The Development of Ethical Reasoning: A Comparison of Online versus Hybrid Delivery Modes of Ethics Instruction

There is a concerted effort to improve online learning opportunities in higher education, including in the domain of engineering ethics. The benefits of online learning include ease in sharing course content, flexibility in the timing of participation, and increased variation in delivery modes for course material. However, the effect of online and hybrid participation on developing ethical reasoning in students is largely unknown, and interactive cases and dialogic learning are central to the pedagogy in ethics courses. An opportunity to fill this knowledge gap occurred while testing a new pedagogy for enhancing ethical reasoning among engineering graduate students, implemented in a graduate-level course over three offerings in Spring 2014, Summer 2014, and Spring 2015. Of the 29 students enrolled, 11 participated on-campus in a weekly class discussion-based lecture, and 18 completed the majority of course activities online. This multi-phase study presents results from a comparative analysis of the differences in ethical reasoning development and perception of course activities across these groups. Both groups of students showed substantial gains in their ethical reasoning development. Furthermore, changes in ethical reasoning were not significantly different when students participated in the on-line only versus an on-line/in-class or “hybrid” format. Nonetheless, analysis from post-course surveys indicated that the hybrid group perceived course activities more favorably than did their on-line only peers. In sum, these results indicate that on-line ethics interventions can be designed to be as impactful in developing ethical reasoning as formats that include an in-class component, although students may be more satisfied with ethics education when they have the opportunity for face-to-face, in-class interaction with peers and instructors

A Tale of Two Design Contexts: Quantitative and Qualitative Explorations of Student-Instructor Interactions Amidst Ambiguity

Designers develop design skills and knowledge through experience and feedback – feedback from colleagues, clients, supervisors, users, stakeholders, the success or failure of a solution, and design educators. In this project, we focus on the feedback provided to mechanical engineering students completing their undergraduate studies and industrial design graduate students during design reviews. The design coaches (educators and industry clients) and design students must negotiate ambiguity in the process. The students must reduce ambiguity in the sense of providing clear details as they communicate their design work, reduce ambiguity in the coaches’ perceptions of the design work quality by providing evidence and rationales for their design approaches. However, they also maintain ambiguity in the sense of not converging on an idea too quickly in the design process, but instead considering many possibilities. We investigate the different forms of feedback provided by coaches, students’ responses to the feedback, and the ways the students and coaches navigate ambiguity. Finally, we characterize differences between the two environments in terms of the types of feedback given and students’ responses to the feedback

Understanding the Communicative and Social Processes of Engineering Ethics in Diverse Design Teams

Understanding the Communicative and Social Processes of Engineering Ethics in Diverse Design Teams As engineering, and specifically engineering design, is increasingly understood to be asocial activity, engineering education’s understanding of ethics needs to reflect this developingawareness. Within engineering and design teams, engineering educators are concerned not onlywith how individual students develop ethically, but also how everyday ethical decision-makingemerges during team interactions and becomes integrated in design solutions. The everydayethics approach calls on engineering educators and students to pay closer attention to the natureof design, how values are embedded in design through micro decision-making processes, andhow these values are reintegrated into the everyday life of end users. Furthermore, these ethicaldecisions often do not present themselves as traditional dilemmas, but are issues that areconfronted in the everyday process of design, and are influenced by the cultural and disciplinarybackgrounds of the members and the ethical climates of the team and the organization. In considering engineering ethics education in this context, we can draw from theextensive scholarship of group communication. This body of literature suggests that teammember interactions and communication have a major impact on a team’s decision-makingabilities, as well as the information that is discussed during the problem-solving process (Larson,2007; Postmes, Spears & Cihangir, 2001; Reimer, Reimer, & Czienskowski, 2010). Therefore,this project seeks to understand how everyday ethical decision-making is integrated in theprocesses and interactions of diverse engineering design team and their recognition of the long-term design consequences of the solutions they produce. To do so, this study combines social network analysis with structuration theory toexamine the structure of project teams while also examining the institutional and contextualfactors that contribute to team climate, and to the development of group norms that affect teaminteractions. Social network analysis (SNA) is a type of analysis that enables researchers toexamine the relationships among members of a given system or group. In contrast to the“organizational chart” that might show how communication is supposed to flow within theorganization, network analysis shows the actual communication and relationships that emergewithin the organization or team. Structuration accounts for the influence of institutional factorssuch as rules or norms of what is “acceptable” or “appropriate” behavior within a specific socialcontext, while also affording the actors within that context agency to enact influence on thosestructural influences. Primary data sources include a series of interviews and videotapedparticipatory observations, as well as the social network analysis survey. In the first few months of the project, we have purposefully selected four diverse projectteams within a service-learning design program at a Midwestern university. Researchers haveconducted observations of the team, and have piloted the social network analysis survey andinterview. The survey and interviews will be conducted for the four project teams within thenext three months. In the paper, we describe the study frameworks and methods, preliminaryresults from the pilot, and how the pilot informed the study design

