{"id":3216,"date":"2023-06-15T17:29:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T16:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:53:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T13:53:42","slug":"data-ethics-are-there-globally-accepted-ethical-principles-around-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/2023\/06\/15\/data-ethics-are-there-globally-accepted-ethical-principles-around-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Ethics: Are there globally accepted ethical principles around data?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Fawcett (Senior Lecturer)<\/strong><\/h4>\n

School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Science, Agriculture and Engineering<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

What did you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We developed a short virtual exchange course around the use\/misuse of data.<\/p>\n

\n

Who is involved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Florida \u2013 Paloma Rodriguez and Carrie Martins (University of Florida Office of Global Learning) and Megan Mocko (Lecturer, Warrington College of Business). And UG students in Mathematics\/Statistics\/Physics at both Newcastle University and the University of Florida.<\/p>\n

\n

How did you do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the support of a Newcastle University Virtual Exchange Fund grant, I was able to visit prospective VE partners in the US and attend a 6-week online VE training course organised by the University of Florida Office of Global Learning. By the end of the course I had a VE partner from the University of Florida and together we had developed a short VE opportunity in Data Ethics that would have broad appeal to both of our students. At Newcastle, this was piloted as an optional mobility opportunity for undergraduate students in the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics; it was attached to a zero-credit \u201cskills\u201d module, and around 40 Newcastle students engaged. The VE project was completely asynchronous, with students posting, and commenting on, video responses to source material on FlipGrid.<\/p>\n

\"An

An engagement activity<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Why did you do it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students\u2019 appetite for mobility has grown considerably since the pandemic, but not all students have equitable access to physical mobility opportunities such as study abroad. The aim of this VE project was to \u201ctest the water\u201d; firstly, to investigate the processes involved in setting up a VE opportunity, but also to pilot a small-scale VE project with undergraduate students in a discipline which is under-represented in terms of student mobility (Mathematical Sciences). More generally, VE is a key part of the global strategy in the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics, as we look to embed intercultural awareness into our undergraduate curriculum.<\/p>\n

\n

Does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I think it does! Although this particular VE project formed part of a small-scale pilot study, undergraduate uptake was better than expected (partly because it was embedded within a timetabled module) and feedback from both Newcastle and Florida students and staff involved has been extremely positive.<\/p>\n

\"An

Students engaging with the virtual exchange<\/p><\/div>\n

As part of the University of Florida VE training course, we were encouraged to construct rubric for assessing students\u2019 development of intercultural competencies; even in this two-week exchange, pre- and post- project surveys reveal evidence of a positive impact here. The online discussions revealed diverse opinions in what is ethical in terms of the public availability of large datasets, as well as students\u2019 inquisitiveness in the thoughts and beliefs of students at the overseas institution.<\/p>\n

\n

Student Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feedback from two stage 1 students:<\/p>\n

Ben Rushes, Stage 1 BSc Mathematics and Accounting:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cReally nice to see how students in America lived, what their halls were like etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting to see how different opinions were in the US [about data ethics] versus ours in the UK\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highlight for me was\u2026 people commenting on my presentation; realising the stuff that I had missed and not quite thought about enough, and to see people who had slightly different perspectives [on data ethics]\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe virtual exchange was so rewarding because you were able to see the different perspectives from people [on data ethics]\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good in terms of making friends and stuff \u2013 even people from my own course here at Newcastle\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve definitely developed as a person \u2013 it\u2019s working on skills that you need \u2013 presentation skills, working collaboratively as a team with students from a different country\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t interfere with any of my classes and I was able to do it in my own time\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the perspective from the American students was really fascinating for me\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI found that\u2026 the US students were happy to have data displayed everywhere, whereas the UK students were more\u2026 reserved and quiet\u2026 and had a more private view of things\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew Catnach, stage 1 BSc Mathematics:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI really liked that the virtual part was done through flip where we could upload the videos in our own time and spend time making sure the videos included what we wanted\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso it was good to have the subject be something different from any of my current modules as it was something new to research which I enjoyed\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

The Graduate Framework<\/strong><\/p>\n

The virtual exchange course demonstrated the following attributes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Critical thinkers<\/li>\n
  • Digitally capable<\/li>\n
  • Curious<\/li>\n
  • Collaborative<\/li>\n
  • Engaged<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Lee Fawcett, Senior Lecturer in Maths, Stats and Physics, discusses how he collaborated with the University of Florida to develop a short virtual exchange course around the use\/misuse of data – enabling students to collaborate with overseas students, while also addressing inequalities relating to physical mobility opportunities and embedding intercultural awareness into the undergraduate curriculum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11053,"featured_media":3240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,576,315,273],"tags":[611,605,608,594,603,623],"class_list":["post-3216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-digital-education","category-mathematics-statistics-and-physics","category-sage","tag-collaboration","tag-critical-thinking","tag-digital-skills","tag-encounters-with-the-leading-edge","tag-ethical-awareness","tag-virtual-exchange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11053"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3258,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions\/3258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.ncl.ac.uk\/casestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}