it does not require
expertise in meta-ethics, public policy, law, or
religion.
16The Basis
- In response to these misconceptions
- You know more about ethics than you think you
know - You know enough to have a significant impact on
your students moral development - You know enough to comply with ABET
- You have enough time to carry out an effective
ethics integration project
17Moral Minimum
- Harm, Reversibility, Publicity, and Feasibility
Satisficing Constraints
18Roughly Hewn Tools
- Definition of Ethics the systematic and critical
study of social practices - Example Engineering ethics is the systematical
and critical study of the social practice of
engineering. - Systematic employs principles and logical
argument in assessing the norms of a practice. - Critical Systematic examination may show that
practical norms fail to meet ethical criteria.
19The Moral Minimum
- Question What is the minimum basis from which we
can start the process of ethical reflection in
engineering? - Agreement on three broad-based principles
- Harm Engineers ought to avoid causing harm.
They also ought to prevent harm when it is in
their power to do so - Reversibility We ought to impose on others only
what we would have them impose on us. - Publicity We ought to act only on the basis of
that with which we are willing to be publicly
associated.
20Other Versions (Moral Minimum)
- Werhane Avoid negatives such as injustice,
dishonesty, needlessly harming others, etc. - Rawls Those principles that rationally
self-interested individuals would agree to under
a veil of ignorance. - Pinkus, Shuman, Hummon, Wolfe competence,
responsibility, and Ciceros Creed II (Safety)
21Three Principles, Three Tests
- ReversibilityWould I think this a good choice if
I were among those affected by it? - Harm Does this action do less harm than any
available alternatives? - Publicity Would I want this action published in
the newspaper?
22Reversibility Steps
- 1. Determine who is going to be affected by your
action. - 2. Determine how they will be affected.
- 3. Reverse roles put yourself in their place.
- 4. Answer this question if you were in their
place, would you still find the action acceptable?
23Harm Test Steps
- 1. Identify those who will be affected by your
action. - 2. Identify the impact your action will have on
these people. - 3. Determine whether this impact is harmful.
(Does it violate any rights? Does it produce
physical or mental suffering? Does it impose
financial or non-financial costs? Does it
deprive others of important or essential goods? - 4. Repeat these steps for each of the best
available alternatives and compare them in terms
of the net harm they produce. - Conclude by answering this question which
alternative produces the least net harm?
24Publicity Test Steps
- 1. Consider, first, that the action you are about
to perform provides a window through which others
can see who you really are. - 2. Then take the perspective of those others who
are about to judge your character through your
action. - 3. Ask the following question Would others view
you as a good person for what you are about to do?
25Feasibility Test Considerations
- Time is there a deadline within which your
solution has to be enacted? Is this deadline
negotiable? - Financial Are their cost constraints on your
solution? Are these negotiable? - Legal Does your proposed alternative violate any
laws, statutes, or regulations? - Personal Do the personalities of the people
involved impose any constraints on your solution? - Social, Cultural, or Political How would your
solution be viewed through the social, cultural,
and political milieu in which it is being enacted?
26Partial Encapsulation
- Each of these tests provides us with an initial
access to one or more major ethical approaches - Harm harm minimization is an essential component
of utilitarian theory - Reversibility is an essential component of
respect for others, a component shared by
deontology and rights theory - Publicity reveals aspects of virtue theory if we
assume that the actions with which we are
publicly associated provide others with windows
through which they can view and evaluate our
characters.
27Gray Matters
- An Ethics Integration Module
28Instructions for Gray Matters
- 1. Read the scenario and solutions.
- 2. Examine each alternative in terms of harm,
reversibility, publicity, and feasibility. - 3. Which of the solutions satisfices the
constraints raised by these tests? - 4. If you can design a better solution than the
ones proffered, then do so. - 5. Justify your best available alternative in
terms of the 4 tests and the idea of satisficing. - 6. Think about the questions and problems that
arise as you work with the ethics tests framework.
29Pacemaker Case
- A pacemaker manufacturing company (PACE Inc.)
located in a small town in Puerto Rico provides
jobs to about 80 of the towns workforce.
Profit margins are thin in this competitive field
which includes larger U.S. companies. You are on
an RD team for PACE that has studied two options
for the circuitry BULK CMOS and SOI. The team
favors BULK CMOS because the manufacturing
process is simpler and cheaper. But the chips
will be larger and consume more energy this
means more surgery for the patients to replace
the batteries. Overall, the use of BULK CMOS
would reduce patient life expectancy by 15.
Given this knowledge, what should you do?
30Alternatives
- 1. Go along with the team and advocate the
simpler and cheaper process. - 2. Oppose the team and advocate the more complex,
more expensive, but safer process. Try to
persuade the team members to opt for safety. - 3. Oppose the team. Force agreement by
threatening to blow the whistle. - 4. Resign from PACE, Inc.
- 5. Design your own solution.
