ETHICS SUITE OF COURSES

Overview

The University of California recently developed and rolled out a suite of ethics courses. The Ethics Suite consists of three modules, one for a general audience and two for specifically-targeted audiences.

Ethics Briefing

The overarching module is called the Ethics Briefing. This module is a 30-minute online program designed to raise awareness about the existence and content of the University's Statement of Ethical Standards and Standards of Ethical Conduct, documents approved by The Board of Regents in May 2005. The briefing is intended for all UC employees, and to date approximately 102,000 people have completed the course.

Conflict of Interest For Designated Officials

Under California Fair Political Practices Commission rules, the University is required to provide training on FPPC rules and conflict of interest concepts to those officials designated as annual filers. The program was rolled out in May 2007 to 1,500 Designated Officials.

Conflict of Interest For Researchers

This module was developed by the Research Compliance program, and is intended to satisfy funding agency requirements to train researchers on conflict of interest in the research setting. The target audience is broader than University Principal Investigators: in May and June of 2007 approximately 15,000 people were registered for this course.

While the two Conflict of Interest courses are distinct and separate, a number of senior administrators may be subject to both courses if they maintain active research programs.