Building an Ethics in Computing Website Using Peer Review

摘要

An Ethics in Computing Website covering almost 100 topics has been developed using peer-reviewed student contributions. Students in the author's one-credit Ethics in Computing course select a topic to research from a list provided by the instructor, or propose a topic of their own choosing. Their contributions are then reviewed, and ultimately graded, by three other students taking the course. The best-reviewed pages are then incorporated into the Website. However, most of the work of maintaining the site is performed by a set of independent-study projects during the 10-week summer session. Each student chooses a set of topics, and completes one topic every two weeks. Each submission is subjected to two rounds of review, one round per week. Some of the topics are new; others are merely updates to existing pages. The amount of work required on each topic is ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. Each student is expected to complete topics with a set total rank, usually about 15. In addition to researching topics, each student chooses one "special job," such as improving the graphics, installing a search engine, or developing a set of style guidelines. The project can be supervised by graduate students, who undertake the responsibility of assigning work to students and integrating the work into the site. Benefits of the project include (i) giving the students an in-depth look at several different ethical issues, (ii) constructing a resource that has been used by instructors around the world, and (iii) providing a low-overhead mechanism for adding another course to the curriculum. This methodology should be applicable to courses involving professional issues in all areas of engineering.