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Another approach to service courses

Author:

William MitchellAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 1

Pages 6 - 9

https://doi.org/10.1145/953030.809541

Published: 01 January 1979 Publication History

Abstract

This paper discusses the issues surrounding service offerings by Computer Science departments and focuses specifically on the first programming course. The approach described by the author has been developed to serve business students who seek an introduction to programming, but it applies also to most non-majors. The popularity of computer applications in the various disciplines as well as the widely publicized vocational opportunities in data processing induce ever more students to try their hand at programming. The embarrassment of riches in enrollment, however, brings with it multiple problems of staffing, machine resources, and curricular balance. Less obviously it also brings the pressure for instant success in serving this new population and thereby avoiding the splintering of programming education among interested disciplines, as happened with statistics instruction. Various viewpoints on solutions to these problems have been published, but little understanding of the nature and goals of the students involved has been evidenced. What follows is an explanation of a student-oriented approach to service course instruction which has been instituted at the University of Evansville(Mitchell 78).

References

[1]

Adams, J. M. and D. H. Haden, "Introductory Service Courses in the Computer Science Curriculum," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 49-52, March 1972.

Digital Library

[2]

Cashman, W. F., and W. J. Mein, "On The Need For Teaching Problem-Solving In A Computer Science Curriculum," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 40-46, February 1975.

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[3]

Chanon, R. N., "An Experiment with an Introductory Course in Computer Science," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 39-42, August 1977.

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[4]

Cook, Robert N., "An Approach To The Introductory Computer Science Course for Non-Majors," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 30-33, August 1977.

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[5]

Epley, Donald and Ted Sjoerdsma, "A Two-semester Course Sequence in Introductory Programming Using PL/I—A Rationale and Overview," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 113-119, August 1978.

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Gibbs, Norman, B. Loveland, and T. Orkga, "The Heart of Computer Science", SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 6, pp. 13-44, December 1974.

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Gibbs, Norman E., "An Introductory Computer Science Course for all Majors," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 34-38, August 1977.

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[8]

Gries, David, "What Should We Teach In An Introductory Programming Course?" SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 81-89, February 1974.

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[9]

Gruener, William B. and Steven M. Graziano, "A Study of The First Course In Computers," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 100-107, August 1978.

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Fisher, P., W. Hankley, and W. Wallentine, "Separation of Introductory Programming and Language Instruction," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 9-14, February 1973.

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[11]

Leitner, Henry and Harry R. Lewis, "Why Johnny Can't Program, A Progress Report," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 266-276, February 1978.

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[12]

Maly, Kurt and Allan Hanson, "A First Course in Computer Science: What It Should Be and Why," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 95-101, February 1975.

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[13]

Mitchell, William and Bruce Mabis, "Implementing a Computer Science Curriculum Merging Two Models," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 151-155, August 1978.

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[14]

Prather, Ronald and Judith Schlesinger, "A Lecture/Laboratory Approach to the First Course in Programming," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 115-118, February 1978.

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[15]

Rubinstein, Moshe, PATTERNS OF PROBLEM SOLVING, Prentice Hall, Inc. 1975.

[16]

Salton, Gerard, "Introductory Programming at Cornell," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 18-20, February 1973.

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Schneider, G. Michael, "The Introductory Programming Course in Computer Science Ten Principles," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol.10, No. 1, pp. 107-114, February 1978.

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Smith, C. and J. Rickman, "Selecting Languages for Pedagogical Tools in the Computer Science Curriculum," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 3 pp. 39-47, September 1976.

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Solntseff, N., "Programming Languages for Introductory Computing Courses—A Position Paper," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 119-124, February 1978.

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Stokes, Gordon E., "Service Course Position Paper," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 18-22, September 1974.

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[21]

Taylor, Robert P., "Teaching Programming to Beginners," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 88-92, February 1977.

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[22]

Unger, E. A. and N. Ahmed, "A Instructionally Acceptable Cost Effective Approach To a General Introductory Course," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 28-31, June 1976.

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Willoughby, Theodore, "Student Attitudes Toward Computers," SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 145-147, February 1973.

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Cited By

Mitchell W(1980)Computer education in the 1980s, a somber viewACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/953032.80464112:1(203-207)Online publication date: 1-Feb-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/953032.804641
Mitchell WWallentine VBulgren W(1980)Computer education in the 1980s, a somber viewProceedings of the eleventh SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/800140.804641(203-207)Online publication date: 14-Feb-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800140.804641
Aycock JLapidot TGal-Ezer JCaspersen MHazzan O(2012)μPythonProceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/2325296.2325376(345-350)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2325296.2325376

Index Terms

Another approach to service courses
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Model curricula
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 11, Issue 1

Proceedings of the 10th SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education

February 1979

251 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/953030

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '79: Proceedings of the tenth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
January 1979
251 pages
ISBN:9781450374316
DOI:10.1145/800126
Chairmen:
Douglas Kerr,
John F. Dalphin

Copyright © 1979 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 1979

Published in SIGCSE Volume 11, Issue 1

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Cited By

Mitchell W(1980)Computer education in the 1980s, a somber viewACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/953032.80464112:1(203-207)Online publication date: 1-Feb-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/953032.804641
Mitchell WWallentine VBulgren W(1980)Computer education in the 1980s, a somber viewProceedings of the eleventh SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/800140.804641(203-207)Online publication date: 14-Feb-1980
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800140.804641
Aycock JLapidot TGal-Ezer JCaspersen MHazzan O(2012)μPythonProceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/2325296.2325376(345-350)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2325296.2325376

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