Integrating ethics into the computer science curriculum, focusing on the database course

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a baseline study to increase awareness and provide direction for the future development of a comprehensive model curriculum for the integration of ethics into the database course. In this dissertation, the researcher analyzed and interpreted the results of a study of computer science professors at smaller colleges primarily from the Christian College Consortium (CCC) organization. The administration from the thirteen CCC member colleges support Christian higher education in the liberal arts tradition through the sharing of resources, programs, and ideas. The survey was generated from an exhaustive review of the computer ethics literature along with an examination of both professional codes of ethics and the researcher's professional experiences. The survey questionnaire included questions concerning each module of the database course as identified by ACM/IEEE 2001 model curriculum. The data analysis did not support the null hypothesis that professors effectively integrate ethics in their database course and meet other course objectives. This research suggests that additional work is needed in the area of providing an effective level of ethical integration in the computer science database course. The researcher provides selected case studies to assist computer science professors in the integration of ethics into their database course. The author summarizes several major ethical theories in the appendices.