Enhancing Undergraduate Students' Learning of Ethics Through Lecturer-developed Skits, Plays and Comic Strips For Longer Term Learning

Abstract

There is a plethora of literature which supports the employment of active learning techniques to sustain authentic learning beyond the classroom. This study investigates the effectiveness of a novel technology-driven active learning strategy to teach ethics to undergraduate engineering students at NUS. It involved creating scripts incorporating potential real-life ethical situations that these students may face in the workplace. These scripts were subsequently converted into comic strips and educational cartoons with the eventual goal of enhancing authentic and longer term learning. The lecturer evaluated the effectiveness of this strategy through a combination of student and instructor feedback and reflections as well as supporting comments from esteemed colleagues and conference reviewers. It was encouraging to note that an overwhelming majority of students responded positively to the strategy and were able to apply it to potential real-life situations they may face which underscored the novelty and effectiveness of this pedagogy.