E³ Research

The PACES-1 Study

The E³ Team designed the Perceptions and Attitudes about Cheating among Engineering Students (PACES-1) Study to investigate general issues around undergraduate cheating.

The Work Experiences Study

To examine the connection between college cheating and unethical behavior in the workplace and to more deeply probe the factors that influence student decisions about engaging in unethical behavior in both settings, the E³ Team conducted the Work Experience Study (WES).

The PACES-2 Study

The E³ Team engaged in the PACES-2 Study to develop and test a theoretical model of the decision-making process that students use when deciding whether to engage or not engage in an unethical behavior in college (the modified Theory of Planned Behavior). The team also investigated how this model differs in explaining cheating for engineering and humanities students.

Current Research: The SEED (Student Engineering Ethical Development) Study

The current NSF-funded research project has the goal to enact educational reform by identifying the factors which positively affect the ethical development of engineering undergraduates, and then disseminating those results through broad channels. Through qualitative and quantitative data collection at 20 partner institutions, the team is attempting to understand the impact of ethics education and campus culture factors on engineering students’ ethical development.