How to use the Explorer

This Explorer was built to help you navigate the landscape of engineering ethics education. Choose a path depending on what you want to do: each path leads you through content such as learning outcomes, graduate attributes, and accreditation criteria, while also pointing you to supporting activities and resources linked to the content. Find your way using the map at top right or by navigating to the links in the menu bar.

Why assess?

Assessment is not only crucial for evaluating learning, but also for identifying ways to improve the teaching of ethics within engineering education.

Why explore engineering ethics?

This resource is a guide for academics who are interested in teaching ethics to engineering students. It aims to help you see how ethics could be integrated into an undergraduate engineering curriculum. The content in the explorer is subject to changes in context and should be customised to suit the various forms that an engineering degree can take. It is intended as a non-prescriptive resource – as a way of suggesting to educators how ethics might comprise a distinct theme in an engineering undergraduate degree. This ethics explorer is focused on the UK higher education context, but it may be adapted for use in other countries.

How can I assess an ethics activity?

Here you will find guidance for assessing engineering ethics learning. Besides a guidance article, there are links to learning outcomes, graduate attributes, and an ethics learning landscape that shows you how it all fits together.

Why do engineering students need to be taught ethics?

The study of engineering ethics within an engineering course helps students prepare for their professional lives. A specific advantage for engineering students who learn about ethics is that they develop clarity in their understanding and thought about ethical issues and the practice in which they arise.

The study of ethics helps students to develop widely applicable skills in communication, reasoning and reflection. These skills enhance students' abilities and help them engage with other aspects of the engineering programme such as group work and work placements.

Where students are taught about ethics, they will:

• Understand the nature of professional responsibility;
• Be able to identify the ethical elements in decisions;
• Be able to address and resolve problems arising from questionable practice;
• Develop critical thinking skills and professional judgement;
• Understand practical difficulties of bringing about change;
• Develop a professional ethical identity to carry forward in their working life;
• Many young people are concerned about ethical issues. So, showing that there are opportunities for learning about ethics within an engineering programme can be attractive to those seeking further study.