Documentation standards in the undergraduate computer science curriculum (original) (raw)

Computer Science Curriculum Guidelines

Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1

ACM/IEEE curriculum guidelines for computer science, such as CS2013 or the forthcoming CS2023, provide well-researched and detailed guidance about the content and skills that make up an undergraduate computer science (CS) program. Liberal arts CS programs often struggle to apply these guidelines within their institutional context and goals. Historically, this has been addressed through the development of model CS curricula tailored for the liberal arts context. We take a different position: that no single model curriculum can apply across the wide range of liberal arts institutions. Instead, we argue that liberal arts CS educators need best practices for using guidelines such as CS2023 to inform curriculum design. These practices must acknowledge the opportunities and priorities of a liberal arts philosophy as well as a program's mission and identity. This paper reviews the context and motivation behind computing in the liberal arts. We also review the history of liberal arts CS educators and ACM/IEEE curriculum guidelines. We present data and trends about liberal arts computing programs, discussing how this informs curriculum design. Finally, we propose a process that guides programs to work with curriculum guidelines through the lens of institutional and program missions and identities, goals, and situational factors. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Model curricula; Computing education programs.

A Close Reading and Analysis of the New York State Computer Science Learning Standards

International Journal on Integrating Technology in Education

In this paper, we perform a close reading of the New York State Computer Science/Digital Fluency Learning Standards document to determine its coherence and areas of incoherence and disconnection. This investigation, which utilizes content/discourse and textual analysis tools and methods from the tidytext tools developed for the R programming language, sought to understand the structure of the document itself, as well as the types and patterns of the language used in this document by analyzing word frequencies and networks of terms (engrams). The findings indicate a coherence across document in terms of its articulate of key ideas and principles of computer science and digital fluency. The findings describe an incoherence/disconnection between that the language used to articulate high level goals and objectives articulated in the executive summary of the standards document, such as interdisciplinarity, addressing the learning needs of all students, and equity of access, is mostly abs...

Guidelines for software education: meeting the needs of the 21st Century

FIE '98. 28th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Moving from 'Teacher-Centered' to 'Learner-Centered' Education. Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.98CH36214)

A number of disciplines, including computer science (CS), information systems, software engineering (SE), and computer engineering, in a variety of academic units, are concerned with the education of software professionals. However, these programs vary widely in addressing the fundamentals of software education in their respective curricula. In response to this, the Working Group on Software Engineering Education and Training (WGSEET) is developing the Guidelines for Software Education. These guidelines can be used for software education in all computer-related programs, while providing a foundation for its integration into their respective curricula. The Guidelines assume that SE is essential to all software education courses, and identify 12 "components" of SE that should be, to one degree or another, in all computer-related curricula. The first task of the Guidelines development team has been to develop an undergraduate SE curriculum model using those components.

Computer science education: an information resource for curriculum development and program enhancement

30th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Building on A Century of Progress in Engineering Education. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.00CH37135), 2000

This paper is the next installment on an ongoing project to provide an easily accessible information resource for departments offering undergraduate computer science (CS) degree programs. This resource is designed to provide structured, up-to-date information in terms of demographics and statistics related to curricula, faculty, and students in such departments.