IT Ethics: Undergraduates’ PerceptionBased on their Awareness

Abstract

Vide acceptance and use of computer and information technology in universities demanded the researchers and teachers to train their students to use these resources ethically. In the universities of Pakistan, computer and IT related courses have recently been included as compulsory subjects. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the perceptions about ethical use of information technology (IT) by the undergraduate students from four different public and private sector universities. A questionnaire was designed in which different computer and internet related activities were given and students were required to respond in terms of Right, Wrong and Neither Right Nor Wrong. Total 542 students participated in the study and the results were interpreted on the bases of their demographic information. It was concluded that majority of the students were not previously trained and have no knowledge about computer or IT ethics. It was found that female students, students from public sector universities, from different departments of computing and IT and from the disciplines of pure sciences were perceptually more positive regarding the ethical use of IT resources. Minimal differences were found across the responses of students who have IT training certificates and prior knowledge of IT ethics. This suggests that computer ethics awareness training is needed for university students.

Keywords: Computer ethics, IT ethics, Undergraduate Students, Education, Sciences vs Social Sciences, Male vs Female, Public-sector vs Private-sector universities.