These results could be interpreted in a couple of ways. It may be that utility theory comes more naturally to students, in terms of ease of understanding and use of language around the concepts -this is corroborated by the first author's prior extensive experience in teaching engineering ethics. Thus, it may be that since autonomy theory is more unfamiliar and harder to conceptualize, the increase in language specific to the theory is more easily detected with this assessment design. Alternatively, it could be that in teaching ethics through design, autonomy theory is indeed more effectively imparted to the students, and utility theory less so. Future **data** collection will attempt to address these potential explanations with new evidence.