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RES.TLL-008 | Fall 2022 | Non-Credit

# Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC)

> Related Topics: Ethical Computing and Practice

Authors: Daniel Jackson, Arvind Satyanarayan, Serena Booth

Keywords: software design, local government, ethical assessment

### Resources:

#### Assignment 1: Design Reflection

Technical design reflection prompt focused on ethical implications of design of a browser-based version of John Conway’s Game of Life, a cellular automaton that simulates the evolution of an organism using a simple deterministic rule.

- Assignment 1 Problem Statement (PDF) (DOCX)
- Assignment 1 Rubric (PDF) (DOCX)

#### Assignment 2: Design Reflection

Technical design reflection prompt focused on social implications of design decisions in implementing “Fritter,” social app whose primary purpose sometimes seems to be to fritter your time away.

- Assignment 2 Problem Statement (PDF) (DOCX)
- Assignment 2 Rubric (PDF) (DOCX)

#### Assignment 3: A Social/Ethical Reflection

Written reflection on “Fritter” design to explain implications of design decisions and, if negative, how they might be mitigated.

- Assignment 3 Problem Statement (PDF) (DOCX)
- Assignment 3 Rubric (PDF) (DOCX)
- Design Reflection Template (PDF) (DOCX)
- Social/Ethical Reflection Template (PDF) (DOCX)

#### Assignment 4: Specification

A written reflection to more thoroughly address the ethical/social implications of design, and distinguish which implications follow from your conceptual design and which follow from UI design.

- Assignment 4 Problem Statement (PDF) (DOCX)
- Assignment 4 Rubric (PDF) (DOCX)
- Heuristic Evaluation Template (PDF) (DOCX)
- User Test Template (PDF) (DOCX)
- Ethical Implication Template (PDF) (DOCX)
- Usability Heuristics Cheat Sheet (PDF)

#### Assignment 5: Specification

A written reflection that describes how conducting the Assignment 4 reflection informed the student’s design process in this assignment.

- Assignment 5 Problem Statement (PDF) (DOCX)
- Assignment 5 Rubric (PDF) (DOCX)
- Design Reflection Template (PDF) (DOCX)
- Deployment Guide (PDF) (DOCX)

#### Lecture on Responsible Design

A lecture on responsible design and an activity to prepare the students for the lecture.

- Ethics Protocol: A Method for Designing Responsibly lecture (PDF - 1.1MB) (PPTX - 1.6MB)
- Preparatory Activity “Envisioning Futures” (PDF) (DOCX) before lecture
- Qualtrics Survey (PDF) (DOCX)

#### Final Project: “All Politics is Local”

Project prompts developed in collaboration with Cambridge City Government to practice course competencies to build software in service of local government.

- Final Project Prompts (PDF) (DOCX)

## Course Info

##### Instructors

- Prof. Julie Shah
- Prof. David Kaiser

##### Departments

- Supplemental Resources

##### As Taught In

Fall 2022

##### Level

Non-Credit

##### Topics

- Engineering
  - Computer Science
    - Artificial Intelligence
- Teaching and Education
  - Curriculum and Teaching
  - Higher Education

##### Learning Resource Types

notes Lecture Notes
co_present Instructor Insights
assignment Multiple Assignment Types

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