Broadening Participation in Computing Ethics Curriculum Development

There is an urgent need to bolster the presence of ethics within the computing curriculum, given the significant and sometimes negative impacts that computing is having on society. Computing professionals must seriously consider ethical and societal impacts of the technologies they create and deploy. Part of what is needed is to cultivate a genuine sense, within computing students, of their ethical responsibilities to society.

While valuable efforts are underway to incorporate ethics into computing curricula, an often-overlooked concern is whether historically underrepresented voices have a meaningful opportunity to influence the creation of content that shapes student ethical development. Thus, the goal of this project is to better understand and amplify the diverse range of voices that may have been absent during the development of a traditional computing ethics curriculum.

To broaden participation in computing curriculum development, the project will bring together a unique partnership across Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, Georgia State University, and Florida International University. The work will be guided by a diverse and inclusive project leadership team and advisors.

To enhance the quality and relevance of computing ethics education, and the diversity of represented voices, this project will investigate: (1) identifying current practices in computing ethics curricula, such as which ethics and research ethics topics are being included, prioritized, and excluded; (2) assess expressed preferences for which topics should be featured in the computing ethics curriculum, primarily by involving computing faculty from groups that have been underrepresented in computing; (3) developing and disseminating sample computing ethics syllabi, guidelines, and supporting course materials, based on survey feedback and workshop discussions; and (4) determining experimentally if and how a more inclusive computing ethics curricula can alter underrepresented minority student attitudes, preferences, and behavior towards computing. The project will survey diverse stakeholders, focusing on students and faculty at minority-serving institutions and at other relevant organizations that serve groups that have been underrepresented in computing.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.