Certification Curriculum
 
The Applied Ethics Certification Program
The Course includes 12 module areas of study plus one Practicum. Candidates must complete the six required courses (noted by an asterisk *) plus one elective and the internship program to satisfy requirements for a certificate. Students are free to interrupt their study during the program for personal reasons and pick up the program again starting from the point they had earlier withdrawn. There are sufficient break points in content to permit this. However, trainees must complete the entire program within two years of beginning in order to validate their learning and to be certified.

The program begins with the Capstone module. Each following module is offered in succession until that particular program phase is complete.


The Study Plan

The numbers of each training session establish the order in which the individual modules are started and completed permitting the start of each succeeding module. Titles with an asterisk indicate courses that are required for certification.

1. Ethics and Entrepreneurship *
A capstone module introduces the candidate to the historical freedom philosophy, the cultural ethic of the founding fathers of America, and the economic system born from it in pursuit of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Explores the export of the philosophy deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian work ethic and how that impacts an international views and the current shaping of a global ethical mind set. This study permits the candidate the opportunity to understand how individuals from international views and the current shaping of a global ethical mind set. This study permits the candidate the opportunity to understand how individuals from different cultures and differing values will be influenced and react to the control center dynamics of their organization’s founding fathers, whether it is a multinational or even a government influenced by war and outside cultural influences.

2. Ethics and Character Development *
Considers values, ethical, and character issues as they apply to personal preferences within the context of personal and societal development with a special emphasis on practical applied ethics. Stresses the importance of character education. Offers opportunities for in-depth, analytical case study.

3. Contemporary Social Dilemmas *
Provides the candidate with modern social dilemmas which supply research opportunities that focus on the essentials of how ethical applications may better direct human behaviors in their social-cultural environments. Reasoning assumptions and decision practices using ethical codes are explored.

4. Information & Technology Ethics
Examines the consequences of the use of technology within modern communities and questions the impact of how communications issues are defined, researched and used for the making and use of public policy and the development of civil society. Ethical principles are applied to various aspects of such policy decisions.

5. Education Ethics
Explores the appropriate place and use of ethical principles within the theory and practice of education from K through12 and beyond. The assumptions underlying curriculum development, technology in education, lifelong learning, and other such issues are related to how ethical mechanisms might foster educational reform.

6. Cultural Values & Ethics *
Provides a survey of essential cultural values and how ethical questions are framed according to cultural preferences. Questions of ethical/social interest are studied with practical applications in local settings examined for the integration of personal and academic insights.

7. The Ethics of Terrorism
A look at the ethics of terrorism from a criminal justice perspective and its values justification by extremists.
Examined are the intellectual support, ethical justification, and financial underwriting accorded it by various segments of the international community and those who use it to incite and inflame the moral indignation of historically oppressed peoples.
 
Grasping the concept that there are those who believe Western culture is morally bankrupt and want to destroy it completely is a first step in understanding how extremists can individually, and as a group, morally justify their terrorism.

8. Health-care Ethics
A study of the use of medical ethics in the daily treatment of illness and the fostering of preventive medicine models that might foster wellness in the global community. Usable insights and comprehensive analysis of historical and current ethical health-care questions are explored.

9. Organization Ethics *
A study of relevant organization dilemmas resulting from rapid technological growth in organizations, both in the for profit and non-profit sectors. This comprehensive analysis explores the development of usable outcomes as a by-product of the online interaction.

10. Leadership Ethics *
This leadership course has been specially designed to foster the exploration and application of influencing ethical leadership principles within a framework of challenging paradoxes where the ethics officer is charged to move the leadership along the road of higher moral development. Understanding this may be easier said than done in spite of the fact that it is made part of the mission statement. How does an ethics leader confront modern organizations and their leaders with unethical issues embedded in the culture? Potential outcomes and effective strategies are explored. Contemporary case study serves as a guide for “what ifs” and how real change could have been implemented.

11. Pragmatic Professional Ethics
Introduces personal and professional questions that confront workers and leaders in complex situations. The assumptions of vocation as a lifetime commitment are related to the practical demands of the bottom line and organizational objectives. Where may the compromises occur and how does the ethicist cope with the needs of the many as opposed to the ethical realities and ideals of the few?

12. Ethical Training Development *
This course explores the multiple and varied elements for conducting ethical training among employees and the unique application required to train workers who operate exclusively as teams and recognized groups of established or growing organizational cultures.

The Internship
This is a student practicum that requires the use of accumulated program learning to be applied in real-time settings. It offers potential for growth and/or creative interventions. Emphasis is placed upon the production of marketable outcomes.