Evidence for the Existence of an Effective Interfacial Tension between Miscible Fluids: Isobutyric Acid-Water and 1-Butanol-Water in a Spinning-Drop Tensiometer

We report definitive evidence for an effective interfacial tension between two types of miscible fluids using spinning-drop tensiometry (SDT). Isobutyric acid (IBA) and water have an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) of 26.3 degrees C. We created a drop of the IBA-rich phase in the water-rich phase below the UCST and then increased the temperature above it. Long after the fluids have reached thermal equilibrium, the drop persists. By plotting the inverse of the drop radius cubed (r(-3)) vs the rotation rate squared (omega(2)), we confirmed that an interfacial tension exists and estimated its value. The transition between the miscible fluids remained sharp instead of becoming more diffuse, and the drop volume decreased with time. We observed droplet breakup via the Rayleigh-Tomotika instability above the UCST when the rotation rate was decreased by 80%, again demonstrating the existence of an effective inter-facial tension. When pure IBA was injected into water above the UCST, drops formed inside the main drop even as the main drop decreased in volume with time. We also studied 1-butanol in water below the solubility limit. Effective interfacial tension values measured over time were practically constant, while the interface between the two phases remains sharp as the volume of the drop declines. The effective interfacial tension was found to be insensitive to changes in temperature and always larger than the equilibrium interfacial tension. Although these results may not apply to all miscible fluids, they clearly show that an effective interfacial tension can exist and be measured by SDT for some systems

An Analysis of the Reflection Component in the EPICS Model of Service Learning

Service learning is a pedagogy providing a structured environment for students to link service with course learning objectives. Key to the service learning experience is critical reflection. This gives students the opportunity to examine their coursework in the context of the service they provide to their community and, in a broader sense, the impact they can have on the world. Research has shown that students participating in service learning have a higher comprehension of the course material and also develop an awareness of their local community and the issues it faces. In engineering, there are many examples of service-learning programs ranging from freshman introductory courses to senior capstone courses. Despite their successes, an area that the engineering education community has yet to fully develop is the reflection component of service learning. This paper addresses the development of reflection activities and materials in the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program at Purdue University. EPICS engages students in long-term design projects that provide technical solutions to problems faced by local community service organizations. It is a multidisciplinary (composed of students from 20 majors), vertically integrated (freshman-senior), engineering-based design course. Students design, build, test, and deploy projects meeting the specific needs of their community partners. Reflection has been integrated in the EPICS program through curricular activities and key milestones of the course. These activities guide students through the reflection process on a variety of topics. Critical reflection on the design process and teaming complement those on more traditional areas of ethics and social context to enhance a student\u27s service learning experience. This paper presents an overview of the reflection activities that have been developed, interpretations of student reflections from these activities, and plans to evolve the reflection component in EPICS

Tensions of Integration in Professional Formation: Investigating Development of Engineering Students\u27 Social and Technical Perceptions

Tensions of Integration in Professional Formation: Investigating Development of Engineering Students\u27 Social and Technical PerceptionsTwenty-first century engineers face incredible challenges and opportunities, many of which aresocially complex, transcending the traditional “technical” boundaries of engineering. Thetechnology produced by engineers must not only function as predicted by mathematical andtheoretical models but must also operate beneficially and seamlessly in complex social contexts.In this sense, engineers must embody an integrated social and technical – or sociotechnical –identity rather than a dualistic social/technical one.A growing body of scholarship has discussed how dominant cultures of engineering shapestudents’ and professionals’ understandings of social and technical dimensions of their work.Further, engineering education research has advanced understanding of how engineering identityis formed by external, structural forces. Yet, from a psychological perspective, we know littleabout how engineering students come to perceive and embody their identities as engineers,especially in relation to social and technical dimensions of these identities. Thus, we organizedthis study around the following research questions.RQ0: How do students psychologically experience identity trajectories of becoming engineers?RQ1: How do students perceive the social and technical features of engineering identity?RQ2: How do students internally experience their identities as engineers, particularly with regard to social and technical dimensions of these identities?RQ3: How do social and technical perceptions of their engineering identity develop and change in the course of the engineering curriculum or in the transition to the workplace?To respond to these research questions, we have conducted two longitudinal studies usinginterpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). One study focused on graduating seniors as theytransitioned into the workplace, and the second study focused on first-year students transitioningto engineering degree coursework. These investigations produced robust and nuancedunderstanding of students’ engineering identity trajectories throughout and beyond thecurriculum. These findings are being leveraged in order to provide our initial understanding in athematic analysis on sophomore engineering students.Thus far, the findings of the investigation highlight the complexity of becoming both engineers,specifically by demonstrating a somewhat contradictory relationship between what participantsperceived to be engineering and how they actually embodied an engineering-self. They furtherdemonstrate the manifold ways that participants realized and prioritized identities outside ofengineering and how these multiple selves interacted in ways that affected their engineeringidentities. Additionally, findings for both male and female groups suggest that somepsychological patterns might be related to gender. In sum, the findings depict a complex pictureof engineering-students-turned-engineers as whole persons. By focusing on how engineeringidentity development is embodied, the findings generate multiple theoretical insights that bearrelevance for engineering education research and provocative implications that bear significancefor engineering educators, students, and employers

