Ethics in Engineering Education 4.0

Abstract

The advent of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, has had an all-pervasive influence on virtually every aspect of high-quality manufacturing and associated services. As a consequence, it has triggered an increasing demand in industry to drive technological transformation. By implication, the situation has also propelled a transformation in the requirements of Higher Education (HE) during the process of training engineers, towards more blended or online modes of delivery. The objective of this paper is to examine the extent to which ethics has been considered during the process of educating engineers in contemporary times. Thus, the purpose of this scoping review is to summarize and present current practices to uphold ethical standards in engineering education, including the review of proposed and implied ethical guidelines, and thereby identify gaps in existing literature.Accordingly, guided by a framework provided by Jasanoff [1], 17 peer-reviewed articles from selected engineering databases, that were published in the last decade were examined to identify international practices and ethical guidelines pertaining to blended or online engineering education. Emerging themes concerning the ethical use of technology for engineering education were identified through three lenses which were (1) hidden costs associated with the use of technology, (2) exclusivity due to the use of technology and (3) agency due to technology. This scoping review found that unless we, as engineering educators have a better understanding of the impact of technology on structures of hierarchy in society and social interaction, words like "citizenship", "equality" and "democracy" lose their meaning as cardinal markers for an open society. Ultimately, this scoping review highlights questions that need further discussion.