Ethics in action: undergraduate student satisfaction in experiential learning seminars focused on developing ethics skills

Ethics in Action is an experientially based seminar series designed to foster ethics skills in undergraduate students. After the conclusion of one year, data was analyzed to assess students’ overall level of satisfaction of Ethics in Action as an educational experience. Specifically, the study compared students’ satisfaction regarding presentations that focused on research versus traditional ethics committee topics as well as presentations with a strong experiential-learning component versus those that were identified as having a weak experiential-learning component. This article discusses the design and implementation of the first year of the Ethics in Action program and analyzes the student’s overall satisfaction from a qualitative and a quantitative perspective. While no statistically significant difference in student satisfaction was observed in either pair of comparator groups — research versus traditional or strong versus weak experiential content — all sessions were scored positively by undergraduate participants. This finding suggests desire to be educated about bioethics and a strong benefit to introducing bioethics to undergraduates early in their study of health-related fields.