Course Syllabus

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Penn State, College of Health and Human Development

HDFS 301

Values and Ethics in Health and Human Development Professions

Contents

Instructor

  • Instructor: To Be Determined
  • Email: To Be Determined (*email is best; please indicate “HDFS 301” in the subject line)
  • Phone: To Be Determined

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Please note that the specifics of this Course Syllabus are subject to change. Instructors will notify students of any changes and students will be responsible for abiding them. Even if you print this syllabus, please check the online version, especially the course summary (schedule), often.

Course Description

In HDFS 301, you will learn about and be guided to examine bases for choices among values in personal and professional human service settings.  You will be introduced to a variety of ethical issues that can arise in the field of human services as well as the ethical codes, values, and standards that guide individuals working in such professions. In addition to reviewing ethics codes from various professions, you will have the opportunity to explore your own values and biases that will impact work you may do as human service professionals. The goals of HDFS 301 are two-fold. First, students should increase their knowledge of ethical issues and how these issues present themselves within human service work. Second, because active learning depends on continuous self-scrutiny, HDFS 301 will encourage self-reflection and –examination whereby students will examine their own value systems. Students should be prepared to critically self-reflect in order to get the most out of and be successful in HDFS 301.

HDFS 301 content will be covered through online lessons housed in Canvas, linked readings (e.g. chapters, web articles, and other web-based educational resources), and assignments/activities. All activities are designed to challenge and encourage students to (a) develop knowledge on course topics (through identifying and describing major concepts) and (b) practice applying knowledge by demonstrating a synthesis of self-awareness and content and demonstrate critical thinking relative to professional ethics.

  • Prerequisites: None
  • Number of credits: 3 credit hours

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Objectives

See below a list of HDFS 301 learning objectives. At the end of each objective, note the "I," "P," and "M" labels these refer to the “Identify,” “Practice,” and “Mastery” stages of learning. These category designations indicate what level of skills we expect you to have regarding each learning objective by the time HDFS 301 is over. So, by the end of HDFS 301, you should be able to...

  • Recognize, accurately describe, summarize, and explain the importance of ethical codes and standards that apply to a variety of different human service professions (e.g. counseling, non-profit work, social work, education, human resources, etc.); (I)
  • Critically (and objectively) evaluate the ethical considerations and underpinnings of a variety of example circumstances that represent a breadth of challenges that may be encountered by human service professionals; (P)
  • Demonstrate personal awareness of individual value systems and biases and apply this awareness to the evaluation, chosen behaviors, and interpretation of personal and professional situations; (P)
  • Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to think critically about diversity issues and the important role human differences (race, culture, sexual orientation, ability, and religious/spiritual) play with professional competencies and human service work. (I & P)
  • Integrate knowledge about ethics, diversity, professional responsibilities, and human service work to critically assess and evaluate existing guidelines (working with a local organization) (P & M);
  • Recognize, accurately describe, summarize, and explain the importance of ethical codes and standards that apply to research with human populations (I);
  • Critically (and objectively) evaluate the ethical considerations and underpinnings of a variety of example research endeavors that represent a breadth of challenges that may be encountered in conducting human subject research (P).

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Materials

There is no required textbook for this course. Indeed, many resources are freely available on the internet, and throughout the course, we make use of these up-to-date, quality resources. Thus, all course materials for HDFS 301 will be available via Canvas. When we use internet articles, there will be clear links to the materials. Online readings are required and are fair game for assessments.  Overall, materials will include lesson content (within Canvas and linked readings) as well as instructions and worksheets to guide the completion of applied learning tasks.

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Library Services

Penn State Libraries provides a wide variety of services and resources. To learn how to take advantage, refer to the Online Student Library Guide. This guide serves as your starting point for access to all that Penn State Libraries can offer you as an online student. Use this guide if you have questions on library services offered to you, how the library can help you, how to use the library, or what resources you can access via the library. The guide will connect you to important pages and resources within Penn State Libraries and save time from you searching for the information you need.

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Assignments

Basic information about each assignment group is provided in this section. For detailed directions about an individual assignment, see the assignment information in the Modules tab. Additionally, this section will include information related to due dates and late work policies.

Assignment and Grading Overview
Type of Assignment How Many Points for Each Total Points Possible
Introduction Discussion 1 10 points 10 points
Mini Tasks 3 10 points each 30 points
Challenge Assignments 12 10 points each (lowest score dropped) 110 points
Chats 4 10 points each (lowest score dropped) 30 points
"What Would You Do" Discussions 3 10 points each 30 points
Lesson Specific Quizzes 7 10 points each 70 points
Cumulative Final Quiz 1 20 points 20 points
Course Total     300 points

Introduction Discussion

 

Mini Tasks

 

Challenge Assignments

 

Chats

 

"What Would You Do" Discussions

 

Lesson Specific Quizzes

 

Cumulative Final Quiz

 

Due Dates

All assignments are due by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the date indicated on the Calendar unless noted otherwise. (Due dates can be also be viewed under the Syllabus tab.) Please be aware that Canvas follows the Eastern Time (ET) time zone. Assignment due dates adhere to this time zone, and it is your responsibility to submit assignments accordingly. If you are outside of the ET time zone, you can set your Canvas account to sync to it. Refer to the Set a Time Zone article in the Canvas Guide Links to an external site..

Late Work Policy

  • Mini tasks and challenging assignments will be accepted late but receive a penalty at a rate of 20% deduction per day late.
  • Chats, quizzes and discussion posts cannot be completed late for credit.

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Grading

Final grades will be assigned based on the following grading scheme:

Course Grading Scheme
Grade Percentage Points
A 93-100% 279-300
A- 90-92% 270-278
B+ 87-89% 261-269
B 83-86% 249-260
B- 80-82% 240-248
C+ 77-79% 231-239
C 70-76 210-230
D 60-69 180-209
F <60% <180

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Additional Links and Resources

Review information related to technical requirements, Penn State policies, and student resources.

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Course Summary:

Date Details Due