Students' Perception of Big Data Engineering in Higher Education Curricula: Expectations, Interest and Ethical Implications

Ioana-Georgiana Ciuciu, Manuela-Andreea Petrescu

2025

Abstract

The study investigates students’ interest and expectations in a Big Data Engineering course integrated with a Master curricula, as well as ethical implications of using Big Data. An anonymous online survey was conducted with 42 of the 67 students enrolled in the Big Data course offered to Computer Science and Bioinformatics Master’s programs. The responses were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis, highlighting interesting aspects related to students’ expectations, interest, and their perspective of the ethical implications of working with Big Data. The study concludes that, even though there is significant difference in students’ background, the majority are interested in learning Big Data, for practical and personal reasons related to the potential for career growth and their passion for the field. The main expectation expressed is related to enhancing their knowledge related to Big Data via practical activities. All students demonstrate awareness of potential ethical threats related to security and privacy, while Computer Science students are aware of the possibility of introducing bias in data during acquisition and analysis and of potential abusive data usage.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Ciuciu I. and Petrescu M. (2025). Students' Perception of Big Data Engineering in Higher Education Curricula: Expectations, Interest and Ethical Implications. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering - Volume 1: ENASE; ISBN 978-989-758-742-9, SciTePress, pages 790-797. DOI: 10.5220/0013475000003928

in Bibtex Style

@conference{enase25,
author={Ioana-Georgiana Ciuciu and Manuela-Andreea Petrescu},
title={Students' Perception of Big Data Engineering in Higher Education Curricula: Expectations, Interest and Ethical Implications},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering - Volume 1: ENASE},
year={2025},
pages={790-797},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013475000003928},
isbn={978-989-758-742-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering - Volume 1: ENASE
TI - Students' Perception of Big Data Engineering in Higher Education Curricula: Expectations, Interest and Ethical Implications
SN - 978-989-758-742-9
AU - Ciuciu I.
AU - Petrescu M.
PY - 2025
SP - 790
EP - 797
DO - 10.5220/0013475000003928
PB - SciTePress