04-800-AJ   Practicum on Responsible Digital Development

Course description

The Practicum on Responsible Digital Development is an innovative program that gives second-year CMU-Africa MSIT students real-world experience working with external client organizations on responsible digital development. The Practicum is intended to provide high-quality research and analysis to clients while giving students experience balancing economic, commercial, technical, and ethical considerations in deploying digital solutions. The Practicum is focused on projects with a public policy dimension. Students will work as an integrated team consisting of three students with selected clients, which may include policymakers or other stakeholders delivering programs with a public benefit. The clients will present a real-world digital development situation: an application of digital tools in the public or private sector that could be enhanced through review and application of ethical principles to the design. Through research and analysis, the students will seek to (a) ensure that the project design is aligned with ethical principles, (b) anticipate and mitigate the risk of unintended consequences, and (c) make recommendations to help the clients achieve their intended aims with the project. Project teams will comprise second-year, full-time CMU students with relevant coursework and skills. Depending on selected projects, the teams will vary in size from four to eight students under faculty guidance. Projects will start in September and last for roughly 10 weeks. The client cases will be selected in one or two countries in Africa, and will involve a study visit to the client.

Learning objectives

By the end of the course, students will:

• Ensure that project designs are aligned with ethical principles through research and analysis.
• Anticipate and mitigate the risk of unintended consequences in digital development projects.
• Make recommendations to help clients achieve their intended aims while upholding responsible digital practices.
• Engage with digital development practitioners to explore the trade-offs involved in digitization and the ethical dimensions of technological choices.
• Anticipate risks and play an enabling role to ensure that the deployment of technology has a positive impact on people.
• Provide participating clients with well-considered advice and recommendations on the ethical considerations and trade-offs in digital development.

Outcome

After the first half of this course, students will be able to describe the ethical choices involved in designing and implementing digital solutions in developing countries.

By the end of the Practicum, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the policies and constraints surrounding the use of information and communication technology in socio-economic development.
• Be able to analyze digital development projects from a responsibility or ethical standpoint and identify and assess risks arising from the project's design.
• Be better prepared to work in effective teams by better understanding how they can be more constructive team members and contribute to effective team dynamics and successful team products.
• Improve their capacity to make effective client presentations and incorporate client feedback.

Prerequisites

None

Content details

The class will be divided into five teams that will each take on one topic within digital development. The topics will depend on client input. Past topics have included:

• Rwanda's E-Government Journey
• Ukraine's Deep-Fake Policy
• Responsible Implementation of Digital Identity in Ethiopia