Ethics from the start: Exploring student attitudes and creating interventions in intro programming classes

Abstract

The role of ethics in computing is a topic gaining more interest in the SIGCSE community in recent years. Our work is motivated by the idea that there is benefit to integrating ethics throughout undergraduate CS curriculum from the start. Therefore, we focus on students in introductory programming classes, seeking to understand both what students' existing attitudes are about the role of ethics in computing and how intervention at this early stage might impact them. We are conducting pre and post surveys in courses for both CS majors and non-majors, as well as working with instructors to replace existing assignments with new ones that guide students to consider ethical concerns as they learn introductory programming concepts. Discussions at SIGCSE around this topic can further discussions around appropriate norms and ideal strategies for ethics integration into CS courses.