How to and how much? Teaching ethics in an interaction design course

• Main Authors: WADHWA, Bimlesh, OUH, Eng Lieh, GAN, Benjamin
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Interaction Design; Teaching ethics; Computer Engineering; Software Engineering
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/5279; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/6282/viewcontent/educhi2020_final100.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

How much is sufficient and how should one teach ethics in an Interaction Design curriculum in undergraduate computing program has been a point of dilemma for many HCI educators. We conducted a preliminary study using a mixed method to gather perception on ethics in our interaction design courses at two of the leading Singapore Universities. We answer three research questions specific to an undergraduate HCI course: Is there a need for ethics? Is there sufficient ethics coverage? and how to teach ethics? We surveyed 140 students and interviewed six teachers in two Singapore Universities. Our findings suggest that 92% of students and 100% of teachers see a need for ethics in design courses but more students see it as a need in general computer science or undergraduate education. We find that there is no lack of ethics coverage in our courses. Most participants prefer ethics to be covered in a use case to be discussed in class instead of a lecture or questions based on research articles.