Experiences Piloting a Diversity and Inclusion in Computing Innovations Course

With society’s increasing dependence on computing innovations—especially technologies that impact decision-making in fields such as healthcare, financial services, child welfare, hiring, safety, and policing—it is increasingly important for the future creators of these innovations to learn how technologies can potentially negatively impact people of different identities and backgrounds. Unfortunately, few universities offer courses designed specifically for Computer Science and Engineering students to explore the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion of computing innovations. In this paper, we describe a one-semester, 3-credit course that we developed and piloted to address this gap at our institution. We describe the learning objectives, course schedule, in-class activities, and assignments, including pre-class preparation work, reflective journaling, and a capstone project. After significant discussion and activities on unpacking identity, the course covers nine different categories of computing innovations and the potential impacts on different identities. We summarize the resulting student artifacts and reflections, along with the instructors’ reflections and steps toward further institutionalizing this kind of learning and reflection in a computer science program.