Many working scientists get all their formal ethics training through online modules rather than live ethics coursework. In this assignment, you'll get a chance to explore how the other half lives.

First: complete an ethics training activity or module, such as ORI’s interactive movies “The Lab” or "The Research Clinic," or a CITI training module accessed through SJSU’s institutional subscription.

* Here are detailed instructions for setting up a CITI account and choosing a CITI module to complete. Be sure to use the SJSU institutional subscription! (You shouldn't have to pay anything to be able to access the modules.)

* If you elect to complete “The Lab” or "The Research Clinic" you can choose which of the four characters you'd like to "be".

Then: write a reflective essay (of approximately 600 words) about this experience. Your essay should touch on the following:

1. Which online training activity did you do? (Be specific -- for example, about which CITI course you chose, which character you selected for "The Lab," etc.)

2. What did you expect the online training was going to teach you? What did you actually learn from doing this online training? (Was is more than you expected? Less than you expected? Was the emphasis different from what you thought it would be?)

3. How well did trying to learn from the online training you selected work for you? Do you feel like the information was presented in a way that helped you understand it, or do you think a different way of delivering the information would have worked better for you?

4. How did the way the online training presented material to you make you feel about the project of being ethical (e.g., about what you have to do to be ethical in a scientific or research situation, about why it's important to be ethical, etc.)?

5. If you could change something about the experience of completing this ethics training activity, what would it be, and why? (Don't punt on this question by answering "I wouldn't change a thing." Even if you find it very effective and enjoyable, describe some way the training activity could be improved, expanded, pushed further.)

The review of the ethics training module will count for 10% of your course grade.