Teaching ethics to engineers through gamification and role-playing as teaching and learning strategies.

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the implementation of gamification and role-playing as teaching and learning strategies for professional ethics in first-year engineering students. The research design is descriptive and cross-sectional, combining an analysis of student performance in a group-based assessed activity with a survey administered to participating students. The activity consisted of a simulation game where teams had to design and build a bridge with a limited budget and fluctuating material prices, a scenario designed to generate ethical conflicts. Students were required to identify and justify potential ethical violations, relating their decisions to the professional code of ethics for engineers. A 19-item Likert-scale questionnaire was administered to 219 students to assess their perceptions of the activity. The analysis of the results indicates the relevance of the applied strategies for first-year students, showing ease in identifying ethical actions and principles, but not in justifying them. Demonstrating that gamification and role-playing promote experiential learning and contribute to the development of ethical awareness in the training of engineers from their earliest levels of education.