Professor The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas, United States
Introduction:: We will share our experiences with a student-initiated, student-led project to collect student feedback about the ways in which (a) diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics and (b) bioethics topics are currently integrated into our biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate program. The goal of the project was to make specific recommendations to the undergraduate program leadership for increasing undergraduate student engagement with DEI and bioethics topics in BME through coursework and extracurricular experiences.
Materials and Methods:: We collected feedback from BME undergraduates using survey (N = 115), focus group (N = 14), and interview (N = 5) methods. We met with the Chairs of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the ABET Committee to understand the current structure of DEI and bioethics topics in the curriculum, such as which courses are aligned with which ABET student outcomes. We spoke with BME graduate students about their curricular experiences with DEI and bioethics topics during undergraduate studies at other institutions and their perspectives as teaching assistants on how these topics are presented at our institution. We discussed the study before and after data collection with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: A specific recommendation that arose from this project that other institutions may also want to consider is including ethics and DEI topics in existing spaces in which undergraduate students regularly engage, such as student organizations. Another idea was to develop assignments through which students contribute creative projects on bioethics topics (e.g., videos, poems, memes) to a library of resources available for use in other courses. In addition, we are considering incorporating a short essay or speech contest on bioethics into the poster session required for undergraduate researchers. One challenge that we encountered was that relevant ABET student outcomes combine several ideas; for example, an instructor may plan a learning activity that prompts students to consider global impacts in a way that doesn’t require discussion of ethical and professional responsibilities. Our project identified some communication gaps between our faculty and undergraduate students that have broader implications for our curriculum, especially with respect to beliefs about the learning value of extra credit and low-stakes assignments.
