Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education Chris

Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education Chris Wilcox Colorado State University 5/21/2015

Pedagogic Practices v The automated grading of student programs conserves v v scarce resources and gives real time feedback to students. Partial adoption of inverted classroom via peer instruction has increased student engagement and interest. Assignment of an online tutorial to supplement labs and lectures has improved student programming skills. Continued integration of media computation makes programming assignments more relevant and fun. All of the above are accompanied by frequent programming quizzes in the lab to ensure that skills are developed. 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 2

Automated Grading (Workflow) Workflow with Manual Grading Preliminary Feedback Final Feedback Workflow with Automated Grading 0 Post Date 5/21/2015 1 2 3 4 5 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 6 7 Due Date 3

Automated Grading (Interface) 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 4

Peer Instruction 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 5

Online Tutorial 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 6

Media Computation 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 7

Organizational Practices v The use of undergraduates in addition to graduate v v v students as teaching assistants. The staffing of a help desk and provision of additional online help via a bulletin board such as Piazza. The development of a consistent web interface and tools for all courses in the department. The staffing of automated tools to reduce rote teaching tasks and allow more time with students. Extra Credit: the hiring of teaching faculty with better pay, secure employment, and advancement potential. Extra Credit: the staffing of outreach programs, attendance at SIGCSE, starting an ACM-W chapter, etc. 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 8

Challenges v Opinion: Teaching requires someone in the organization v v with full-time responsibility for undergraduate education! Otherwise processes are fragile, results are not repeatable, continual improvement is not possible. Rotation of faculty through high-enrollment courses leads to a lack of consistency in lower-level courses. Curriculum goes out of date, teaching materials are mismanaged, new teaching practices are ignored. Resources are insufficient in many areas: curriculum development, instructor training, tool development, etc. 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 9

Female Participation v Participation by females and minorities is very low, and non-majors are often ignored 5/21/2015 Best Practices in Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Colorado State University 10