Distributed Expertise in Enhancing Computing Education with Connections to the Arts (Villanova University, The College of New Jersey, Virginia Tech)

PI Details

Lillian Cassel cassel@acm.org Villanova University Computing Sciences
	Thomas Way thomas.way@villanova.edu Villanova University Computing Sciences
Kim Pearson kpearson@tcnj.edu The College of New Jersey English Department
	Deborah Tatar dtatar@vt.edu Virginia Tech Computer Sciences
Ursula Wolz wolz@tcnj.edu The College of New Jersey Computer Science
	Steve Harrison SHarrison@vt.edu Virginia Tech Computer Sciences

Description

Computing Education is essential not only for Computer Science and its many sibling disciplines(Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Systems, etc.) but for practically all other academic disciplines.

Computers are pervasive today and many professionals develop basic programming skills as a way to express ideas, problems and solutions in computational terms within their own disciplines. It is common to find curricula in the arts (music, graphical design), business (accounting, economics), sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), and social sciences with computational courses in their curriculum. In a way, computing is becoming a requirement of most professional degrees.

This project addresses both the separation between computing specialists and to widespread integration of computing concepts, not just the technology but computational thinking, in other disciplines.

The project uses technologies now commonly available to permit faculty to collaborate in offering courses that extend the potential reach of experts to a broader audience, as well as a collection of recorded expert lectures.

Audience

CS undergrads, non-CS undergrads , CS and non-CS faculty.

Discipline

computing in/and sciences, computing in/and humanities.

Success

Our first activity was a collaborative course in games programming between Villanova and The College of New Jersey. One of the students at Villanova, the only female in the class, was a psychology major with no prior computing experience. She accomplished a completed game using Scratch and was really excited about the fact that she could produce something of substance so soon after beginning, and that she was able to connect the game experience with her interest in Psychology. Her game is now on the Scratch website at http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/jfanci01/508558.

Pedagogic Approach

We are exploring effective techniques for collaborating across disciplines and across institutions, with courses that either offer majors experiences that are not currently available from their home departments, or offer majors and non-majors interdisciplinary and cross-institutional course experiences that would otherwise not be available nor practical. The overarching approach is that of "distributed expertise" where the expertise to offer a course is sought through collaboration of various forms with colleagues who might be at the home institution or any other institution.

Challenges

Making connections with educators who are willing and able to collaborate in the distributed expertise framework for offering courses. Often the stumbling block is administrative, so convincing deans and chairs that there is benefit is more of a concern than the nuts and bolts of organizing and running such a course, although those are concerns as well.