Center for the Study of Ethics in Society
Academic Ethics
Classroom Modules
These modules have been drafted by the staff of WMU's Center for the Study of Ethics in Society to be piloted in the First-Year Seminar in Fall 2007. Each module consists of a short narrative, 4-6 discussion questions that relate the narrative to students' personal experiences and values, plus 2 examples for further discussion.
The examples are taken from Creighton University's handbook, Learning in the Academy: An Introduction to the Culture of Scholarship. This handbook expands on the concepts covered in these modules and includes excellent commentaries about the examples that instructors may find useful for framing class discussions. The handbook is available here.
Instructors will find that the ethical issues in the modules overlap. Therefore, they may want to revisit some of the examples covered earlier in class, as appropriate.
Below is the suggested order for covering the modules in class. However, instructors can pick and choose which models to use and in which order.
Module topics
- Learning in an Academic Community: What do you want to get out of college?
- Working to Learn: Did you do the work?
- Instructors as Partners in Learning: Do you understand your instructor’s expectations?
- Cheating: Why is cheating wrong?
- Academic Ethics Policies: Why do we have rules in college?
Links
- WMU Office of Student Conduct
- WMU First Year Experience
- Creighton University's "Learning in the Academy" handbook
- Acadia University plagiarism tutorial
- Rutgers University plagiarism tutorial
- Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University
- Council on Undergraduate Research
- Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science at Case Western Reserve