Using Audience Response Systems To Encourage Student Engagement And Reflection On Ethical Orientation And Behavior

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to use an audience response system (ARS) to engage students in classroom discussions concerning sensitive and controversial topics (e.g., business ethics), assess student’s ethical orientation and conduct in unethical behaviors, and encourage reflection on their personal level of ethicality. Students used ARS devices to respond anonymously to questions regarding specific business-related ethical scenarios in a Principles of Marketing class. Students were asked six questions regarding their own conduct in certain behaviors and one question to evaluate their self-reported level of ethicality before the lecture/discussion and then again after the lecture/discussion. Nearly ninety-two percent of the students (n=65) reported that they believed they were an ethical person at the beginning of the lecture/discussion and only seventy-three percent of the students (n=52) reported that they believed they were an ethical person at the end of the lecture/discussion. The study showed that an ARS can be used to engage students in classroom discussion that results in significant student reflection on the topic.