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Online Ethics Center

To begin her presentation about the Online Ethics Center (OEC),²³Rosalyn Berne (University of Virginia), the Center’s director, explained that joining the site as a member is free and that members receive a quarterly newsletter, access to the membership directory, and discussion forms. Members can also join specialized communities of practice. OEC’s website, she said, contains links to resources and webinar recordings for RCR, RCR promising practices (including those described later in this report in the section on exemplars), the existing communities of practice, as well as invitations to OEC-sponsored events. OEC also has a growing partnership program for organizations to join OEC.

Berne noted that OEC’s website contains thousands of resources, many inherited from programs that are no longer active, in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) ethics to support research and teaching of STEM ethics. This searchable collection started over 30 years ago, first operating at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then moving to Carnegie Mellon University and then the National Academy of Engineering. Today, it is located at the University of Virginia and supported by NSF. No matter its location, “I really want to underscore that OEC is a site for anyone and everyone interested in STEM ethics,” said Berne.

OEC has a board of advisors and an editorial board that reviews any new submission to the resource collections. The communities of practices are a relatively new addition to OEC meant to extend its offerings beyond its digital library and stimulate active engagement in STEM ethics. Currently, three communities of practice are operating: biomedical engineering ethics; fostering research integrity; and teaching ethics to engineering students. Berne said OEC is starting three additional communities of practice for data ethics, environmental ethics and engineering, and social justice in engineering, and she encouraged anyone interested in leading those groups to apply to be an OEC fellow. She also noted OEC’s desire to have an international community of practice, although added that language may be a barrier.

The community of practice on teaching has brought together faculty members who teach ethics as well as students to hold conversations on difficult topics in STEM. Berne also noted that she has been interviewing engineers about the challenges they have had and the times they have voiced concerns to their institutions that led to positive changes. She is collecting these interviews and has created a minicourse that she is evaluating at the University of Virginia. Once reviewed and accepted by the editorial board, the course will live on the OEC website, and any faculty member can provide access for their students. Some of NSF’s funding, she added, is focused on helping faculty who are new to teaching ethics by producing teaching modules, complete with lectures, quizzes, assignments, and surveys.

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²³ Available at https://onlineethics.org/

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