UT’s Video-Based Ethics Program Increases Moral Awareness

The Ethics Unwrapped curriculum uses short video-based lessons to teach students about human behavior and motivations. Shown above are clips from "Scandals Unwrapped," the latest series in the curriculum's video collection. AUSTIN, Texas - Ethics Unwrapped , a video-based behavioral ethics curriculum created at The University of Texas at Austin and adopted by educational institutions around the world, effectively increases student understanding of ethics and human behavior, according to a study published today in the Journal of Business Law and Ethics Pedagogy . The study was based on a two-year survey of approximately 8,600 UT undergraduates. Before being exposed to the Ethics Unwrapped videos, more than half of the students surveyed reported a lack of confidence in their ability to identify, discuss, or apply ethics concepts such as conflict of interest, conformity bias and relativism. After viewing the videos, 88 percent reported feeling either "confident" or "very confident." And 90 percent reported that watching the videos helped them better understand ethics concepts. An assessment of approximately 40 faculty members at UT and other institutions that use the curriculum revealed that 95 percent found the open- Faculty members from a wide range of academic areas - business, fine arts, liberal arts, communications, natural sciences and education - use Ethics Unwrapped.