Society and Ethics in Information Technology Syllabus

Course Description:

This course covers different concepts related with sociology, and social and ethical issues

related with the use of Information Technology. This course also covers social context of

computing, software issues and new frontiers of computer ethics.

Course Objective:

The basic objective of this course is to provide fundamental knowledge on the concept of

sociology to understand social, cultural, economic, political and technical aspects, and

knowledge of different social and ethical issues related with Information Technology.

1. Introduction

teaching hours: 4 hrs

History, definitions, Related to IT, Need, Resilience, types, Need, types, Difference, moral values

2. Social and cultural change

teaching hours: 6 hrs

Evolution, Functional, Conflict,Economics, Technology, Education, Demography

3. Understanding development

teaching hours: 5 hrs

Definition, approaches,Types ,Types,Techniques, Strategies

4. Process of transformation

teaching hours: 4 hrs

Basic concepts,  Definition, Effect on morality,Basic concepts , CASE study

5. Ethics and Ethical Analysis

teaching hours: 4 hrs

Definitions, Consequentialism , Deontology, Human nature, Relativism, Hedonism, Emotivism, Functional definition covering different sets, Framework for ethical decision making, making and

evaluating ethical arguments, Preamble, objectives, Issues and discussion

6. Intellectual Property Rights and Computer Technology

teaching hours: 6 hrs

Definitions, Basic concepts, Copyrights, Patents, Trade secrets, Trademarks, Personal identity, Politics of ownership, Psychology of ownership, Infringement, first sale doctrine, Fair use doctrine, Domain, source, Duration and strategies of protection,

Software piracy, Protection of software under copyright, Patent, Trademarks and Trade secretes, Basic concepts

7. Social Context of Computing

teaching hours: 4 hrs

Access, Technology, Human capacity, Infrastructure,

Enabling Environments, Techniques, Electronic office, Office on wheels and wings, Virtual workplace, Quiet revolution : Telecommuters and Telecommuting, Workplace privacy and surveillance, Electronic monitoring, Ergonomics

8. Software Issues

teaching hours: 5 hrs

Standards, Reliability, Security, Safety, Quality, Quality of Service

Human factors, Nature of software, Risk assessment and management, Risk hazards in workplace systems, Buyer and provider rights, A- service provider – user contract, Techniques, Basic concepts 

9. New Frontiers for Computer Ethics

teaching hours: 7 hrs

Basic concepts, Definitions, Requirements, Challenges, Terminologies, Types, Benefits,Types, Social and ethical implication of virtualization, Introduction, Concept of telepresence and immersion, Detecting attacks in cyberspace, Intellectual property rights in cyberspace, Legal definition, Types, Legislation, Effects and Dealing with cyberbullying

Laboratory works

- 5 Case Studies that are specified in the micro syllabus

- Practical related to quality assurance, risk analysis, VR, reliability, security, safety,quality, quality of    service.

• Selenium for automation testing of functional aspects of web based applications, wide range of platforms and browsers.
• Apache Jmeter for load testing
• Jira for task, effort, team performance and defect tracking
• Development of RMMM (Risk Monitoring, Management, Mitigation) plan for any scenario.

The students should write reports for 5 case studies and other practical works.