CyberEthics (CS4520)

Professor:

Dr. Peter G. Drexel

Memorial Hall 212

Dr. Drexel's Schedule (including Office Hours)

Contents:

1. Course content
2. General Education
3. Textbook and Other Materials
4. Grades
5. Ethics

Class schedule:

The class meets in Rounds 207, on Tuesday and Thursday, from 11:00 AM until 12:15 PM. The course starts on Thursday, September 3rd and ends on Thursday, December 10th. I.e., 28 class sessions plus the final exam.

Course content:

Outline:

1. Introduction to Ethics
2. Networking
3. Intellectual Property
4. Privacy
5. Computer and Network Security
6. Computer Reliability
7. Work and Wealth
8. Professional Ethics
9. ACM / IEEE Code of Ethics

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General Education:

• Reference: Undergraduate Studies web pages
• CyberEthics fulfills PSU General Education requirements under both the old and new (Fall 2005 and later) Gen Ed systems.
• Under the old system, CyberEthics fulfills the Integrative component (INTG).
• "This requirement is to help students see the connections between disciplines and to enable students to better appreciate how the resolution of actual problems often requires multiple disciplinary perspectives. An integrative course would include consideration of elements from at least two of the General Education Perspectives or skills areas."
• In this case, CyberEthics combines elements of Science, Technology and Social Science/Psychology.
• Under the new system, CyberEthics fulfills the Diversity (DICO), Integrative (INCO) and Writing (WRCO) Connections.
  • Diversity: "Becoming educated involves developing awareness of, sensitivity to, and appreciation for viewpoints other than those to which we have been acculturated. Through such development comes increased respect for those different from oneself. Students take a three-credit Diversity (D) course (either within the major or not) designed to broaden and deepen awareness and appreciation of differences and commonalties of sub-cultural groups in American society defined by differences in race, ethnicity, ability, social class, religion, politics, gender, or sexual orientation. Diversity courses do this by exposing students to the life stories and the voices of members of different groups and by exploring issues of equity, opportunity, and justice."
  • Integration: "We live in a world where scholarship is increasingly interdisciplinary. The educated person recognizes the challenges and rewards of drawing connections between fields of knowledge and of applying alternative methods of inquiry to solve problems. Students take a three-credit Integration (I) course (either within the major or not), which brings content or methods of inquiry from two or more disciplines or perspectives to bear on a problem or question. The integration course is a General Education capstone course, taken in the junior or senior year. As such it should require substantial, although general, background and a high level of proficiency at most or all of the General Education skills."
  • Writing: "In order to communicate effectively, students need to learn the conventions of their own discipline or profession. They need to learn how to write like an educator, a social worker, a biologist, an historian, or a literary critic, for example. Students take a three-credit Writing (W) course within their major that contains significant writing experiences appropriate to the discipline. These experiences should be based on Writing Across the Curriculum activities, for example, free-writing, outlining, writing multiple drafts, responding to feedback, and creating a finished product. In addition to extending the process of developing writing skills, W courses also emphasize writing to learn in the discipline.

Textbook and Other Materials:

• (Required) Ethics for the Information Age, 3rd Edition, Michael J. Quinn, Addison Wesley, 2009. (Required implies that students will obtain a copy of the text and use it to prepare for class, homework and exams. Texts do change between editions. Having the wrong edition of the book has obvious negative consequencs.)
• (Required) Journal articles - either available on-line, through the library or distributed in class.

Grades:

1. Exams: 15% of your class grade is based upon one, or possibly two, exams. There will be a final exam. It is scheduled for Tuesday, December 15th at 11:00 AM
2. Role Playing:
• Healthline.com defines role playing as "The act of putting oneself in another person's position in an attempt to see his or her point of view in a situation." Dictionary.com describes role playing as a "...method of instruction aimed at changing attitudes and behavior, in which participants act out designated roles relevant to real-life situations."
• In this class, role playing will be used to help you to see both sides (issues usually have at least two sides) of situations that involve cyberethics. Part of your grade for this part of the course is "degree of difficulty." So, choose a topic that does not have a simple or obvious solution.
• Teams, consisting of two people, will choose a topic (situation), research that topic, demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge about the topic and then conduct a supervised role playing session in class.
• The Role Playing grade, which is 30% of the overall class grade, is made up of several parts. You will get a grade for each part. Obviously, the more difficult the task, the higher the weight for that portion of the overall assignment.
• Your fellow students and the professor will critique the the role-playing sessions. Students' critique will contribute to the presentation part of the grade.
• Here is the time line for Role Playing:
  • 9/17 - Choose Role Playing partner
  • 10/1 - Approved topic
  • 10/22 - Annotated Bibliography due
  • 11/12 - 7 page paper due
  • 11/24 (Tuesday) - Role Playing session outline
  • 12/8 & 12/10 - Presentation
3. Papers, etc.:
   • Expression in written form is an important part of Computer Science, Information Technology or any other major! Papers and other writing assignments comprise 25% of the course grade. Writing will be graded based upon what you say and how you well you say it. Incidentally, I encourage you to make use of the university's Writing Center to enhance your writing skills.
   • The writing grades are: check-plus (outstanding), check (good), check-minus (poor) or U (unacceptable). All writing must meet certain minimum requirements, such as formatting, good grammar and proper spelling. If it does not, assignments will be returned with grade = 0.
   • Upload your papers to Blackboard in MS Word file form
   • Notes:
     • Note 1: Do not submit first drafts of your writing. Check carefully for errors. Upon encountering the 3rd typographical, spelling or grammar error, I will stop reading. Your paper will receive a grade of 0.
     • Note 2 : I am well aware of, and have successfully used, plagiarism detection software. In this case, I intend to use Blackboard's Safe Assign module. I'll provide you with a sandbox to do the checking yourself - before you submit your papers for credit. And, by the way, see the reference to ethics below.
     • Note 3: This is fantastic practice for the "real" world!
   • Students must achieve a minimum average of 60% (D minus!) on their writing to be allowed to take the final exam.
4. Quizzes: Weekly quizzes comprise 20% of the course grade. The purpose of these quizzes is to encourage you to keep up with the reading and the classroom activities. Expect both in-class and Blackboard-based quizzes.  Note: There are no makeup quizzes.
5. Participation: Woody Allen said: "Ninety percent of life is just showing up." Well, you won't get all 10% for perfect attendance. However, it couldn't hurt. This part of your grade involves being in class and actively participating in class discussions. Note: Refer to the Class Attendance Policy in the PSU catalog regarding absences.
6. Average: Figure your class grade as as a weighted average. For example, if a student earns an 80 average on the exams, 87 average on the writing assignments, 75 average on the quizzes, 80 average on the role playing activities and 95 in participation, the overall class grade earned is 82% or B-.

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Ethics: