Building Ethical Foundations through Project-Based Learning

What inspired you to incorporate a project-based learning experience in your course? 

The idea grew out of a Gold Standard PBL Workshop hosted by WMUx in partnership with PBLWorks. I left that experience energized to create something that could challenge my students in new ways and give them something meaningful to take beyond the course.

I teach CYIS 2310: Ethics and Impacts, a sophomore-level course where students explore the ethical and societal dimensions of cybersecurity. I wanted to design a project that brought that material to life—something that moved beyond theoretical discussion and helped students articulate who they are and what they stand for as future cybersecurity professionals. The goal was to foster critical thinking, moral reasoning, and self-awareness, all grounded in a real-world context they could carry forward.

What did the project involve? 

Students were divided into groups and assigned a philosophical lens—such as virtue ethics, utilitarianism, Kantianism, or social contract theory—and tasked with developing a cybersecurity code of ethics rooted in that framework.

Rather than simply describing the philosophy, students had to demonstrate how their lens informed the language, structure, and principles of their code. They researched existing professional codes of ethics, drafted their own, and engaged in multiple rounds of peer and instructor feedback to iteratively strengthen their work. Along the way, students honed not only their critical thinking, but also their collaboration and feedback skills.

The final component was an individual reflection, where students set aside their assigned lens and created a personal code of ethics. This piece challenged them to define their own values and professional goals—creating a tangible asset they could carry into internships, interviews, and future careers.

How did students respond to the experience? 

Many students shared that the project felt substantively different from group work they had done in the past. They appreciated the opportunity to give and receive meaningful feedback, to see how others approached complex issues, and to build a more nuanced view of ethical decision-making in cybersecurity.

Several also remarked that the project helped them feel more prepared to navigate the ethical dimensions of their future work—an area often discussed in theory but rarely addressed through hands-on practice.

How did you structure the course to support this learning experience? 

This is a HyFlex course, with a mix of in-person and online students. Rather than separating students by modality, I intentionally blended the groups, encouraging collaboration across formats. This mirrored the kinds of hybrid, tech-enabled environments many students will encounter in the professional world, where teamwork often happens across locations and platforms.

We relied heavily on tools like Microsoft Teams for communication and project development. I also incorporated flipped classroom weeks, where lectures were pre-recorded and class time was reserved for project work, discussion, and peer feedback. This structure allowed students to make consistent progress during scheduled class periods and access support when they needed it.

What advice would you give to other instructors exploring project-based learning? 

Be curious. Think of your course like a puzzle and ask, “How might this fit in?” Project-based learning does take planning—designing the experience, integrating it into your syllabus, creating a feedback loop—but it’s absolutely worth it.

I found value in collaborating with instructional designers at WMU. They helped me refine my rubrics, improve feedback strategies, and brainstorm ways to increase industry relevance. Each time I run this project, I learn something new. I keep notes, make tweaks, and continue iterating—just like I ask my students to do.