University Curriculum Committee
Proposal for Course Change
1. Is this course a Diversity or
Liberal Studies Course?
Liberal Studies
2. Course change effective beginning of what term and year?
(ex. Spring 2008, Summer 2008) See effective dates calendar.
3. College
Both
N/A
Fall 2011
4. Academic Unit/Department EE/CS
CEFNS
5. Current course subject/catalog number
Diversity
You may need to right-click boxes to check/uncheck→Then select ”Properties”
CS 301
6. Current catalog title, course description and
units. (Cut and paste from current on-line
academic catalog)
/www4.nau.edu/aio/AcademicCatalog/academiccatalogs.htm
CS 301 SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
(1)
Exploration of issues that deal with the
ethical implications of widespread use of
computer technology. Letter grade only.
Course fee required.
Prerequisite: CS 249 with a grade greater
than or equal to C
Course ID: 009398
Show the proposed changes in this column. Please BOLD
the changes, to differentiate from what is not changing. Use
“strikethrough” to indicate what is being deleted. To do this,
format the bolding and strikethroughs before you paste the
text into the field.
CS 301 SOCIAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN
COMPUTER SCIENCE
(1 2)
Exploration of issues that deal with the ethical
implications of widespread use of computer
technology. Letter grade only. Course fee
required.
Prerequisite: CS 249 with a grade greater than or
equal to C
7. Is this course required or an elective in any other plan (major, minor, certificate)? Yes
No
If yes, explain and provide supporting documentation from the affected departments.
BS Computer Science, BS Applied Computer Science. No other departments are affected.
8. Does this change affect community college articulation?
Yes
No
If yes, explain how in the justification and provide supporting documentation from the affected
institutions.
Is the course a Common Course as defined by your Articulation Task Force?
Revised 10/10
Yes
No
If yes, has the change been approved by the Articulation Task Force?
Yes
No
If this course has been listed in the Course Equivalency Guide, should that listing
Be:
left as is
or
be revised
If revised, how should it be revised?
IN THE FOLLOWING SECTION, COMPLETE ONLY WHAT IS CHANGING
CURRENT
PROPOSED
Current course subject/catalog number
Proposed course subject/catalog number
Current number of units/credits 1
Proposed number of units/credits 2
Current Course Fee
Yes
Current Grading Option*
Letter Grade
Pass/Fail
No
or
Both
If subject or catalog # change, what to do with course fee:
Move
or Delete
Proposed Grading Option*
Letter Grade
Pass/Fail
or Both
Current Repeat for additional Units
Proposed Repeat for additional Units
Current Max number of units
Proposed Max number of units
Current Prerequisite
Proposed Prerequisite
Current Co-requisite
Proposed Co-requisite
Current Co-Convene with
Proposed Co-Convene with
Current Cross List with
Proposed Cross List with
9. Do you want to remove this course from either the Liberal Studies Course list and/or
the Diversity Course list?
Liberal Studies list
Diversity list
10. Justification for course change. Please indicate how past assessments of student learning
prompted the proposed changes.
We applied some significant changes to CS 301 in the past, that addressed the suggestions of our
latest ABET visit. As a consequence, the workload in the course does not reflect the one unit
attached to the course right now. This will be even more true when we integrate some more material
that relates to our global learning initiative.
11. Person(s) to contact for questions about details of this proposal:
Wolf-Dieter Otte
12. Approvals
Signed: Department Chair (if appropriate)
Revised 10/10
Print Last Name
Date
Signed: Chair of College Curriculum Committee
Print Last Name
Date
Signed: Dean of College
Print Last Name
Date
Signed: Curriculum Process Associate
Print Last Name
Date
For Committee’s use only
For University Curriculum Committee
Action taken:
Revised 10/10
Approved as submitted
Date
Approved as modified
CS 301 Social and Ethical Issues in Computer Science
Course Syllabus
Fall 2011, 2 Credit Hours
College of Engineering, Forestry and Natural Sciences
Northern Arizona University
General Information:
Time and Location:
Time: TBD
Room: TBD
Coordinator:
Wolf-Dieter Otte, Dr.-Ing.
Office 219, (928) 523 0876, dieter.otte@nau.edu
Office Hours: see class’ website.
Prerequisites:
CS 249
Textbook:
“A Gift of Fire” by Sara Baase, Prentice Hall; 3rd edition (January 6, 2008)
ISBN: 978-0136008484
Catalog Description:
Exploration of issues that deal with the ethical implications of widespread use of computer
technology.
Course Objectives:
Students will become familiar with issues related to professional ethics, ethical use of the
internet, privacy issues, property rights of software, accountability and social implications of
information technology.
Tentative Course Coverage:
1. Introduction to Ethics: What is Ethics, why is it important. Morality and moral dilemmas.
(Dr. Otte)
2. Professional Ethics and Responsibilities (Dr. Li)
3. Evaluating and Controlling Technology (Dr. Georgas)
4. Errors, Failures and Risk (Dr. Georgas)
5. Privacy, Security Violations, Software Piracy (Dr. Wang)
6. Intellectual Property (Dr. Palmer)
7. Critical Analysis of a moral/ethical Perspective:
 Survey of relevant paper topics in ethics;
 Discussion of professionally formatted and structured research papers;
 Techniques for literature searches & primary source identification.
Revised 10/10

