Ethics Training and Decision-Making: Do Computer Science Programs Need Help?

Carol SpradlingComputer Science/Information SystemsNorthwest Missouri State Universityc_sprad@nwmissouri.edu

Leen-Kiat SohNational Center for Information Technology in Education (NCITE)University of Nebraskalksoh@cse.unl.edu

Charles J. AnsorgeDepartment of Educational PsychologyUniversity of Nebraskacansorge@unl.edu

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Do Computer Science Programs Need Help Integrating Computer Ethics?

Wanted to explore how social and professional issues are integrated into undergraduate computer science programs in the United States

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Ethics Study

Online faculty survey undergraduate computer science programs in the United States (Fall 2005)

Approximately 41 questions focused on nine major ethics topics of which five are covered in paper Ethics coverage Who teaches Special training Decisions made Not teaching reasons

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Research Methodology and Design

Large sample size (700 programs) was chosen using a stratified random sample based upon university or college enrollment

Family-wise alpha of .05 with a Bonferroni adjusted alpha of .001

251 surveys returned (36% response rate)

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Demographic Analysis

University or College Enrollment

Number of Schools

(Population)

Proportion of Schools

by Category

Number of Schools (Strata

Sample Size)

Usable Survey

Responses

Proportion of Survey

Responses by Category

Under 1,000

35 4% 31 12 4%

1,001 – 5,000

345 43% 303 112 45%

5,001 – 10,000

173 22% 152 52 21%

10,001 – 20,000

136 17% 152 42 17%

Over 20,000

108 14% 119 33 13%

Total 797 100% 700 251 100%

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Demographic Analysis

Computer Science Majors f %

Under 100 149 59

101 to 300 76 31

301 to 500 18 7

Above 500 8 3

Total 251 100

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Demographic Analysis

Accredited/Non-accredited f %

Non-accredited 143 57

Accredited 75 30

Not reported or asked 33 13

Total 251 100

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Question 1 – Ethics Coverage

Does your department’s undergraduate computer science curriculum include any social and professional ethics issues content? 220 (88%) Include ethics 31 (12%) Do not include ethics

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Question 1 –Ethics Coverage -By # Major & Accredited

Accredited

# Majors No (%) Yes (%) Total (%)

Under 100 108 (50%) 15 (6%) 123 (56%)

101 – 300 30 (14%) 43 (20%) 73 (34%)

301 – 500 3 (1%) 11 (5%) 14 (6%)

Above 500 2 (1%) 6 (3%) 8 (4%)

Total 143 (66%) 75 (34%) 218 (100%)

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Question 1 – Ethics Required?

Of the 220 programs that include ethics 173 (79%) Require ethics coverage

# Majors Ethics Required (%)

Under 100 89 (41%)

101 to 300 64 (29%)

301 to 500 14 (7%)

Above 500 6 (3%)

Total 173 (100%)

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Question 2 – Who Teaches

Who teaches the social and professional issues incorporated into your computer science curriculum? 186 (85%) Computer Science (CS) 9 (4%) Philosophy 10 (5%) CS and other disciplines 14 (6%) Other

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Question 3 - Training

Did your department (or school or college) provide faculty that teach the social and professional ethics content with opportunities for training? 168 (77%) No special training 50 (23%) Special training

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Question 3 – Training Required?

Circumstances For Faculty Training Total (%)

Mandatory training and faculty embraced 2 (4%)

Mandatory training and faculty resistant 1 (2%)

Training not required and faculty receptive to training

22 (45%)

Training not required and faculty were not interested

11 (22%)

Other 13 (27%)

Total 49 (100% )

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Question 3 – How Trained?

Training Provided f *Faculty are responsible for their own training

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Training within university or college 16

Training from outside university or college 15

1-3 hour workshop 7

3-6 hour workshop 1

6-9 hour workshop 5

Other 15

*Multiple Answers Allowed

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Question 4 – Decision Made?

Who makes the decisions concerning how to incorporate the social and professional issues components into the undergraduate computer science curriculum?

Of the 220 schools that include ethics 87 (39%) Committee of faculty 73 (33%) Committee and individual 51 (23%) Individual decisions 9 (4%) Other

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Questions 5 – Not Teaching Ethics

What are the reasons schools (programs) are not teaching social and professional issues in the undergraduate computer science curricula?

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Question 5 – No Ethics By School Enrollment

School Enrollment Not Teaching Ethics

Under 1000 0 (0%)

1,001 to 5,000 18(58%)

5,001 to 10,000 4 (13%)

10,001 to 20,000 3 (10%)

Above 20,000 6 (19%)

Total 31 (100%)

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Question 5 – Not Teaching Ethics By Majors

# Majors Not Teaching Ethics

Under 100 24 (77%)

101 to 300 3 (10%)

301 to 500 4 (13%)

Above 500 0 (0%)

Total 31 (100%)

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Question 5 – Reasons For Not Teaching

Reasons For Not Teaching f *

Computer Science faculty not trained 15

No room in the curriculum 13

Philosophers/sociologists should teach 6

Ethics belong in an ethics course 3

Not aware of ACM ethics standards 2

Other 14

* Multiple Answers Allowed

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Conclusions

Pleased by large survey responses from programs (251 or 36%) shows that some programs are interested in computer ethics

Undergraduate computer science programs are embracing teaching computer ethics (88% include ethics)

Computer science faculty (85%) are teaching computer ethics in some form

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Conclusions - Training?

Need for ethics training exists 168 (77%) of the 251 computer science

programs do not provide training 26 (52%) of the 50 that provide training are

responsible for their own training Means a small number of schools 24 actually

provide training for faculty Faculty do take advantage of training when

provided with training opportunities

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Conclusions - Training

Programs that require ethics are more willing to provide support for ethics training of faculty

Therefore, one way to move toward training faculty at a school is to require an ethics course

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Conclusions – Decisions Made

Most programs use committee of faculty to determine how to integrate computer ethics into curriculum Involves more faculty in the process which is a

good thing More faculty may ensures better supervision

of the implementation Better chance that ethics will be incorporated

into other topics such as programming, database systems, software engineering, etc

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Conclusions – Not Teaching Ethics

All programs that are not teaching ethics need help

77% of programs not teaching ethics have under 100 majors

Programs need help integrating computer ethics into their curriculum

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Conclusions – Not Teaching Ethics

Training is a real need also Reach out to small college programs through

NSF, SIGCSE, and local conferences to offer more ethics workshops

Provide financial support for training

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Overall Conclusions

Faculty are influenced by ACM, therefore Special Interest Groups should exert their influence and include social and professional topics of interest at conferences

Need for ethics training exists Textbooks should integrate ethics topic

discussion, not as separate ethics sections Schools should be encouraged to form

committees to integrate ethics into curricula

Ethics Training and Decision-Making: Do Computer Science Programs Need Help?

Carol SpradlingComputer Science/Information SystemsNorthwest Missouri State Universityc_sprad@nwmissouri.edu

Leen-Kiat SohNational Center for Information Technology in Education (NCITE)University of Nebraskalksoh@cse.unl.edu

Charles J. AnsorgeDepartment of Educational PsychologyUniversity of Nebraskacansorge@unl.edu

Ethics Training and Decision-Making: Do Computer Science Programs Need Help?

Presentation and Survey at:http://catpages.nwmissouri.edu/m/c_sprad/sigcse2008ethics.html