CS2013-final-report

How are students assessed
The basic grading scheme is designed to emphasize student participation, writing and reflection. Students are
expected to spend 9-12 hours per week on outside classwork:
Homework and class participation…………………………. 40%
All classroom discussions
Quizzes/short writing assignments on readings
Web-based forum discussion postings
Essays on specified topics………………………………………30%
Ethical analyses of given situations
Exams……………………………………………………………30%
Take-home midterm
In-class final
Course textbooks and materials
Current textbook is Brinkman & Sanders, Ethics in a Computing Culture, which is supplemented by Abelson et al,
Blown to Bits, available free of charge in pdf format from bitsbook.com. These books are supplemented heavily
by current and recent articles from the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Technology Review, New Yorker,
Chicago Tribune (local), Huffington Post, etc. Readings on computer ethics theory come from the ACM and
IEEE digital libraries as well as other sources. We also make use of a variety of websites, including those
sponsored by civil liberties organizations (e.g., eff.org, aclu.org), privacy advocacy groups (e.g., epic.org,
privacyrights.org), intellectual property rights groups, free/open source advocates (e.g., fsf.org), government sites
(e.g., ftc.gov, fcc.gov); we also draw from ethics education sites such as Michael Sandel’s Justice website
(justiceharvard.org) and Lawrence Hinman’s ethics education site (ethics.sandiego.edu). Additionally, we
reference a library collection of books and films on a variety of computer ethics and social impact themes.
Why do you teach the course this way
The overarching goal is to educate students about the practice of professional ethics in the computing field. We
situate the special problems faced by computer professionals in the context of widespread computer usage and
society’s ever-growing dependence on computer technology. We work to develop within our students the critical
thinking skills required to identify ethical issues and apply the tools of ethical analysis to address them. Students
find this course to be very demanding; they almost always outside their comfort zones. The curriculum for Issues
in Computing was last reviewed in 2010.
Body of Knowledge coverage
KA Knowledge Unit Topics Covered Hours
SP Social Context All 6
SP Analytical Tools All 6
SP Professional Ethics All 6*
SP Intellectual Property All 6
SP Privacy/Civil Liberties All 6
SP
SP
Professional
Communication**
Economies of
Computing**
Dynamics of oral, written, electronic team communication
Communicating effectively with stakeholders
Dealing with cross-cultural environments
Trade-offs of competing risks in software projects
Effect of skilled labor supply & demand on quality of products
Impacts of outsourcing & off-shoring software development on
employment
Consequences of globalization on the computing profession
Differences in access to computing resources and their effects
SP Security Policies, Laws, All 3
Computer Crime
*Overlaps many other topics – these instructional hours are dedicated to the topic of professional ethics
**Topics missing from these Knowledge Units are found in other courses in our curriculum, most notably our
Software Engineering course and our Capstone Professional Practice Seminar.
3
6
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