Teaching Ethics in a Virtual Classroom

摘要

This paper describes an ethics course that is a capstone course in the undergraduate computing degree at Deakin University. What distinguishes this course from others is that it has a fairly large enrolment of students and it is delivered completely online. The students enrolled in the course come from a variety of backgrounds and many are international students for whom English is not their first language. The paper describes the course, how it has evolved over a five-year period and discusses the rationale and particulars of course content and implementation in the 'virtual classroom'. Some of the challenges and issues for teaching a course of this type are discussed. Suggestions are offered for faculty who are considering the implementation of a similar course online.