Strategic Directions in Computer Science Education
Allen B. Tucker, Moderator
Bowdoin College
Computer Science Department
Brunswick, ME 04011 USA
allen@polar.bowdoin.edu
|
Roy Rada
Washington State University
EE/CS Department
Pullman, WA 99164 USA
rada@eecs.wsu.edu
| Eric Roberts
Stanford University
Computer Science Department
Stanford, CA 94305 USA
eroberts@cs.stanford.edu
| Peter Wegner
Brown University
Computer Science Department
Providence, RI 02912USA
pw@cs.brown.edu
|
Abstract:
This panel will discuss major issues and challenges in computer science
education across a wide range of institutions. It originates from a report
developed by the Education Working Group of the Strategic Directions in
Computing Research (SDCR) Workshop. That report appears in its entirety in
the ACM Computing Surveys issue [Wegner96]
which is distributed to all attendees to this SIGCSE 97 conference.) In
this panel, we will discuss the general aims and accomplishments of the SDCR
conference, highlighting the specific recommendations of the Education Working
Group. We will outline ideas for improving the quality and effectiveness
of computer science programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and K-12 levels.
We will also argue for the creation of a Resource Center for developing and
distributing computer science and engineering curricular materials, including
the idea of developing a "Virtual Computing University."
The SDCR Workshop
The Strategic Directions in Computing Research (SDCR) Workshop took place in
June 1996 at MIT, and was attended by over 200 computing researchers across
the wide range of subject areas within computer science and engineering. Each
subject area was represented by a 10-20 person working group, whose charge was
to identify the strategic issues and directions that should drive its subject
area into the next millenium. Each working group developed a report that
summarizes its findings, and the collected working group reports are published
in the December 1996 issue of Computing Surveys[Wegner96]. Identified below are subject areas that were
addressed in the SDCR Workshop.
Artificial intelligence; Computational geometry; Computational science;
Computer architecture; Concurrency; Constraint programming; Databases;
Education; Electronic commerce and digital libraries; Grand challenges; Formal
methods; Human Computer Interaction; Micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS);
Object-oriented programming; Parallel and distributed computation; Programming
Languages; Real time; Software Engineering and Programming Languages; Software
quality; Storage I/O issues in large-scale computation; Telecommunications;
Theory of Computing.
The Education Working Group Recommendations
Computer science remains a rapidly evolving discipline [Tucker96], which places considerable pressure on the
CS&E curriculum. The emergence of new tools, techniques, and paradigms forces
a continual reevaluation of the topics covered and the pedagogical approaches
used. Often, the CS&E curriculum and its faculty become outdated as the
core ideas in the discipline and its technology advances.
At the undergraduate level, issues include: the balance between research and
teaching, faculty currency in the discipline; sufficient consideration for the
needs of industry; integration of topics in the theory of computing with
practical topics in the curriculum; the management of large classes;
acceptance of professional education by the academy; the development of
teaching methods, lab materials, and technologies that appeal to a wide range
of student interests and values; and the regular upgrading of service courses
for nonmajors.
At the graduate level, issues include: satisfying increasing industry demand
for MS degrees in computing; acceptance of part-time and evening professional
education as a regular part of the academy; addressing the needs of new Ph.D.s
who are hired by departments that emphasize teaching; and improving the
teaching skills of many of the faculty who teach in PhD-granting departments.
At the K-12 level, issues include: a serious need for a coherent secondary
school curriculum in computer science for the general population; better
mechanisms to train teachers in principles of computer science and the new
technology, and to keep them up to date with changes in the field; the huge
gap between the technological "haves" and "have-nots"; and the need for new
channels of communication and support between college-level and pre-college
educators in order to address shared issues.
Coordination and communication across the computer science education community
should be improved. The Education Board and SIGCSE should take leadership
roles in developing new communication channels, so that shared curricular
concerns can be more effectively discussed across all levels and interested
communities.
A Resource Center for Computer Science Education
To help address many of the problems cited above, we recommend the gradual
development of a distributed, Internet-based center,
tentatively called the CS&E Education Center, that would collect and
promote the distribution of materials relevant to computer science
education. The services provided by the CS&E Education Center would
include: a resource center for course and curriculum development; a repository
of successful programming assignments and laboratory exercises; a centralized
test-question data bank and scoring service; a library of educational tools
and demonstration software; a clearinghouse for student opportunities; a
"virtual university" to support distance education; and a storehouse of
educational models for other disciplines.
A Virtual University
A "virtual university" to support distance education could provide both the
technology and the infrastructure to
conduct courses remotely, including lectures, discussions, and
laboratory components.
A fully developed distance-education process would include certifiable
study-from-home, virtual faculty or student exchange programs, virtual
guest lectures, cooperative coursework among remote student groups,
student-initiated courses (like those at MIT) with a remote instructor,
virtual visits to libraries, research facilities, and archives, remote
internships with business/industry sponsors, in-service and pre-service
courses for secondary school and college teachers at remotely located
institutions, and so on.
Education Working Group Members
Owen Astrachan, Duke University;
Kim Bruce, Williams College;
Robert Cupper, Allegheny College;
Peter Denning, George Mason University;
Scot Drysdale, Dartmouth College;
Tom Horton, Florida Atlantic University;
Charles Kelemen, Swarthmore College;
Cathy McGeoch, Amherst College;
Yale Patt, University of Michigan;
Viera Proulx, Northeastern University;
Roy Rada, Washington State University;
Richard Rasala, Northeastern University;
Eric Roberts, Stanford University;
Steven Rudich, Carnegie Mellon University;
Lynn Stein, MIT;
Allen Tucker, Bowdoin College (Chair)
Charles Van Loan, Cornell University
References
- [Tucker96]
- Allen B. Tucker and Peter Wegner.
Computer Science and Engineering: the Discipline and Its Impact.
in Tucker, Allen B. (ed), CRC Handbook of Computer Science and
Engineering.
CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1997.
- [Wegner96]
- Wegner, Peter (ed), ACM Computing Surveys 28(4),
ACM, New York, 1996.