For specifics on how to prepare and submit your ethics paper, see:
http://flagstaff.egr.nau.edu:8888/teaching/?q=content/CS301_-_Essay_Paper
Course Structure:
Lecture and/or Discussions plus a comprehensive essay paper. This class is team-taught by the CS faculty.
Recommended optional materials/references:
See the class’ web site at
http://wolfdieterotte.com?q=content/CS301_-_Ethics_Computer_Science
Grading:





Midterm Exam (20%)
Final Exam (25%)
Homework Assignments (20%)
Essay Paper (25%)
Attendance/Participation in class evaluation (10%)
Class participation is vital to be successful and generally required. Up to 10% from the course’s result may be taken off in case
a student fails to participate in classes without prior excuse.
Evaluation methods


Grading system: letter
Grading Scale: A=90%..100%, B=80%..89%, C=70%..79%, D=60%..69%, F<60%
Course policy
(Note: The following are in addition to NAU’s and CET’s. To conserve paper, copies of NAU and CEFNS
policies are distributed on the website of this class.)
Office Hours. My office hours are posted outside my door and on the website. If you need help but for
some reason, cannot see me during posted hours, make an appointment for some other time. I enjoy
helping students outside of class meetings and encourage you to see me if you encounter any difficulties,
preferably sooner the better.
Attendance: Class participation is vital and, in general, students who do not attend regularly have difficulty in successfully completing
the course. See the section on grading above.
Late submissions, missed exams, etc. Late submissions are not accepted. There will be make-up exams
only in case of an emergency as defined by NAU Policy. A missed exam counts zero points for that part of
the grade.
Withdrawal Deadline. The deadline to drop with a “W” is (see announcements). Students who wish to
withdraw must complete all the relevant paperwork. Non-attendance of classes and/or non-completion of
assigned work does not constitute ample reason for withdrawal from the course and will result in a failing
grade.
Plagiarism and Cheating. Copying or any other form of academic dishonesty will result in an immediate
failure in the course in addition to recommendation of other penalties. In the event of cheating, both the
receiver(s) and the giver(s) will be treated the same way.
Revised 10/10
CS 301 Social and Ethical Issues in Computer Science
Course Syllabus
Fall 2007, 1 Credit Hour
College of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Northern Arizona University
General Information:
Time and Location:
12:40 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Mondays
Room: 120, Engineering
Coordinator:
Wolf-Dieter Otte, Ph.D., Dr.-Ing.
Office 219, (928) 523 0876, dieter.otte@nau.edu
Office Hours: see class’ website.
Prerequisites:
CS 249
Textbook:
Recommended course book (but not required): Computer Ethics, Deborah Johnson,
Prentice Hall, 2001.
Catalog Description:
Exploration of issues that deal with the ethical implications of widespread use of computer
technology.
Course Objectives:
Students will become familiar with issues related to professional ethics, ethical use of the
internet, privacy issues, property rights of software, accountability and social implications of
information technology.
Tentative Course Coverage:
8. Ethics Fundamentals: What is Ethics, why is it important. Morality and moral dilemmas. (Dr.
Otte)
9. Professional engineering ethics. (Dr. Li)
10. Ethics and use of the Internet. Property rights and computer software. (Dr. Palmer)
Revised 10/10
11. Privacy, Security Violations, Software Piracy (Dr. Wang)
Course Structure:
Lecture and/or Discussions. This class is team-taught by the CS faculty.
Recommended optional materials/references:
See the class’ web site: http://flagstaff.cse.nau.edu/Courses/CS301/index.html
Grading:





Midterm Exam (25%)
Final Exam (45%)
Post Mortem (20%)
Attendance/Participation (10%)
Attendance: Class participation is vital to be successful and generally required. Up to 10% from the course’s result may
be taken off in case that a student fails to participate classes without prior excuse.
Evaluation methods


Grading system: letter
Grading Scale: A=90%..100%, B=80%..89%, C=70%..79%, D=60%..69%, F<60%
Course policy
(Note: The following are in addition to NAU’s and CET’s. To conserve paper, copies of NAU and CET
policies are distributed on the website of this class.)
Office Hours. My office hours are posted outside my door. If you need help but for some reason, cannot
see me during posted hours, make an appointment for some other time. I enjoy helping students outside of
class meetings and encourage you to see me if you encounter any difficulties, preferably sooner the better.
Attendance: Class participation is vital and, in general, students who do not attend regularly have difficulty in successfully completing
the course.
Late submissions, missed exams, etc. Late submissions are not accepted. There will be make-up exams
only in case of an emergency as defined by NAU Policy. A missed exam counts for a 0 for that part of the
grade.
Withdrawal Deadline. The deadline to drop with a “W” is (see announcements). Students who wish to
withdraw must complete all the relevant paperwork. Non-attendance of classes and/or non-completion of
assigned work does not constitute withdrawal from the course and will result in a failing grade.
Plagiarism and Cheating. Copying or any other form of academic dishonesty will result in an immediate
failure in the course in addition to recommendation of other penalties. In the event of cheating, both the
receiver(s) and the giver(s) will be treated the same way.
(Note: The above are in addition to NAU’s and CET’s. To conserve paper, copies of NAU and CET
policies are not automatically distributed; See the website to get access to these documents.)
Revised 10/10