Responsible ICT

Course goals

The intended learning objectives (ILOs) are:

• ILO1: Make argumentations on the interrelation between Ethics and ICT and become familiar with methods for the systematic elicitation, reasoning and mitigation of ethical conflicts
• ILO2: Reflect on how ICT influences and is influenced by values at the individual, professional, organisational, economic, societal and environmental levels
• ILO3: Apply theories and techniques related to human values to the context of Responsible ICT, including the Refined Theory of Basic Human Values, the Q-Sort method, and the Theory of Instantiation of Human Values in Software Artefacts.
• ILO4: Analyse life-cycle, enabling and structural impacts of ICT and the social, economic and environmental trade-offs among them.
• ILO5: Conduct research on Responsible ICT themes, as well as author and review research artefacts, ranging from datasets to reports on the results.

Assessment
This is a course-grained overview of the grade components.

• workshop assignments (group based): 24% of the final grade
• research project (group based): 30 %
• final exam (individual, supported by Remindo, closed book): 30 %
• other individual assessments (individual; e.g.36 %, including mini-tests or exam, graded exercises, and collaboration performance): 16 %

To pass the course, all components should be at least 5.5.

These components are broken down onto subcomponents, several of which include some form of self- or peer-assessment. You will find more information in Brightspace.

To qualify for a repair of the final result the mark needs to be at least a 4, or “AANV”.

Content

Responsible ICT focuses on the social and environmental, positive and negative impacts of ICT, and introduces ethical reflections on all the stages of the ICT lifecycle.

Humanity is facing outstanding challenges in ensuring world-wide peace, managing global exchange of people and goods without health risks, reducing poverty while increasing equity and inclusion, minimizing climate change, and redesigning the socio-economic system so it contributes to good life for all within planetary boundaries. ICT is often included as a key ingredient in recipes proposed as solutions to the challenges.

The course covers theories and skills that will allow students to deepen into the interrelation between ICT, society and the natural environment to critically assess the roles ICT plays both at the organisational and systemic levels, its capability to be part of the solution, and also the trade-offs it entails.

Course form
The 2026-2027 edition keeps the spirit of a seminar but is run almost entirely online, using a blended learning approach. It flips many lectures so the students need to watch knowledge clips or perform a few tasks before the sessions. The course consists of lectures, practical workshops, graded exercises, a research project, guest lectures by professionals and researchers in the domain of Responsible ICT, and a final exam. You are expected to participate actively in the course, expressing your viewpoints and sharing your experiences, collaborating with others, etc.

There are two 4-hour sessions per week. They take place in the B timeslot on Tuesdays between 9:00h and 12:45h and Thursdays between 13:15h and 17:00h. There is not a lecture in every session, since some of the sessions contain a workshop only. Online attendance is mandatory, since it a very participatory seminar. Failing to attend the sessions without a valid justification (force majeure) will imply failing to meet the minimum effort obligations.

Minimum effort obligations

• Watch the mandatory knowledge clips by the expected dates, since they are meant to prepare for the sessions and the course activities embedded in them.
• Submitting every assignment before the deadline, unless the lecturers have given explicit permission to submit late.
• Attending the sessions, unless the student has notified in advance that they are unable to attend these sessions a valid reason. We will be especially strict in sessions where workshops, peer reviews, guest lectures or student presentations take place.
• Providing, for every deliverable (of the research project, workshops and graded exercises), a written statement on whether external AI-based tools have been used and (if so) how. More information in Brightspace.
• Completing on time and with the expected rigour other individual tasks (e.g. team performance assessment).

Failing to meet the minimum effort obligations implies losing the opportunity to retake course components. 

Retakes

• When a student misses a workshop session, having notified it beforehand and having a valid justification, they can still do the workshop assignment individually. Although the assignment might be tailored to the situation (the fact that they are doing it individually) the effort will be still slightly higher than usual. This does not constitute a retake.
• Workshop retakes, due to a low grade in the assignment, are exceptional and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The retake assignment might be different from the original workshop assignment.
• The research project can be retaken, although this situation is unlikely given the many contact moments and follow-up meetings where expectations are managed. The retake task or actions will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
• In principle, graded exercises need to be done by the due date and cannot be retaken. Under some circumstances, some graded exercises can be retaken, but it depends on the combination of exercise and retake moment. Such opportunity will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Failing to deliver a graded exercise in a situation in which the exercise cannot be done later in time, a retake is not possible and it implies receiving a score of 0 for that exercise.
• The exam can be retaken, as defined in the exam regulations (OER). There are two specific exam moments defined in the course schedule; namely, a regular and a retake exam moment. When a student misses the regular exam moment, they can use the retake moment to do it later.