Civic engagement in the form of social and moral awareness projects has grown in popularity among higher education practitioners in the past decades, and even more among business schools as a response to the many embarrassingly self-centered business CEO acts in recent years. Research thus far shows a wide variety of advantages tied to social and moral awareness projects, varying from greater understanding of students about the needs in society, and improved connections between the sponsoring institution and the community, to (...) more focus in students’ selection of future careers, and greater personal and professional emotional intelligence levels among these students. This article reviews the achievements of 156 undergraduate and graduate business students in regards to their social and moral responsibility projects, and the preferences they displayed in selecting the topics of these projects. (shrink)

The number of online courses in business schools is growing dramatically, but little has been published about teaching business ethics courses online. This article addresses key pedagogical design, delivery, student engagement, and assessment issues that should be considered when creating a high-quality, asynchronous online business ethics course for either undergraduate or graduate business student populations. Best practices are discussed within an integrative case study approach based on the experiences of a director of online faculty development and two accomplished online business (...) ethics instructors, one teaching at a small college and the other at a research-oriented university—their successes, learning opportunities, and recommendations. (shrink)

The Pathways Commission calls on accounting educators to develop students’ skills in ethical judgment and decision making, but there is uncertainty about how best to accomplish this task. We test if participation in Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programs is positively associated with students’ ethical judgment and decision making. Using a questionnaire administered to students participating in VITA and students not participating in VITA at seven universities, we form multiple measures of students’ ethical judgment and students’ ethical decision making. Regression analyses (...) reveal that VITA participation is positively and significantly associated with ethical judgment and, in certain cases, is also positively and significantly associated with ethical decision making, even after controlling for other determinants including completion of ethics courses. We conclude that VITA programs can be effective educational interventions to promote ethical development in students. Our study adds to the growing literature on positive student outcomes associated with VITA participation, provides empirical evidence to support the tenets of situated learning and service-learning theories, and contributes to the development of effective ethics education. (shrink)