1. Computer Science Made Easy? J. Philip East Computer Science Department University of Northern Iowa east@cs.uni.edu Some students want to explore computer science but not commit to the intense introductory major course. Some students lack intellectual skills to succeed (in 1st attempt) in regularly-paced programming course. Let's discuss ideas for accomplishing both these goals in a single course.

2. Course Goals Computer Science Made Easy Student difficulty in CS-I Recruitment/diversity Explore/examine skills needed for programming (Am hoping to get feedback and suggestions from you)

3. Exploring C.S. & Programming One credit college course ( 6-9 week high school course? ) Course rationale/purpose –Provide exploration of computer science –Provide computer use skills –Be low stress –Develop pre-programming skills –Available to explorers and CS-I dropouts

4. The Exploration Part Introductory discussion –Define CS (solving problems via software development) –Discuss kinds of jobs to be had –Characterize programming (your favorite characterization?) Independent student exploration –Students explore jobs, topics in CS –Sharing/discussing explorations

5. Low Stress Pass/Fail rather than graded Grading scheme: –Scores: missing=0, fair=1, ok=2, good=3, excellent=4 –Must average "ok" to pass Showing up and participating will be important No exams ( except possibly a pre-programming skills test that will be used to assess instruction, not students )

6. Two Planning Approaches Thinking in terms of programming tasks Thinking about the independent skills Obviously, some overlap Goal of understanding learning & teaching implies focus on independent skills

7. Programming-like Tasks Directions (following & giving) Abstraction (names/definitions; using syntax charts and FSAs-- interpreting, defining, debugging; indirection) Sequencing instructions (including various control structures) Troubleshooting/debugging/diagnosing Problem representation Problem subtasking

8. Independent/Basic Skills Following directions (various contexts) Being planful (includes most tasks on previous slide) –Problem representation (identify outcome(s), known data/resources, required/necessary tasks/interactions) –Problem subtasking (problem subdivision with representation) –Solution testing/debugging (requires observation, comparison with expectation, identifying problem, fixing) Solution implementation--concretizing Patterning is an underlying mechanism

9. Following Directions Subskills –Careful listening/reading –Interpreting –Seeking clarification Practice with feedback/self-assessment Lots of contexts

10. Being Planful: Problem Representation Varied contexts Individual and group exercises may be used Student success is measured by their personal formulation of the problem/scenario (outcome(s), known data/resources, required/necessary tasks/interactions) Self-assessment and discussion of formulations

11. Being Planful: Subtasking/Actual Planning Build from prior tasks/contexts/problems Formalized/explicit planning versus real-time implementation under observation Require some formalization of plans (collection of subproblem representations) Sequencing introduced here (problem selection important) Discussion and self-assessment RE plans

12. Implementation/Concretizing Next step (but not part of "planful" skills) Will follow from (some) planned problem solutions Two possible approaches –Repeatedly implement and test a solution –Implement several solutions and, later, test them all

13. Being Planful: Testing/Debugging Will build on student or instructor supplied solutions Involves: stating expectations, observing results, comparing the two, identifying problems, fixing the problems, and comparing with expectations, … Comments RE process?

14. (Oh, Yeah) Indirection I like this too much to leave it out Probably should be included anyway Arrays, indexes, pointers, abstracted comments (from real life and from other notations)

15. Testing these Skills Requires –New contexts –Multiple items per skill –Careful selection of tasks to isolate skills –Relatively easy checking? ?

16. Plans for the Course Schedule (≈1 week each) –Intro & CS exploration –Following directions –Problem representation –Subtasking –Implementing & testing –Indirection/programming –Review/test/? Assignments –Task homeworks –Exploration report Suggestions?

17. Bibliography Course descriptions Theory Predicting programming skill www.cns.uni.edu/~east/scholarship/necc/cs_made_easy