Project-Based Learning in Industry-University Collaboration – Three Normative Models

This paper reports three normative models for project-based learning (PjBL) in university-industry relations in computing. The models are inspired by normative theories on business ethics, and are designated as archetypes that describe the objectives and responsibilities of parties in collaboration: 1) The Slaver model prescribes that a university should sell students as slaves for business and reap the benefit, 2) The Educator model recognizes that the knowledge and skills development of students is also important, and 3) The Reformer model integrates the development of working life and project work practices into collaboration and represents a form of ethics teaching in this manner. The aim of the three models is to sensitize teaching professionals in PjBL in computing to critically reflect on their current practices. The Reformer model combines PjBL and ethics teaching, and a solution based on this model is presented

On IS Students’ Intentions to Use Theories of Ethics in Resolving Moral Conflicts

It is widely agreed that ethics teaching should have an important role in Information Systems (IS) teaching. Yet, there are no studies exploring how students apply theories of ethics in their decision-making. This is unfortunate, because teaching ethics is of little practical use if the students do not utilise the acquired knowledge in practice. In order to bridge this significant gap in the literature, we introduced IS students to the following theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics, prima-facie principles, and Rawls\u27 veil of ignorance. We then asked them (n=75) to apply these theories to a given moral conflict, and to assess whether they intended to use the theories in real life. Phenomenographic analysis revealed four developing levels in the students’ perceptions: 1) rejection (the student trusts his or her intuition, consciousness or feelings rather than the theories); 2) latent use (the student recognizes that the theories may be latently present in intuitive deliberation); 3) conscious use (the student uses the theories to support intuitive deliberation); and 4) internalised use (the student has internalised the theories to such an extent that he or she does need to consciously steer his or her deliberation to their use). These findings entail recommendations to IS educators on how to educate students to address ethical issues through the application of theories

The Effects of Teaching the Universality Thesis on Students’ Integrative Complexity of Thought

The explosion in the use of computers has strengthened the need to address ethical issues in information systems (IS) education, and several frameworks have been expounded. However, little empirical research has been undertaken on their effects. This is a key problem: If IS scholars do not study the effect of information systems on IS students, IS ethics education suffers. This could mean that future professionals will neglect morally significant issues in their work. We carried out an interpretive empirical study on the effects and implications of an education program based on three theories of universality. The theory of integrative complexity was applied to see if the level of complexity of thought increased owing to a theorybased IS ethics teaching intervention. This intervention was based on pre-then-post testing with two groups, the experimental group receiving instruction in three versions of universality (n=79), and the control group (n=16). Our results show that the change in integrative complexity varied significantly between the two groups, with the experimental group making significant progress compared to the control group. The application of the universality thesis had a positive effect on deliberation skills among 43 percent of the experimental group. These results carry implications for IS education and research