1 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Trends in Computer Science Education Sahalu Junaidu, PhD Information and Computer Science Department King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals P O Box 1136, Dhahran

2 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Trends in Computer Science Education  Introduction  Five Major Organizations and Computing Curricula  Five Prominent Computing Disciplines  Summary

3 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Abstract In the recent past Computing has been viewed as a single discipline. Advances in technology have, these days, contributed in broadening the scope of and the rapid changes in computing. This leads to the availability of different kinds of undergraduate degree programs in computing world- wide. In this seminar, five prominent computing-related disciplines – computer engineering, computer science, information systems, information technology and software engineering – will be outlined, compared and contrasted with the hope of providing students, educators, administrators and other community stakeholders with important information to help them determine which path of computing study best fits their interests, particular goals and circumstances.  Outline the issues and challenges that confront stakeholders in CS education, especially policy makers and curriculum designers

4 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Introduction  Brief intro on the development of computing over the years  Organizations for CC development  ACM  AIS  AITP

5 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Guidelines for Developing Computing Curriculum  A concern of four major US organizations for the last forty years 1.The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2.The Association for Information Systems (AIS) 3.The Association for Information Technolgy Professionals (AITP) 4.The Computer Society of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE- CS)  The ACM  A scientific and professional organization founded in 1947  Concerned with the development and sharing of new knowledge about all aspects computing  Began publishing Curriculum recommendations for CS and IS in 1968 and 1974, respectively

6 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Developing Computing Curriculum (cont’d)  The AIS  Founded in 1994  Concerned with computing curriculum for Schools/Colleges of Business or Management  Began providing Curriculum recommendations for IS, in cooperation with ACM and AITP, in 1997  The AITP  Founded in 1951 as the National Machine Accountants Association and became the Data Processing Management Association in  Adopted present name in 1996  Focuses on the professional side of computing, serving those who use computing technology to meet the needs of business and other organizations  First provided curriculum recommendations for IS in 1985

7 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Developing Computing Curriculum (cont’d)  The IEEE-CS  Originated in 1946 as the committee on Large Scale Computing Devices of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and in 1951 as the Professional Group on Electronic Computers of the Institute of Radio Engineers  It later became IEEE-CS as a technical society, within IEEE, focused on computing from the engineering perspective  Began providing curriculum recommendations in 1977

8 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Explosion in Computing Degree Programs  The end of 1990 saw the rapid growth of computing in many dimensions  Proliferation of difference kinds of degree programs left many people confused  The joint ACM/IEEE-CS task force for updating CC’91 recognized that  No single view of the discipline seemed adequate and, hence, ti is not appropriate to produce a single report that would provide curriculum guidelines for degree program for the various disciplines of computing  The pace of change in computing is sufficiently rapid tat we must establish a process by which the organizations could update curriculum guidelines more frequently than once per decade.

9 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Computing Curricula Series

10 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Five Prominent Computing Disciplines  Computer Engineering  Computer Science  Information Systems  Information Technology  Software Engineering  Each has a recent volume of UG guidelines that is approved and published by one or more international professional and scientific societies  All these are North American-centric  For each of the five disciplines  Explain its salient characteristics  Explain its major emphasis w.r.t  Mathematics  Programming  Computer architecture  Link each to the site of its report

11 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Computing Before the 1990s  Originally, there were only three kinds of computing-related programs:  Computer science, electrical engineering, and information systems  Each of these was concerned with a well-defined area of computing  Much easier for students to determine which kind of degree program to choose  A major change in the landscape of computing at this time was the development, from EE, the discipline of Computer Engineering

12 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Computing Developments in the 1990s  Originally, there were only three kinds of computing-related programs:  Computer science, electrical engineering, and information systems  Each of these was concerned with a well-defined area of computing  Much easier for students to determine which kind of degree program to choose  A major change in the landscape of computing at this time was the development, from EE, the discipline of Computer Engineering

13 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Computing After the 1990s  Originally, there were only three kinds of computing-related programs:  Computer science, electrical engineering, and information systems  Each of these was concerned with a well-defined area of computing  Much easier for students to determine which kind of degree program to choose  A major change in the landscape of computing at this time was the development, from EE, the discipline of Computer Engineering

14 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Comparative Weights of Computing Topics

15 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Comparative Weights of Computing Topics

16 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Comparative Weights of Non-Computing Topics

17 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 Summary  Outlined pedagogical approaches to teaching introductory courses  Brief statistics of students’ performance in programming  Difficulties in learning & teaching programming  Strategies adopted at KFUPM to address the problems  Considerations for greater success

18 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 The End Questions / Comments

19 Trends in Computer Science Education ABU, Zaria, July 17, 2006 References 1.ACM & IEEE-CS Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula 2001 (2001). Computing Curricula Association for Computing Machinery and the Computer Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Available: 2.Tony Jenkins, On the Difficulty of Learning to Program, School of Computing University of Leeds, UK. Available: Beise, C., Myers, M., VanBrackle, L, & Chevli-Saroq, N. (2003, forthcoming). An examination of age, race, and sex as predictors of success in the first programming course. Journal of Informatics Education and Research. 4.Eckerdal,A., McCartney, R., Mostrom, J.E., Ratcliffe, M., & Zander, C., Can graduating Students Design Software Systems? Conference Proceeding of the 37 th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, March 1-5, 2006, Houston Texas, USA.