Students respond to IT ethics

Abstract

Students enrolled in an introductory course on Ethical Issues in Information Technology completed a survey on various aspects of the course. The course was designed as a reading, writing, and discussion-intensive course with a number of guest speakers and the instructor was especially interested in the students' reactions. Students reported that they found all of the sessions with the IT professionals to be interesting, useful, and would recommend inviting them to future sections of the course. Students also reported that they increased their knowledge of ethical theories and that the design of the class encouraged them to be better prepared to participate in class discussions. This paper describes the course design and presents both quantitative and qualitative results of the student survey.