Ethical Dilemmas in Managing and Teaching Live Sponsored Student Projects

Live projects, involving real places, real issues and real users are usually welcomed by art and design students and staff as valuable test beds for learning and research. Live projects release students from the tyranny of the screen and counteract self-referential paper projects by immersing students in the grain and complexity of the physical, social and political world at large. They appear to be an ideal means to provide deep learning (Biggs 1999) through experiential education (Kolb 1984). However, live projects also raise a number of issues that have not been widely discussed and which deserve examination. This paper explores the ethical dilemmas that arise from live sponsored projects and proposes a framework for practice based on over 10 years experience of running live sponsored projects.