Structured and open Challenge-Based Learning in Engineering Ethics Education

Challenge-based learning (CBL) is an educational method in which an external stakeholder (company, community, NGO, …) brings in a real-life complex problem. CBL becomes increasingly popular in engineering education in general. The application of CBL in engineering ethics education, however, is lacking behind, as it requires specific design specifications. An ethics CBL course has commonalities with CBL courses without specific ethics learning goals, but they also need specific considerations in the design. A structural approach how and why to apply CBL in engineering ethics education is needed, both from an educational research and educational support perspective. This contribution will explore this gap. With the research questions: "What are particularities of CBL pedagogies in engineering ethics education?" These pedagogies will be described by using van den Akker’s spider-web curriculum model and Ethics Goal Model. We describe specificities for CBL engineering ethics courses for the different course components. We conclude that the tension between structured and open CBL approaches is crucial and that more research can be done in the different curriculum aspects described in the model of van den Akker