APPENDIX B

Details of the Learning Outcomes, Content and Formal Assessment for the Module

Learning Outcomes
Explain the concepts of computer ethics.	Recognise and evaluate current and future ethical issues surrounding the application of ICT
Undertake an ethical analysis	Research into an area of computer ethics, integrate complex and sometimes conflicting ideas into a coherent analysis that demonstrates integrative, synoptic and analytical skills.
Indicative topics
Defining computer ethics	Normative ethics: deontological theory, teleological theory
Issues of the information society	Current foci of concern: for example, health informatics, privacy, copyright, electronic commerce, telecommuting, computer terrorism
Codes of conduct and professionalism	Ethical aspects of the systems development process
Framework for ethical decision making	Cultural and societal impacts on ethical stances

Formal Assessment

For their coursework assessment, students were required to gather recent, relevant and academically sound articles addressing ethical issues that were available on the Internet and were of practical worth to the computing practitioner. Students were then tasked with producing a set of objective criteria against which to evaluate and determine a short-list. Having defined this short-list the students then had to critically summarize each article and evaluate it against the identified criteria in order to rank them. Finally, the students had to develop a public tribute to the best article. All of this necessarily required quite a lot of analytical reading together with critical reflection upon both ethical issues as well as other researcher's activity. (As a side issue, such an exercise also largely militated against plagiarism in that students were not allowed to copy any part of the actual papers into their summaries.)

The examination for the module is split into two halves. The first half is worth 50% of the total and consists of providing the students with an ethical dilemma to which they then apply the ethical analysis strategy previously practised in order to identify and resolve the issues. The second half provides a choice of 2 questions from 5. In order to encourage further students' responsibility for learning, the examination has always included one question that allows students to demonstrate their breadth and depth of understanding of a relevant research area. The onus is put upon the students to conduct their own research prior to the examination period. This is supported by their activity within both the f2f and conferencing environments.