Collaboratively wrestling with ethical dilemmas: A study of instructional design and tabletop exercises

Preparing students for the increasingly complex emergency management profession necessitates fostering interpersonal and higher-order thinking skills, alongside adaptability to navigate ethical situations. Embedding experiential learning opportunities into course design is one option to link theoretical and practical skills in shared decision-making. This longitudinal study focuses on the design and implementation of a tabletop exercise to integrate high-efficacy strategies by challenging students with ethical decision-making under conditions of uncertainty. This study extends the emergency management literature by asking the following: How did the embedded instructional design elements influence the ethical dilemma discussions? An analysis of data collected over three semesters resulted in three dominant themes: public health mandates versus individual freedoms; authority versus consensus building; and bureaucratic resistance and political pressures. The manuscript concludes with recommendations based on lessons learned and suggestions for future research.