Redesigning a case study for the assessment of ethical responsibility

Abstract

[EN] This work presents the redesign of an activity (case study) that has been carried out over the last three years in the course Deontology and Professionalism for 2nd year students of the Informatics Engineering Degree at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) -Spain-.

The aim of the activity is to encourage students to face ethical dilemmas that they may encounter in the exercise of their profession. Specifically, the case is about autonomous cars where decisions that must be taken imply a challenge, and even more when the programmers of the car deal with situations where human lives are endangered.

The UPV has defined some general scoring rubrics in order to assess transversal competences of students. One of these rubrics deals with Ethics. Indicators included in this rubric are:

The student:

Becomes aware of other ways of seeing and perceiving things

Critically accepts new perspectives, although this requires questioning your own perspective

Differentiates facts from opinions in the arguments of other people

Reflects on the consequences and effects (practical implications) that decisions and proposals have on people

Recognizes the ethical and deontological aspects of the profession

The case is introduced in a progressive way facilitating the development of the ethical competence and includes the required elements to assess the indicators established in the rubric. Thus, all the indicators proposed in the rubric can be evaluated by means of this activity.

As a conclusion, the high degree of participation of the students in the activity is remarkable, which is on the one hand due to the transcendence of the theme and on the other hand because it is a very current topic closely linked to the computer science. Furthermore, the redesign of the case guided by the rubric allows an adequate evaluation.