Responsible innovation course combines MOOC and collaborative learning

It’s clear that technological developments continue to improve the quality of life on our planet, but these developments may also involve risk to individuals, society and the environment. The concept or responsible innovation focuses on creating new technologies while respecting values like health, safety, human welfare and sustainability.

The interdisciplinary responsible innovation minor is open to all students from Leiden University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and TU Delft. In the recent introductory course, TU Delft systems engineering professor Dr. Caroline Nevejan (Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management – TBM) tried to encourage a highly collaborative approach to learning.

The students followed the “Responsible Innovation” MOOC developed by the Ethics & Philosophy of Technology section of TBM. “Indeed we followed the seven chapters of the MOOC, but because we were ‘live together’ we could also do quite some interesting group activities focusing on design and implementation of responsible innovation,” she said.

With each of the seven chapters, each student had to write a column related to the topic, and all of these were then shared on a collaborative research platform. Nevejan noted that this method of learning encourages students to edit and judge each other’s work, and thus learn from each other. “Using games and other methods of learning not only improves the content of their work, but also their communications skills,” she said. “And reflection is a big part of the process.”

On October 28, 2015, three columns were selected as the best of the course. The columns were reviewed and judged by Michael van der Meer, director of Science Centre Delft, and Yvon van der Meer, communications manager for TBM. They noted that selection criteria included the strength of the argument, communication skills and if it moved them to think about the topic. The winning columns were as follows:

The pretended obstacle called moral overload by Jesse Eppink – “It’s about how ethics can not only hinder, but can also encourage technological innovation.”

As guilty as a gun by Etiënne van Winkel – “It talked about an anecdote from ancient Greece where a knife was prosecuted for murder. But guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”

Pool party, anyone? by Ariana Da Costa Gomez – “When people see something obviously dangerous they tend to stay away. They don’t normally see risks in simple things that may end up posing a greater risk.”

According to Nevejan, all of the columns will be part of the MOOC in the future. To read more visit their website or visit the Responsible Innovation MOOC.