Teaching, Plan B: A Web-based Course in Research Ethics

Michael D. Mann

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Abstract:

Granting agencies are now requiring that graduate students, technicians and faculty involved in funded research take a course in research ethics. With such a large and varied base of "students," traditional courses become unmanageable. Everyone agrees that face-to-face discussion of ethical issues is the preferred method of learning, but when that is impossible, what is second best? The web offers the possibility of providing instruction to any student, anywhere and anytime. Therefore, using web-based courses, technicians and faculty, who have difficulty finding time for traditional courses, can find a forum for learning about ethical issues.

This course uses a problem-based approach to learning. Students learn about development of well-reasoned responses to ethical issues, they confront problems involving one or more ethical issues, they read specific "classical" papers related to the problems and they submit their own reasoned responses to the problems. Response submission may be by individual email or by participation in an online forum. Email submissions receive both immediate, automatic "canned" responses and later specific responses from faculty. In the fora, students can interact with other students and faculty as they try to come to grips with ethical issues. The course is completed when the student has confronted and responded to each of 50 problems. Problems come from the following topics: gathering, processing and publishing data, use of human and animal subjects, conflicts-of-interest, management of intellectual property, use of money and property, industry-university relations, teacher-student relations, and appropriate responses to observed misconduct.

The course features: a personal notepad, personal and group email, many complete references online, searches, links to important web sites, a glossary, and a personal progress meter. Students can participate in the prepared fora--one for each problem--or they can set up fora of their own.

Evaluation of such a course is unique. We cannot hope to make students ethical. We can hope to sensitize them to ethical issues of research and to help them develop reasoned responses to ethical problems. The course uses a pre-test/post-test format for evaluating whether the students thinking processes have been shaped. Students are given a pre-test problem without any instruction. Their responses are saved. At the end of the course, they are given the same problem again, along with their pre-test analyses, and they are asked how their analyses would change as a result of completing the course. Significant positive changes (more in-depth analysis; more ethical issues recognized; etc.) would indicate success of the course.

The course is constructed using standard html with javascript support. Database interactions are handled by cgi scripts written in Visual Basic. We wrote our own email and forum systems so we could track student inputs. By the time of the meeting, we will have tested the course on a number of students, and we will be able to report preliminary results.

Benefit in Attending Session:

Viewers of the demo will be able to see a complete web-based course in action. They may find some new ideas for presentation of course materials and evaluation of course success. They will see what one can do with javascript and cgi scripts for handling data. They will be able to try out the course. If a viewer would like to "try out" the course at home, I can provide user names and passwords.

PRIMARY AUTHOR'S INFORMATION

Michael D. Mann

984575 Nebraska Medical Center

Omaha, NE 68198-4575

Telephone Number: 402-559-7166

Fax Number: 402-559-4438

E-mail Address: mmann@unmc.edu

Web Site: http://intrant.unmc.edu:8000/ethics/