This project adds online ethics instruction to introductory Java and C++ programming courses. By means of a controlled experiment, the investigators address the question: Can ethics instruction replace some technical material while simultaneously improving students' technical learning? An experimental group receives the ethics materials early in the course and some technical material is delayed; the control group receives the ethics materials later in the course. Midterm and end of term assessments are used to determine whether there is a difference in learning gains, both technical and ethical, between the two groups. A set of online materials focused on ethics for computing professionals is under development. Participating faculty are from both four-year institutions and community colleges. The online modules allow a large, diverse population of students to be reached, consequently ensuring that the results are broadly applicable. They will be posted online and available for adoption by other institutions at the end of the project.
Ethically aware computer professionals can be expected to broadly impact the software industry and all users by producing more reliable, safer computer systems that are more appropriate for user needs. Furthermore, an increased emphasis on relevant social issues in computing is likely to increase participation by women and other groups underrepresented in computing.
We developed online lectures and activities for the ethics module. After an initial "shakeout" semester, we tested the materials and the hypothesis in four CS1 classes, involving 64 students. In all four classes, when a "pop quiz" was taken testing the technical skills of students, the group that had worked through the ethics module (and had worked through LESS technical material) scored higher than the group that had not yet done the ethics module (and therefore had worked on MORE technical material). Because the numbers of students is small, the difference between the groups was not quite statistically significant at the .05 level. But since we might expect that the students with less technical training would perform worse on a technical task, this finding still seems important. When students in a CS1 class received ethical training instead of technical training during the first part of a course, the students getting ethics and less technical training did slightly better on a technical quiz than students who took no ethical training and more technical training. This held for four semesters. The differences in scores were consistently higher, but the difference was not statistically significant at p < .05. The average score on the technical "pop quiz" for the early-ethics students, and the late-ethics students follow. Note that the late-ethics students had not yet participated in the ethics module when the pop quiz was given. Note also that the number of students in each group is small. Spring 2012 Early ethics, N=5, average = 8.8 Late ethics, N=6, average = 7.3 Fall 2012 Early ethics, N=5, average = 8.6 Late ethics, N=8, average = 8.0 Spring 2013 Early ethics, N = 4, average = 9.0 Late ethics, N = 6, average = 7.5 Fall 2014 Early ethics, N = 7, average = 8.1 Late ethics, N = 6, average = 7.3
