Improving the Appeal of Computing

1
Improving the Appeal of Computing

• Gabriel J. Ferrer
• Hendrix College
• ferrer_at_hendrix.edu

2
A Pump, not a Filter

• Philosophy of St. Olafs Math dept
• http//www.aacu.org/aacu_news/AACUNews07/November0
  7/feature.cfm
• Filter sift out all but the strongest students
• Pump Infuse new students and new interests into
  the field
• Do CS programs tend more towards filter or
  pump?

3
More About St. Olaf

• wed like everyone to be a math major! We want
  to open the doors to all students, not just the A
  students.
• We dont try to convince first-year students in
  their first math class to major in math
• Its mostly a matter of allowing the subject to
  sell itself
• 3000 undergraduate students
• 10 are Math majors
• More students go on to earn PhD in Math than any
  other liberal arts college in USA

4
Strict Course Sequencing

• Is strict course sequencing necessary?
• Courses could be offered by topic and difficulty
• Seems to work in Philosophy
• Prereq One previous course in Philosophy
• Could CS courses be structured this way?
• One small step in this direction
• Zero-prereq Robotics course
• Sequel Advanced Robotics
• Prereqs Robotics or CS1
• CS2 prereqs CS1 or Advanced Robotics

5
Some imaginable steps further

• 100 level courses
• Robotics
• Web programming
• 3D graphics
• Interface design
• 200 level courses
• Advanced versions of each
• Interchangeable prerequisites

6
Observations from Experience

• Robotics course at Hendrix
• This year
• 3 completely full sections, 16 students each
• Undergraduate population 1200
• About 4 of student body
• If repeated annually
• 16 of students willingly study programming
• At a liberal arts college!

7
Questions for Discussion

• Could this approach attract artistic students
  who normally avoid CS?
• Would this approach necessarily compromise rigor?
• What, precisely, is the importance of rigor?
• What would an upper-level curriculum look like?
• What other trade-offs are there?