Work in progress - development and assessment of an introductory Research Ethics module

An interdisciplinary team planned, implemented and assessed a new framework for integrating research ethics into the science and engineering graduate curriculum at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) as part of an NSF project. This paper presents the cornerstone of this new research ethics framework, a graduate awareness workshop (GAW) aimed at new graduate students at UPRM. The main objective of the GAW is that students develop a basic understanding of research ethics that allows them to participate in ensuing activities that deepen their knowledge of research ethics. Preliminary assessment results are presented in the paper. These results are encouraging, favoring the use of the GAW since the workshop increased student understanding of the basic issues related to graduate research ethics.