I recently started teaching the module: Research in Academic Practice on the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice course at UWS. To make my classes as engaging and interactive as possible I’m always looking for good resources and ideas. I decided to use my blog to share some reviews of good resources and how I used them in my teaching.

Dilemma Game from Erasmus University Rotterdam (Dilemma game link: https://www.eur.nl/en/about-eur/strategy-and-policy/integrity/scientific-integrity/dilemma-game)

I like the gamification of Research Integrity and Ethics, as well as the range of scenarios (75) to make sure you can select dilemmas relevant for your class. I selected 10 dilemmas I thought would be most relevant o my cohort of new lecturers with a variety of experiences. Instead of using the card game layout and discussing the dilemmas in class I turned them into a survey or quiz and asked everyone to responds prior to the class. I made the survey anonymous and made a quick presentation of the results to be discussed in class.

Screenshot 2019-03-22 at 16.21.58
Dilemma 48: Self-correction

Some answers were straight forward and as expected – some answers were rather surprising and allowed for a great discussion around values, personal versus university understanding of ethics. Since it was all anonymous it allowed people to decide in class if they wanted to own up to their answer and if the discussion made them change their mind.

I combined this discussion with a case study exercise where the class was split into groups and each group discussed as case study – everyone had to bring a case study relevant to their research along and each group decided which one to discuss. They then answered some questions how the misconduct could have been prevented. In between the discussion I shared the university procedures and signposts to relevant people, policies and guidelines.

The feedback was very positive and I will run a shorter version of this class as a seminar in April. For the seminar I will ask participants to play the Dilemma Game before they attend the seminar.