Description

This Assignment template was developed to assess students’ ability to reason ethically given a problem within their discipline. It can be adapted to any program by pointing the student to the appropriate professional code of ethics and inserting a discipline-specific scenario. It was designed to evaluate student learning at the bachelor’s level, but could be adapted to any level by inserting an appropriate scenario.

Background and Context

This assignment template was developed to assess students’ ability to reason ethically given a problem within their discipline. It can be adapted to any program by pointing the student to the appropriate professional code of ethics and inserting a discipline specific scenario. It was designed to evaluate student learning at the bachelor’s level, but could be adapted to any level by inserting an appropriate scenario.

Reflections

This assignment has been used widely at Oregon Institute of Technology since 2009 when it was first designed by the Oregon Tech Assessment Commission as a component of the assessment of the Professionalism and Ethics Institutional Student Learning Outcome. Since that time, many Oregon Tech programs have embedded the assignment within the curriculum. Some programs have adapted the assignment to scaffold student learning throughout the program. The template and rubric were revised to improve clarity when the ethics outcome was assessed again at the institution level in 2012. This has been our most successful signature assignment due to the fact that it can be easily adapted and naturally embedded in a wide variety of courses.

Performance Criteria

1. Demonstrates knowledge of professional code of ethics
2. Identifies ethical issues in a scenario using code of ethics
3. Describes parties involved and points of view
4. Describes and analyzes alternative approaches
5. Supports an approach, describing benefits and risks

Rubric(s)

1. Oregon Tech Ethics Rubric