Towards a More Inclusive Curriculum: Opportunities for Broadening and Diversifying Computing Ethics Education

Computing ethics instruction is a vital aspect of the undergraduate computing curriculum. It has received greater focus in recent years driven in part by concerns about the societal impacts of computing technologies such as social media and artificial intelligence. The increased attention provides an opportunity, even an imperative, to examine and rethink common practices. To support our understanding of current practices in computing ethics education, we surveyed 318 computing educators in the United States (U.S.), including 56 who have never taught ethics. The survey included questions about ethics teaching methods and challenges the instructors confronted. We show that ethical frameworks are frequently taught yet teaching them is regarded as one of the least important learning outcomes, and that respondents largely do not consider author demographics when selecting readings for their ethics classes, which could limit the diversity in perspectives present in the course. We conclude with recommendations for improving teaching methods, materials selection, and deployment strategies in computing ethics education, and discuss their implications for promoting more inclusive computing ethics education curricula in the U.S.