"This Applies to the RealWorld": Student Perspectives on Integrating Ethics into a Computer Science Assignment

TL;DR

This paper explores student perspectives on integrating ethics into introductory computer science assignments through focus groups, revealing benefits, challenges, and generating new ethics-oriented assignment ideas for curriculum development.

Contribution

It presents a case study on designing ethics-based CS assignments, incorporating student feedback, and creating a bank of ethics-related assignment concepts for curriculum enhancement.

Findings

Students see value in ethics integration for real-world relevance.

Challenges include balancing technical and ethical content.

Generated new ethics-oriented assignment ideas based on student feedback.

Abstract

There is a growing movement in undergraduate computer science (CS) programs to embed ethics across CS classes rather than relying solely on standalone ethics courses. One strategy is creating assignments that encourage students to reflect on ethical issues inherent to the code they write. Building off prior work that has surveyed students after doing such assignments in class, we conducted focus groups with students who reviewed a new introductory ethics-based CS assignment. In this experience report, we present a case study describing our process of designing an ethics-based assignment and proposing the assignment to students for feedback. Participants in our focus groups not only shared feedback on the assignment, but also on the integration of ethics into coding assignments in general, revealing the benefits and challenges of this work from a student perspective. We also generated novel ethics-oriented assignment concepts alongside students. Deriving from tech controversies that participants felt most affected by, we created a bank of ideas as a starting point for further curriculum development.