Below are the questions exactly as you will see them in the Flag Proposal System when you propose your course for an Ethics flag. Your responses to these questions should allow the faculty flag committee to make an informed decision regarding your proposal.
Question 1
Courses that carry the Ethics Flag teach students to think ethically. Please describe course readings, assignments, and/or activities that require students to engage in ethical reasoning.
Use this space to describe how ethical reasoning is incorporated into your course. What kinds of approaches to ethics will students learn in this course? How will students practice applying their ethical reasoning skills to the course content?
A College of Natural Sciences faculty member described the ethics component in course assignments as follows: Students complete five ethics learning modules, featuring videos from Ethics Unwrapped. Most questions in the modules are essay-style questions asking students to consider the ethical component of a situation and give their perspective and reasoning. After each module, we follow up during the next class meetings with small-group and whole-class discussions of the module questions and other questions related to the concepts in that module. In some cases, we study the same question in different contexts. For example, early in the ethics series we discuss ethical perspectives on copying a homework assignment under various circumstances, considering it both from the student perspective and then considering a teacher’s role and responsibility (or lack thereof, depending on your perspective) in minimizing the perceived benefits of cheating. This discussion prompted much debate. In a later module and discussion, after an Ethics Unwrapped video that discusses rationalizations in ethical choices, we return to that same question and discuss any rationalizations they recognize in their previous answers and if their answers changed based on the recognition of those rationalizations. Students are asked to submit one ethics paper during the semester. One option for this paper is a report on the small group/class discussion of one of the modules. For this option, students discuss and compare the various perspectives that were expressed, relate this to their own viewpoint, and discuss if their views changed based on hearing the others’ ideas. Alternatively, students can wait until the end of the ethics series and write a paper discussing the most interesting or applicable thing they learned about ethics and how this relates to their role as a peer learning assistant or their future career.
Question 2
The Ethics Flag indicates that students will learn practical ethics, so the connection between ethical content and real-life choices should be made concrete. Please describe how this course gives students the opportunity to apply ethical reasoning to issues relevant to their adult and professional lives.
Responses to this prompt should clearly identify how practical ethics is an explicit component of your course. To be appropriate for the Ethics Flag, ethics should not remain implicit (e.g. in the discussion of controversial topics), but instead be explicitly addressed in course content. What are some ways that students can apply ethical reasoning learned in this course to real-life questions? How will students transfer their ethical reasoning skills to their everyday lives?:
Here is a sample response in which a College of Liberal Arts faculty member explained how ethics is made explicit in her course: This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Mexican-American and Latinos Studies. It will examine the history, culture, and politics of the major Latino subgroups: Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Central Americans, and Dominicans. The course is built around four units that cover different historical stages in Latino community formation. During each unit, we will read about real scenarios when politicians, policy makers and activists were confronted with ethical questions around how to incorporate Latinos into the political and social fabric of the United States. During each unit students will be asked to evaluate the real-life ethical decisions made by social-historical actors through the four time periods that we will be engaging in the course. Although the context will change depending on the historical period under study in each unit the underlining ethical tension will be between the interests of state leaders and the interest of minority groups in the US, or between the United States and nation-states in Latin America.
Question 3
To satisfy the requirements of the Ethics Flag, at least one-third of the course grade must be based on work in practical ethics. Please describe the course grading scheme, indicating how one-third of the course is based on ethical reasoning.
Please list the graded component(s) of the course that give students the opportunity to practice ethical reasoning skills. Ethics assignments should total at least one-third of the final grade (for a three-credit course; 50% for a two-credit course; 100% for a one-credit course).
The following example was submitted by a faculty member in the College of Communication: At least 40% of the graded content of the course will focus on ethics. The first case write-up (15% of course grade) will focus completely on applying behavioral ethics concepts and frameworks to an ethical dilemma that a leader faces. At least one-third (6.67% of course grade) of the team project will focus on addressing ethical dimensions of leadership and communication issues. Likewise, at least one-third (8.33% of course grade) of the final case write-up will involve addressing ethical dimensions of leadership and communication problems. At least, one-sixth (3.33% of course grade) of the Reflected Best Self Paper will address values and ethics. At least one third (6.67% of course grade) of class discussions will focus on ethics. If one considers, the leadership dimension of the course as well, the entire graded content of the course will pertain to ethics and leadership because communication issues will be examined in the context of leadership and ethics.
Supporting Documents
You may attach up to three supporting documents, such as a syllabus or sample assignment. Submission of supporting documents is not required, but is strongly encouraged to expedite the approval process.
(Allowed file formats: doc, docx, ppt, pptx, txt, pdf, xls, xlsx)