31Inkjet Case
- You are a UPRM engineering graduate from a small
town in Puerto Rico and have started working in
your first job as a member of a research and
development team charged with designing a new
generation of printers for a market leader in
this area. The company you work for wants to
maintain its leadership in this area. It also
wants to respond to the emerging environmental
problem caused by the disposal of the inkjet
cartridges used in its current model. However,
these inkjet cartridges are made in your
hometown. If the new generation of printers does
not use disposable cartridges, then this plant
will close, putting friends and family out of
work. Your company is a leader in empowering its
employees. But what should you do with this
newly found power?
32Inkjet Solutions
- 1. Resign from the RD team because you have a
conflict of interest. - 2. Use your position on the team to argue that
the company does not need to develop a new
generation of printers. In this way guarantee
that your friends and family will keep their
jobs. - 3. Sit back and see what the senior members of
the team want. Then enthusiastically embrace
this. - 4. Advocate designing a recyclable cartridge that
could be manufactured in the hometown plant. - 5. Design your own solution.
33Designing Integration Exercises
- Teaching and Writing Cases
34Teaching and Writing Cases
- Case Discussion helps students learn ethics.
- Discuss Real World cases that portray everyday
situations rather than focus exclusively on big
news/bad news cases. - Students will modify their moral views in
response to arguments by teachers and peers. - Closure in the sense of reaching the definitive
right answer is not necessary - Exposure to different arguments and practice
using decision making and ethical frameworks is
important.
35Teaching and Writing Cases
- There are two perspectives from which to discuss
real world cases - Evaluator or Judge Perspective Taking a
standpoint outside the case, students pin moral
labels on the participants and their actions. - Participant Perspective The student takes up the
role of one of the participants and plays out the
situation by making a decision.
36Participant Perspective
- The student is encouraged to make a decision from
the point of view of one of the participants. - The case is interrupted at the moment of decision
- The decision is made under various constraints
(time/money) and in the face of uncertainty about
consequences.
37Teaching and Writing Cases
- An Example Aquaculture Case from NSF SBR-9810253
- Original version A local aquaculture facility
near Ponce was closed by the EPA for violating
standards they were shooting birds who ate the
lobster fingerlings and dumping dirty water into
the local river. - Question Was the EPA just or unjust in closing
the facility?
38Teaching and Writing Cases
- The students rewrote this case
- The EPA has informed an aquaculture facility that
they are in violation of environmental
regulations (shooting endangered birds and
improper disposal of waste water). This facility
has two months to submit a compliance report. To
write this report, they have hired a group of
engineers as consultants. You are one of the
consultants. Your job is to write a report that
describes several possible compliance responses.
Include information on how to implement these
responses and their costs.
39Teaching and Writing Cases
- What is different about the students version?
- It places the analyzer in the participatory point
of view, rather than that of the evaluator. - It elicits a decision that integrates technical
and ethical components it is interdisciplinary - Engineering skill and knowledge is required to
formulate the ethical/environmental problem. - It elicits a proactive rather than a reactive,
judgmental response.
40Writing Cases for Gray Matters
- Write the case from participant point of view.
- You are a technical consultant hired by a local
aquaculture firm. - Localize the circumstances. (The students put
the case in Ponce, Puerto Rico with its laws,
culture, and tradition.) - Keep the story line simple.
- Interrupt the narrative at a point of decision.
41Adapting to Gray Matters
- Build solutions around four generic options
- (1) give in,
- (2) negotiate,
- (3) oppose,
- (4) resign.
42Adapting to Gray Matters
- Add an opportunity for students to develop their
own solution - Solutions can be combined or synthesized.
- Students can form a plan of action that goes from
one solution to another. The successors serve as
backup plans in case the first fails. - Reinforce the idea that real world cases are not
necessarily dilemmas, that is, situations that
offer only limited and forced options to the
participant.
43Issues for Scenarios
- CIAPR Code of ethics
- Public health, safety, and welfare
- Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
- Maintaining Confidences
- Faithful Agency
- Collegiality
- Uphold honor, integrity and reputation of the
profession - Promote professional autonomy
44Issues in Computer Ethics
- From Impact CS
- www.seas.gwu.edu/impactcs/paper3/pg6.html
- Quality of life
- Use of Power
- Risk Reliability
- Property Rights
- Privacy
- Honesty Deception
45Is There Enough Time?
- Integration projects that are also time savers
46Time Savers
- Look for cases where it is necessary to solve
engineering and mathematical problems to
formulate the ethical problems. - Mayaguez Land Fill Case
- Participants must determine the capacity of land
fill liner to conduct electricity - Participants must also reflect on local weather
conditions - These factors make possible recognizing the
concern about the liner starting fires due to
conducting electricity from lightening.
