Assessing engineering ethics education leveraging stakeholder engagement in engineering programs

In engineering programs, the focus on assessing objective knowledge frequently eclipses aspects of teaching and learning relating to professional and ethical attitudes and values that are foundational to ethical practice. This chapter posits that the focus on embedding ethics education within an engineering program needs to extend beyond what is explicitly taught and assessed in the classrooms to include practical engagement with industry and community stakeholders. This relates particularly to the setting, achievement, and assessment of the intervention objectives as they relate to ethics education. The authors advocate for stakeholder needs to intersect with educational goals. They highlight the opportunity to include stakeholders as part of the process of setting educational goals and assessing programs and interventions. The chapter presents four case studies profiling practical engagement with stakeholders as opportunities to facilitate and assess ethics education as part of engineering programs. The authors analyze the case studies using three frames (descriptive, instrumental, and normative). Their analysis identifies an intersection in stakeholder engagements where learning to exercise ethical judgment in diverse environments expands classroom-based opportunities to reflect on the required ethical practice in engineering.