POLSC401: Ethics and Public Policy

Welcome to POLSC401: Ethics and Public Policy. General information about this course and its requirements can be found below.

Course Designer: Dr. Sharon Jumper

Course Description: Examination of the role that ethical, cultural, religious, and moral principles play in the formulation and execution of public policy by lawmakers and other public officials. Explores existing issues in domestic and international policy, including justice, equality, fairness, individual liberty, free enterprise, charity, and human rights. 

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Scores

You will only receive an official grade on your final exam. However, in order to adequately prepare for this exam, we recommend that you work through the materials in each unit. Throughout the course you may find practice quizzes or other assignments that will help you master material and gauge your learning. Scores on these assignments are informational only and do not contribute to your overall course grade. In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be tabulated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam, you may take it again following a 7-day waiting period.

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered fully online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

To access the full course including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one, free of charge, here. Although you can access some course resources without being logged into your account, it’s advised that you log in to maximize your course experience. For example, some of the accessibility and progress tracking features are only available when you are logged in.

For additional technical guidance check out Saylor’s tech-FAQ and the Moodle LMS tutorial.

Fees

There is no cost to access and enroll in this course. All required course resources linked throughout the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, activities, etc are accessible for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.

Time Commitment

While learning styles can vary considerably and any particular student will take more or less time to learn or read, we estimate that the "average" student will take 143.25 hours to complete this course. Each overall unit within the course is similarly tagged with an estimated time advisory. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular (daily, or at least weekly) progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.

It may be useful to take a look at these time advisories and to determine how much time you have over the next few weeks to complete each unit, and then to set goals for yourself. Perhaps you can sit down with your calendar and decide to complete subunit 1.1 (a total of 3.5  hours) on Monday night, subunit 1.2 (a total of 5 hours) on Tuesday and Wednesday night, and the first two readings of subunit 1.3 (approximately 3 hours) on Thursday night, etc.

Tips/Suggestions

Learning new material can be challenging, so below we've compiled a few suggested study strategies to help you succeed. 

Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories as you read. This can help you differentiate and contextualize concepts and later provide you with a refresher as you study.

As you progress through the materials, take time to test yourself on what you have retained and how well you understand the concepts. The process of reflection is important for creating a memory of the materials you learn; it will increase the probability that you ultimately retain the information.

Although you may work through this course completely independently, you may find it helpful to connect with other Saylor students through the discussion forums or study groups. You may access the discussion forums at https://discourse.saylor.org.

Ethics is difficult for students who like clearly defined "right and wrong” answers.  In governance, issues are often quite complex and not amenable to absolute solutions.  Policymakers must often choose the "least harmful” option, rather than the "right” one.  Learned scholars and politicians acting in good faith also might apply the same framework to the same problem and get different outcomes, due to biased perspectives.  Keep this in mind as you work through the resources in this course.

Pay special attention to Unit 1, as it lays the groundwork for understanding the more advanced material presented in the latter units.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• explain how personal morality and ethics impact the policymaking process;
  
• discuss various ethical frameworks used to resolve policy dilemmas; and
  
• identify statutes, ethical codes, and legal opinions that define the normative parameters of key domestic and international policy issues.
  

Throughout this course, you'll also see related learning outcomes identified in each unit. You can use the learning outcomes to help organize your learning and gauge your progress.

Suggested Prerequisites

In order to take this course, you should have: