Syllabus

General

Make sure that you are on the class email list. Please send me email requesting to be added to the list if you do not receive email from me by the beginning of the second week of class. Your class email listing must be your UIC email. Forward your mail from there if you generally read your mail somewhere else. I'm assuming students check email every day. All critical announcements, changes to assignments, etc. will be distributed via email. Be sure to check the course web page for further information, handouts, assignment descriptions, and hints.

You will be given the opportunity to take a make-up quiz or exam only in cases of medical or personal emergencies, which must be verified. If such an emergency occurs, call me or leave a note (or phone message) with the department secretary as soon as possible. If you will be out of town when an exam is scheduled, I must be told in advance and may require you to take the exam early. Otherwise, if you miss an exam you will receive 0 points.

You are responsible for all information (handouts, announcements, notes, etc.) covered during class. You should ask fellow classmates for missed information, not the instructor or the T.A.

No incompletes will be given for poor performance in the course. An incomplete can only be given if there are extenuating circumstances and the student has at least a 'C' average in the course. No extra work or extra credit will be given.

If you feel that you deserve more points than you have been given on a quiz, assignment, or test, you must see the instructor about this within one week of the time the work in question is first returned to the class. After this deadline, no claims will be considered, justifiable or not.

As a two-hour class, I assume that you will spend an average of 4 hours a week outside of class working on readings and assignments.

Grading Criteria

Letter grades are assigned on a curve at the end of the semester. Current grades will be posted on the grades page. Note that there are no exams, however you will need to keep up on your reading to do well on the quizzes and position papers.

Leading Discussion or Debate

Students will be assigned by alphabetical order into roughly 12 groups. These groups will then be assigned to one of the course general topic areas, as seen on the schedule. For your assigned topic area your group must then select a specific topic to use for your discussion or debate. To help you do this I suggest you look at each section's links on the course schedule, the assignments and discussion exercises at the end of each chapter in our text, and the book's associated web site.

For your chosen topic you will then either lead the class in a discussion, or have a debate. By the middle of the second week of class you must email me your specific topic for my approval, as well as indicating whether you will be moderating the class discussion or having a debate. Your prepared portion of your discussion or debate should last at most 25 minutes.

For discussions, students should share responsibility for preparation and presentation.The focus here is to engage the class, to get them interested, and to get them talking along the specific lines of your topic.

For debates, students should again share the time evenly, presenting views and rebuttals of opponents positions. On the day of your debate I will choose at random who will argue which side, so you must understand the issues and be prepared either way. You should be empassioned in your argumentation, attempting to pursuade the listeners to your views by facts, analogy, and logical arguments. You must leave the last 5 minutes of your debate for the class to interact with you. Part of your debate grade will be your ability to answer questions/challenges given by the class in response to your comments.

• Approach to Take
  There are different ways to analyze your topic. You may want to take a look at the section on Analysing a Scenario found here. Take a look at a description by John Artz of applying the Socratic method to discussing computer ethics. Under the "Putting it Together" section, Artz describes the steps you should take in facilitating discussion, using the example of the topic of software piracy. You may also want to look at Maner's catalog of different approaches used to analyze an ethical issue. In particular see Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning (see also here), as the ethical decision making plan of the Department of Defense (DoD). I encourage you to explore the topics links on the course web pages, as well as take a look at the course resources page.
  
  
• Grading for Leading Discussion or Debate
  Students should share responsibility for preparation and presentation. For Leading Discussions, everyone in the group will receive the same grade. For Debates, you will be graded individually. You will be graded on a scale of 0 to 5 for each of the following 4 areas:
  

1. Well-prepared; Know the facts and main points
2. Communicate effectively in the allotted time; Use visual aids (overheads, the board)
3. Understand the issues; Supporting cases/scenarios/questions are well thought-out
4. Engage the class (for discussions); Argue convincingly (for debates)

This gives a possible total of 20 points. For each area, a grade of 3 is considered normal, for a "normal" total score of 12. Only truly outstanding performance will get a score higher than a 3 (out of 5) for any of the above 4 areas.

Quizzes

Quizzes will be given at the beginning of class. Those who arrive late will have less time to finish the quiz, which will last less than 10 minutes. Quizzes will be based on previous lectures and assigned readings. I suggest you look at the sample quiz questions given on the text's web site. No makeup quizzes will be given, but the lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

Position Papers

Position Papers will be graded on a scale of 0 to 3. A grade of 2 is considered average, and a 3 will only be given for work that shows unusual insight or extra thought. Note that you will be graded on the final result, not on how much work you put into it. As a guideline, each paper should be 1 - 2 pages long if it were typed double-spaced. You papers need to show evidence that you have done the reading. They must have your own reactions to the readings along with your logically supported thoughts.

Position papers must be written as html files and will be submitted via the turnin command. (See the Position Papers page for more information.) These papers will be posted through the course web site for your classmates to read. No late papers will be accepted, but the lowest position paper grade will be dropped.

Class Participation

Discussion is a critically important component of this class. Class participation means being actively involved in discussions and asking questions, demonstrating you have read the material and thought about it ahead of time. After I have assigned readings or position papers I will choose members from the class to comment. I will keep track of who is prepared and who isn't. You have to be present to comment, so I will take roll regularly.

Academic Dishonesty