ERiA Newsletter: Fall 2025
Ethics for the Rest of Your Life
News
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The need for more ethical reasoning has never been greater. Ethical Reasoning in Action is at work engaging students, staff, and faculty at James Madison University and beyond. You may find these stories encouraging.
In this edition ...
- It's Complicated Online 2025
- Meet the First Ethical Reasoning Faculty Research Fellow
- The Elev8 Ethics Podcast
- Elev8 Ethics with Dr. R. Edward Freeman
- Initi8: Improving Ethical Reasoning at Scale
- Ethical Reasoning at Quad Fest
- A Look Ahead
It's Complicated Online 2025
It’s Complicated Online (IC Online), introduced JMU’s incoming Class of 2029 to the Eight Key Questions ethical reasoning strategy. It’s Complicated Online gives first-year Dukes a chance to tackle real-world ethical dilemmas in a virtual setting. Over 3500 students completed the intervention, interacting and engaging thoughtfully as they develop ethical reasoning skills.
In addition to being as effective as an in-person intervention, IC Online provides ERiA with an opportunity to learn more about student engagement with ethical reasoning materials. Carefully designed and scaffolded learning modules align the online course with ERiA’s cognitive and attitudinal learning outcomes, helping to improve assessment.
To celebrate completing the course, over 800 students picked up their It's Complicated T-shirts during the first week of classes. 18 volunteer faculty and staff from across the university took time to engage students in meaningful discussions about their online experience.
Meet Dr. Dan Holt - ERiA Faculty Research Fellow
Ethical Reasoning in Action is thrilled to introduce Dr. Dan Holt as the inaugural Ethical Reasoning Faculty Research Fellow. Dr. Holt brings over 20 years of teaching and research expertise in experimental behavioral psychology to the Ethical Reasoning in Action office.
Beginning this fall, Dr. Holt embarks on a multi-year research project focused on ethical reasoning and decision-making. Unlike short-term studies, this initiative recognizes the complexity and time required to build meaningful insights about how individuals perceive ethical situations and whether training can shift their ability to identify these moments.
A key concept in this work is event segmentation—how people break down experiences into meaningful units- in order to better understand what it means to be able to recognize ethical situations and have the skills to respond appropriately. By observing the way that participants notice and make sense of events in ethical scenarios, Dr. Holt's research aims to ultimately understand if receiving training in the Eight Key Questions ethical decision-making strategy changes their perception of ethical moments.
This exciting news was recently featured in The Breeze, Madison Magazine and on the JMU Being the Change Podcast
Elev8 Ethics Podcast
The second season of Elev8 Ethics Podcast kicks off with an introduction to the inaugural Ethical Reasoning Faculty Research Fellow, Dr. Dan Holt, JMU Professor of Psychology.
Elev8 Ethics for the Rest of Your Life with R. Edward Freeman
In partnership with JMU's College of Business, ERiA presents a thought-provoking public lecture and conversation with the originator of stakeholder theory, Dr. R. Edward Freeman, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Best known for his award-winning book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Pitman, 1984; and reprinted by Cambridge University Press in 2010), Dr. Freeman holds seven honorary doctorates in recognition of his contributions to business ethics.
Dr. Freeman explores the ethical challenges that continue to shape our lives and why it is important for us to be able to have creative, ethical conversations about issues that matter as we move forward. You will not want to miss this opportunity to hear from one of the world’s leading voices in business ethics. Light refreshments will be served.
November 10th, 2025
Hartman Hall Forum - Room 2021
3:30 PM
The Elev8 Ethics lecture series brings awareness to current and significant ethical issues. If you have a topic or speaker that you would like to suggest, please visit: https://jmu.questionpro.com/elev8speaker.
INITI8: Improving Ethical Reasoning at Scale
The third cohort of academic professionals from across the nation attended JMU's Initi8 Institute, an intensive, week-long in-person workshop co-hosted by the Center for Assessment and Research Studies (CARS) and Ethical Reasoning in Action (ERiA). Over the course of five days, participants developed a detailed learning improvement plan for an ethical reasoning intervention tailored to their own program. Attendees leave the INITI8 Institute with effective strategies for teaching ethical reasoning skills, methods for assessing ethical reasoning skills, strategies for implementing a program-level ethical reasoning intervention and general framework for implementing any learning improvement project. The 2025 cohort included representatives from JMU, Indiana University, University of Mississippi, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Glendale Community College in Arizona, Lakeland University in Wisconsin, The United States Naval War College and ABET: a leading accreditation body for programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.
Quad Fest 2025
For the second year in a row, Ethical Reasoning in Action joined the JMU Alumni Association's Quad Fest celebration. Over 180 people stopped by the ERiA tent to take a short survey for a spin on the 8KQ prize wheel! JMU faculty, staff, students, alumni and family members talked with Ethical Reasoning Educators Ethan Simon ('27) and Edward Tomlinson ('28) about how the Eight Key Questions can be used to navigate the moral dimensions of any ethical decision.
