Overview
Technology is at the forefront of social change in the 21st century. As an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professional, it is important for you to be aware of how ICT can change our social fabric. This unit will help you understand how the use of technology can support society's needs whilst also contributing to social, ethical, and legal dilemmas. You will critically analyse these dilemmas in an ICT context, looking at how the Information Age has been driven by advances in artificial intelligence and computer networking and covering topics such as cyber security, privacy, intellectual property, censorship, the workforce, and information overload. You will be asked to apply philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct to develop persuasive arguments for various scenarios in personal and professional organisational contexts.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Co-requisite: COIT11239 Professional Communications Skills for ICT or COMM11003 Communication in Professional Contexts or ENEG11005 Fundamentals of Professional Engineering
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2023
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from ACS Accreditation recommendation
Add more Cyber security-related content reflecting changing practices in the ICT industry.
Reorganise the unit to include a security-specific week.
- Describe the roles of technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer networking on the social contexts of the information age
- Explain how your professional and ethical responsibilities as an ICT professional affect society
- Discuss ethical, social, and security issues related to areas such as intellectual property, privacy, cybercrime, and information overload
- Evaluate ethical, social, and cyber security issues using tools of critical analysis such as philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS), the professional association for Australia's ICT sector, recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments, and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 8 (the SFIA code is included):
- Enterprise IT Governance (GOVN)
- Information Assurance (INAS)
- Change Implementation Planning and Management (CIPM)
- Information Content Authoring (INCA)
- IT Management (ITMG)
- Problem Management (PBMG)
- Information Security (SCTY).
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Practical Assessment - 20% | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||
| 3 - Practical Assessment - 50% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Textbooks
Artificial Intelligence: What Everyone Needs To Know
(2016)
Authors: Kaplan, J
Oxford University Press
Oxford Oxford , United Kingdom
ISBN: 978-0190602390
Binding: Paperback
Ethics for the Information Age
Edition: 8th edn (2014)
Authors: Quinn, MJ
Pearson
Upper Saddle River Upper Saddle River , NJ , USA
ISBN: 9780135218006
Binding: eBook
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
m.cowling@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
The Information Age
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 1
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Artificial Intelligence
Chapter
Kaplan: chapters 1, 2 and 3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Data Communications
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Ethics and Ethical Theories
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Professional Ethics & Social Innovation
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 9
Social Innovation Handbook (e-book; to be provided)
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Computer & Network Security
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Intellectual Property
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Privacy
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Censorship and the Government
Chapter
Quinn: chapter 3 and 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Legal Issues
Chapter
Kaplan: chapter 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The Workforce
Chapter
Kaplan: chapters 6 and 7
Quinn: chapter 10
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Information Overload
Chapter
Individual readings on Moodle
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Unit Coordinator: Michael Cowling
Ph: 07 3295 1196
E-mail: m.cowling@cqu.edu.au
1 Practical Assessment
Week 6 Friday (22 Dec 2023) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 8 Friday (12 Jan 2024)
Approximately two weeks after submission
- Describe the roles of technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer networking on the social contexts of the information age
- Evaluate ethical, social, and cyber security issues using tools of critical analysis such as philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct.
2 Written Assessment
Week 11 Monday (29 Jan 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week Monday (12 Feb 2024)
Returned via the unit website approximately two weeks after submission.
- Explain how your professional and ethical responsibilities as an ICT professional affect society
- Discuss ethical, social, and security issues related to areas such as intellectual property, privacy, cybercrime, and information overload
3 Practical Assessment
This final assessment will be split into two parts. Part A will provide you with a written scenario on which you must conduct an ethical/social analysis using one of the theories presented during term and the ACS Professional Code of Conduct. You will then be asked to compare the analysis conducted using these two theories. The response to this part should be recorded as a video and uploaded to Moodle. Part B of this assessment will be five questions related to the role of new technology and the social and ethical factors related to areas such as cybercrime, privacy, employment etc as discussed during term. Answers to these five questions should be written in a word document and uploaded to Moodle along with your video. Both the written scenario and the five questions will be released at the end of week 12 during term and will be due one week later via Moodle. Further details of this assessment will be made available on the unit Moodle site.
Exam Week Friday (16 Feb 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
No marks will be returned for this assessment item until after certification of grades.
- Describe the roles of technologies such as artificial intelligence and computer networking on the social contexts of the information age
- Explain how your professional and ethical responsibilities as an ICT professional affect society
- Discuss ethical, social, and security issues related to areas such as intellectual property, privacy, cybercrime, and information overload
- Evaluate ethical, social, and cyber security issues using tools of critical analysis such as philosophical theories and professional codes of conduct.
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