47Time Savers
- The biggest objection to EAC integration projects
is the lack of time - How can I teach ethics when I dont have time to
teach the required engineering skills? - Assumption One has to stop teaching engineering
in order to teach ethics
48Time Savers Benefits
- Time saver cases have two benefits
- Ethical problems provide real world situations in
which students can apply engineering concepts - They show how ethical and engineering issues are
integrated because one must solve engineering and
mathematical problems in order to formulate
ethical problems
49An EAC Plan
- Promoting Ethical Empowerment in a Five Year
Program
50Example of EAC Plan
- Based on exercises we presented earlier
- Introductory Ethics Integration Exercise
- Gray Matters
- Based on frameworks presented above
- Ethics Tests, RDP, Codes of Ethics
- Multi-Level, Sequential Program
- Five Ethical Empowerment Skills
51EAC Outcomes
- Ethical Empowerment which includes
- Ethical awareness
- Ethical evaluation
- Ethical integration
- Prevention
- Value Realization skills
52First Intervention Awareness
- Ethical Awareness The ability to perceive
ethical issues embedded in complex, concrete
situations. - Framework
- Codes of Ethics and Issues Lists
- Exercise
- Introductory Ethics Integration demonstrated by
Dr. Cruz (Pre-test) - Discuss short scenarios that show ethical issues
in everyday engineering practice - Target
- 1st year, introductory, required course
53Second Intervention Evaluation
- Ethical Evaluation The ability to assess an
action, product, or process in terms of different
ethical approaches such as utilitarianism, rights
theory, deontology, and virtue ethics - Framework
- Ethics Tests Harm, Reversibility, Publicity
- Exercise
- Modified Introductory Exercise
- Target
- Required course at 2nd year level
54Third Intervention Integration
- Ethical Integration The ability to integrate
ethical considerations into an activity so that
these play an essential, constitutive role in the
final product - Framework
- Ethics tests plus feasibility test
- Rational Decision Procedure
- Practice satisficing conflicting constraints
- Exercise
- Gray Matters analyzed in terms of 7-step
procedure - Target
- 3rd year required course
55Fourth Intervention Prevention
- Preventive Skills The ability to uncover ethical
surprises and design preventive measures to stop
them from becoming full-blown dilemmas. - Framework
- Empirical Tools Designing questions for
interviews - Ethical Tools Issues List plus ethics tests
- Exercise
- Social Impact Analysis (see computingcases.org)
- Target
- 4th year students do SIS on 5th year student
designs.
56Fourth Intervention Value Realization Skills
- Value Realization Skills The ability to
recognize and exploit opportunities for using
ones skills and talents to maintain and promote
ethical values. - Framework
- Previously mentioned frameworks
- Exercise
- Major design experience evaluated according to
considerations mentioned in Criterion 4 - Target
- 5th year capstone course in design
57Will this waste time?
- Five hours out of a five year program?
- By carefully designing the intervention exercises
and cases, these ethics activities could also be
used to present and apply engineering and
mathematical concepts. - These exercises also spill over into other ABET
criteria working in teams, communicating skills,
global issues, integrating ethics into a major
design experience, etc.
58Two Concluding Questions
- How do we assess our workshop?
- Will it work at other universities?
59Workshop Assessment
- Formal Evaluation Form
- Informal Debriefings carried out by the workshop
team (did we achieve the goals mentioned at the
beginning) - Results Exercises Modeled, Cases Generated,
Exercises Recognized, and Pilot Projects
60Cases Generated
- Over thirty real world cases
- Displayed on our web page
- www.uprm.edu/ethics
- Further case criteria
- Discipline covered by case
- Synthesis between technical and ethical content
- Number of uses
61Exercises Developed
- For each workshop, we have filled two exercise
templates (Introductory Exercise and Gray Matters - For ideas on generating other kinds of exercises,
see - Impact CS
- www.computingcases.org
62Exercises Discovered
- During our workshops, participants have informed
us of projects they have already implemented into
their classes - Having been recognized, these efforts can now be
documented and assessed for ABET
63Integration Project (Recognized)
- Course INEL/ICOM (Dr. Luis Jimenez)
- Exercise Title Etica e Ingenieria Modulo de
Ethca para cursos de INEL/ICOM - Objectives ethical awareness, evaluation, and
integration (ABET 3f, 3h, and 4) - Outcomes learn about utilitarianism, deontology,
virtue, codes, global and environmental impacts
of engineering - Assessment students develop virtue and duty
lists for professors and students
64Pilot Projects
- Course INEL 4151 4152 (Electromagnetic Group)
- Required Course
- Exercise Title Health/Safety Case (Mayaguez Land
Fill) - Objectives Ethical Evaluation
- Outcomes Students will evaluate a scenario using
ethics tests of harm, reversibility, and
publicity after solving numerical problems. - Mode of Assessment test questions and class
discussion
65Implicit Criteria
- Workshop assessed in terms of the product it
generates (cases and exercises) - Workshop assessed in terms of what is implemented
(syllabi, classes, commitments) - Workshop assessed in terms future possibilities
opened (proposal to generate an ethics toolkit to
facilitate the generation and implementation of
ethics integration activities)
66Last Question
- Will this work at my institution?
- We are more alike than you think
- Treating engineering faculty with respect (we
have learned as much from them as they have from
us) - Develop positive responses to comfort issues
(include interactive activities) and time
problems (develop sample exercises from syllabi
and by rewriting textbook exercises) - ABET visits are also a motive
67Last Task
- Please fill out the evaluation forms.
- Thank you for your participation
- We can be contacted through our web page
- www.uprm.edu/ethics
- w_frey_at_rumac.uprm.edu