Topic outline

  • Engineering Ethics and Professional Responsibility

    Credits: 5 PDH

    PDH Course Description:

    This course provides an understanding of ethics as the discipline that governs engineering and professional responsibility, and the ethical conduct that protects against professional disputes. 

    Engineering practice is a tangle of technical uncertainty, contractual obligation, financial pressure, and competing stakeholder interests. This course examines the ethical foundations of professional engineering and the situations where those foundations are tested. Ethical reasoning is presented as a working tool that reduces risk, steadies difficult projects, and protects both the public and the engineer's own standing.

    Topics:

    By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

    • Explain the engineer's primary duty to public health, safety, and welfare, and describe how that duty ranks against schedule, cost, and client preference when they conflict
    • Identify the communication failures, undocumented assumptions, and recordkeeping deficiencies that most often escalate into engineering disputes
    • Understand of how scope definitions, standard-of-care language, and risk-allocation clauses in engineering contracts shape professional liability
    • Evaluate the influence of organizational culture and cognitive bias on the gradual erosion of ethical engineering practice
    • Understand the elements that must be established in a professional negligence claim and the difference between an error and a breach of the standard of care
    • Know the documentation and communication practices that strengthen professional defensibility and prevent disputes before they form

    To take this course:

    1.) Enroll in Course: Click below to enroll:
    (must be logged into your user account)


    2.) Study: Once enrolled, click below to begin the course:

    Download the Study Guide

    3.) Test: Once you've thoroughly read the course materials, please click below to take the final examination.

    Take the final exam

    4.) Certificate: A passing grade of 70% or higher on the exam, is required to receive the certificate of completion for this PDH course.

    Important – Payment is required prior to printing of your certificate of completion.

    We operate on a trust-based model. You are welcome to complete Steps 1 through 3 to fully review the course material at your leisure. 

    When you are ready to download and print your Certificate of Completion, we ask that payment has been completed for either the Unlimited Plan or individual PDH credit(s). Clicking the download button below serves as your digital confirmation that payment has been made.

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    Print the Certificate of Completion


    Intended Audience: This course is intended for civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, environmental, geotechnical, industrial, and multidisciplinary engineers. 

    Publication Source: Cadistics Courseware

    Donald Parnell, PE
    • Topic 2