Dimensions of Equity: Undergraduate Research Through Vertically Integrated Projects at Five Institutions

In this innovative practice work-in-progress paper, enrollment data from five institutions was used to examine equity in undergraduate research through Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Programs. VIP is a model for undergraduate research in which large student teams are embedded in faculty-driven projects. The American Association of Colleges and Universities recognizes undergraduate research as a high-impact experience, associated with higher graduation rates and greater learning gains in college. Participation in multiple high-impact experiences yields cumulative gains to students from all backgrounds, and compensatory gains for minoritized and marginalized students. Nationally however, minoritized students, first-generation college students, and transfer students participate in undergraduate research at lower rates than their peers. In this study, VIP enrollments at five institutions (N = 6,651 over two semesters) were compared to demographics of the institutions to determine the degree to which programs achieved equity among historically underserved minorities, transfer students, first-generation college students, and by gender. Analysis accounted for demographics and level of participation of the academic units involved, comparing enrollments with what would be expected under equitable enrollment. Analyses were done for each institution and across the pooled sample. By institution, equity across categories varied. Across the pooled sample, results show small effects sizes for status as a historically underserved minority, very small effect sizes for first-generation students and transfer students, and slightly higher participation among women than men. The large-scale nature of VIP teams enables institutions to scale-up their undergraduate research offerings. This paper begins answering the question of whether this scaling increases access for marginalized populations, and the results are encouraging. The paper is a work-in-progress, because data needs to be collected from more VIP institutions for a wider-ranging study. The chisquare test and the importance of using effect sizes in interpreting results will be explained, so others can apply the same method. Results, implications, and next steps are discussed

Applying Phenomenography to Develop a Comprehensive Understanding of Ethics in Engineering Practice

This Work-in-Progress Research paper describes (1) the contemporary research space on ethics education in engineering; (2) our long-term research plan; (3) the theoretical underpinnings of Phase 1 of our research plan (phenomenography); and (4) the design and developmental process of a phenomenographic interview protocol to explore engineers' experiences with ethics. Ethical behavior is a complex phenomenon that is complicated by the institutional and cultural contexts in which it occurs. Engineers also have varied roles and often work in a myriad of capacities that influence their experiences with and understanding of ethics in practice. We are using phenomenography, a qualitative research approach, to explore and categorize the ways engineers experience and understand ethical engineering practice. Specifically, phenomenography will allow us to systematically investigate the range and complexity of ways that engineers experience ethics in professional practice in the health products industry. Phenomenographic data will be obtained through a specialized type of semi-structured interview. Here we introduce the design of our interview protocol and its four sections: Background, Experience, Conceptual, and Summative. We also describe our iterative process for framing questions throughout each section

Video and image systems engineering education for the 21st century

Includes bibliographical references.We are developing a new graduate program at Purdue in Video and Image Systems Engineering (VISE). The project is comprised of three parts: a new curriculum centered around a degree option in VISE to be earned as part of the Masters or Ph.D. degrees; a state-of-the-art lecture/laboratory facility for instruction, laboratory experiments, and project and homework activities in VISE courses; and enhancement of existing courses and development of new courses in the VISE area.Supported by an Image Systems Engineering Grant from Hewlett-Packard Company

Identification of residues in the N-terminal PAS domains important for dimerization of Arnt and AhR

The basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH).PAS dimeric transcription factors have crucial roles in development, stress response, oxygen homeostasis and neurogenesis. Their target gene specificity depends in part on partner protein choices, where dimerization with common partner Aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (Arnt) is an essential step towards forming active, DNA binding complexes. Using a new bacterial two-hybrid system that selects for loss of protein interactions, we have identified 22 amino acids in the N-terminal PAS domain of Arnt that are involved in heterodimerization with aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Of these, Arnt E163 and Arnt S190 were selective for the AhR/Arnt interaction, since mutations at these positions had little effect on Arnt dimerization with other bHLH.PAS partners, while substitution of Arnt D217 affected the interaction with both AhR and hypoxia inducible factor-1α but not with single minded 1 and 2 or neuronal PAS4. Arnt uses the same face of the N-terminal PAS domain for homo- and heterodimerization and mutational analysis of AhR demonstrated that the equivalent region is used by AhR when dimerizing with Arnt. These interfaces differ from the PAS β-scaffold surfaces used for dimerization between the C-terminal PAS domains of hypoxia inducible factor-2α and Arnt, commonly used for PAS domain interactions