Transforming Ethics Education: Connecting STEM Faculty, Research Administrators, and Ethics Education Resources through the Online Ethics Center

STEM伦理教育是促进伦理科学和防止研究不端行为的一个组成部分。在线伦理中心是全国首屈一指的在线平台，用于存储，管理和讨论有关教学研究伦理，负责任的研究行为以及培养科学和工程领域的伦理文化的最新信息。该项目的目标是更新和改进在线道德中心（OEC）。调查人员将通过更好地吸引刚接触伦理教学的教师和管理人员，并通过与用户社区开展一系列讲习班，使他们能够收集多种类型的社会科学数据，并系统地评估OEC如何更好地满足其选民的需求来实现这一目标。赠款资金还将用于定期的场址维护，并雇用一名外部评价专家正式评价OEC的活动，并帮助调查人员改进场址的可用性和更新他们提供的资源收集。总之，这些努力将有助于提高STEM伦理教育的质量，并鼓励和装备美国研究人员从事伦理科学实践。该项目的主要目标是更新和改进在线道德中心（OEC）。为此，调查人员将对OEC及其用户群体进行系统的社会科学评估。这将使他们了解如何修改网站以更好地满足其组成部分的需要，并为其用户社区提供更多和更高质量的资源。他们将首先在他们将组织的STEM伦理教育研讨会上收集数据，并通过采访和调查其用户社区的成员来实现这一目标。其次，研究人员将征求、开发和管理新的和增强的资源，以推进STEM伦理教育。第三，调查人员将资助正在进行的站点维护，同时显著改善其功能。最后，调查人员将聘请一名兼职顾问作为专家评估者，正式评估：(1)网站可用性；(2)用户人口统计；(3)访问者访问网站的目的，以及他们是否能够找到他们所寻找的东西；（四）访问者对网站资源的使用；(5) OEC用户认为哪些方面最有帮助，哪些方面最没有帮助；(6)如何改进资源收集。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

STEM ethics education is an integral element of the effort to facilitate ethical science and protect against research misconduct. The Online Ethics Center is the nation's premier online platform for storing, curating, and discussing state-of-the-art information about teaching research ethics, Responsible Conduct of Research, and fostering ethical cultures within science and engineering. The goal of this project is to update and improve the Online Ethics Center (OEC). The investigators will do so by better engaging faculty and administrators who are new to teaching ethics, and by conducting a series of workshops with the user community that will enable them to gather multiple types of social science data and systematically assess how the OEC can better meet the needs of its constituents. Grant funds will also be used for regular site maintenance and to hire an expert external evaluator to formally assess OEC's activities and aid the investigators in improving site usability and updating the resource collection that they provide. Together, these efforts will help improve the quality of STEM ethics education and encourage and equip U.S. researchers to engage in ethical scientific practice.The main goal of this project is to update and improve the Online Ethics Center (OEC). To do so, the investigators will engage in a systematic social scientific assessment of the OEC and its user community. This will enable them to understand how the site can be modified to better meet the needs of its constituents and to provide more and higher quality resources to its user community. They will do so first by gathering data at the STEM ethics education workshops that they will organize, and through interviewing and surveying members of their user communities. Second, the investigators would solicit, develop, and curate new and enhanced resources for advancing STEM ethics education. Third, the investigators will fund ongoing site maintenance while significantly improving its functionality. Finally, the investigators will hire a part-time consultant to act as an expert evaluator to formally assess: (1) site usability; (2) user demographics; (3) visitors' purposes for coming to the site and whether they were able to find what they were looking for; (4) the uses to which visitors put site resources; (5) which aspects of the OEC users find most and least helpful; and (6) how the resource collection might be improved.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.