2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: Toxic Workplaces: Game-Based Exploration of Engineering Ethics for First-Year Engineering Students

Presented at First-Year Programs Division (FYP) - WIPS 1: Programs & Curricula

Through an NSF-sponsored project, a series of game-based activities have been developed for the purpose of enhancing instruction in engineering ethics. These activities have been integrated into first year engineering courses on several campuses. One of these activities is called Toxic Workplaces. In gameplay, the students are presented with scenarios that involve ethical dilemmas. Each scenario comes with several possible responses. The game involves the student/player attempting to rank these possible responses in order of popularity. Thus, players don’t necessarily need to take a position on what they themselves would do, but rather are attempting to match the results of survey data that was collected previously, a game play mechanic that is reminiscent of the popular TV game show Family Feud.

In the Fall of 2022, a team of eight undergraduate students are completing a project in which they are authoring new scenarios, greatly expanding the range of options available to an instructor who wishes to incorporate the game into a course. This paper will describe the game itself and its motivation, and will also describe the process by which the undergraduate student team generated, refined and tested their new scenarios.

Authors
  1. Dr. Kevin D. Dahm Rowan University [biography]
  2. Dr. Daniel D. Burkey University of Connecticut [biography]
  3. Dr. Jennifer Pascal University of Connecticut [biography]
  4. Dr. Scott Streiner University of Pittsburgh [biography]
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