CS 3111 Computer Ethics

Fall 2024 Syllabus

Professor : Ted Pedersen

There is no TA for this class.

Course Description (from catalog): 

Ethical issues posed by computer use, including those related to networking, intellectual property, privacy, crime and security, risk and reliability, and effects on work and wealth. Includes significant writing and a class presentation. 

Course Outcomes : 

Course outcomes are listed (C1 - C4) and mapped to their corresponding UMD campus student learning outcomes (UMD SLOs), Humanities Liberal Education student learning outcomes (HUM-SLOs) and ABET student outcomes (ABET SOs).

A student who successfully completes CS 3111 will :

Class Schedule

The Class Schedule is where you can find our schedule for assignments and class meetings. Please check this page frequently as it is updated throughout the semester 

Required Textbooks

There are three required textbooks. We will read and discuss all of these books, so it is important to have a copy of each. The good news is that these are popular books widely available in paperback, and the price of each is less than $20, sometimes quite a bit less depending on where you shop. Note that UMD Bookstore has all three books available at reasonable prices. You can see the front covers of our textbooks at the bottom of this page.


1) Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?  

(read during weeks 1 - 4, approx)

by Micheal Sandel

ISBN-13   : 978-0374532505

Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010

2) Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy 

(read during weeks 5 - 11, approx)

by Cathy O'Neill

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553418835

Publisher : Crown, 2017 

3) Brotopia : Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley 

(read during weeks 12 - 15, approx)

by Emily Chang

ISBN-13  : 978-0525540175

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio; 2019


Please make sure you bring your copy of whatever book we are reading to class as we are likely to refer to it during our discussions.

Prerequisites

You must have completed an advanced writing class (WRIT 31XX or Engr 4001) with a grade of C- or better, and also earned a minimum of 60 credit hours.  

Grading Basis

Participation

Your participation in class is important for your learning and that of your classmates. Participation is measured via engaged attendance, where you are not just present but also willing and able to engage with the class in a constructive fashion. You may be considered absent if you miss a considerable portion of a class period (due to arriving late, leaving early, etc).

You are allowed 3 unexecused absences. After that each additional unexcused absence results in a 1/2 point deduction in your participation grade for the semester (of a possible 10). For example, after 4 unexcused absences your participation grade for the semester would be 9.5, after 5 it would be 9, and so on. Excused absences do not count against this limit, and are defined by the UMD policy on excused absences.

Personal Essays

You will write six to eight Personal Essays connected to our readings or class discussions during the semester. 

Midterm and Final Exams

We will have two Midterm exams, one around Week 6 and the other around Week 11. We will also have a Final exam during finals week.

Podcast 

You will create a podcast this semester. See Podcast Guidelines for more details.

Use of AI Writing Tools

Please do not use automated writing tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, CoPilot, etc. at any point in developing work for this class. This includes our Personal Essays, any take home Exams, and your Podcast. Do not use them for brainstorming ideas, do not use them for writing, and do not use them for polishing or correcting your work. 

All of your written work should be composed entirely in Google Docs. You may use the spelling and grammar checking tools provided in the standard version of Google Docs but do not use or add-on anything beyond that for any of our assignments.  

Why such a strict policy? I read all of your written assignments and exams. I listen to your podcasts. I do not offload the grading of your work on to a teaching assistant or an automated AI tool. I read what you submit carefully, and I would like to hear your own unique voice come through in the work you do for this class. I genuinely enjoy this experience. These tools obscure your voice and restrict your imagination. They make you sound more generic and less like the unique individual that you are. 

Any work that you submit in this class must be uniquely and exclusively written by you. This means no AI Writing Tools, it also means no cutting and pasting or overly close paraphrasing from other sources (which is essentially what these AI tools do, just in a very fancy and elaborate way). If you submit work that you did not uniquely and exclusively create, you may receive a 0 on that assignment.  

Late Work

Personal Essays, any take home exams, and your podcast may be submitted late. However, any late work submitted 1 - 24 hours after the deadline will receive an automatic 20% penalty. Any work submitted 1 - 8 school days after the deadline will receive an automatic 10% penalty per (full) school day. Any work submitted 9 or more school days after the deadline will receive a score of 0.

Example 1 : Suppose a Personal Essay (worth 5 points) is due on Sunday at 11:59 pm. If you turn it in on Monday at 11:00 am (11 hours after the deadline) you would receive a 20% penalty which would be 1 of 5 points, meaning your maximum possible grade would be 4 of 5 points. 

Example 2 : Suppose a Midterm Exam is take home and is due Tuesday at 11:59 pm. If you turn it in on Wednesday at 6:00 am (6 hours after the deadline) you would received a 20% penalty which would be 4 of 20 points, meaning your maximum possible grade would be 16 of 20.

Example 3 : Suppose a Personal Essay is due on Wednesday at 11:59 pm. If you turn it in on Tuesday of the next week at 5:00 am this would be considered 3 days after the deadline (Thursday, Friday, and Monday but not Tuesday since that is not yet a full school day). You would lose 20% for Thursday, 10% for Friday, and 10% for Monday so you would receive a 40% penalty which would be 2 of 5 points, meaning your maximum possible grade would be 3 of 5 points.

Example 4 : Any work submitted 9 school days or more after the deadline will receive a score of 0.

Grading Scale

UMD-wide syllabus policies

For anything not mentioned above, this class will follow the policies described in the UMD-wide syllabus.

Front Covers of our Textbooks