Published: August 2020, Issue: Vol. 32/No. 7 Download as PDF

Archive of articles published in the August 2020, Vol. 32/No. 7 issue.

CUE-NEXTCUE-NEXT

CUE.NEXT: Envisioning the future of computing in undergraduate education


Computing and Computer Science have become relevant to undergraduate education in all disciplines. Academic institutions are challenged to meet the demand of the growing and increasingly diverse student body seeking to learn more about computing, computer science, and the role of computation in their own disciplines. Courses and curricula aimed at teaching CS majors generally do not meet the needs of this growing student audience.

Three NSF-funded workshops were held between November 2019 and January 2020 to initiate a national dialog on envisioning the future of computing in undergraduate education (CUE). Applications were solicited from teams of 2 to 5 faculty, educators, or administrators.  Each team including at least one member from a computing-centric department (including CS, CE, ECE, IS) and at least one member from a non-computing centric discipline. The three workshops drew a total of 201 participants forming 50 teams from 66 institutions, with slightly more than half the participants (106) from non-computing departments. The majority of the participants came from Ph.D. granting institutions; non-Ph.D. or -M.S. granting institutions included ten 4-year liberal arts colleges, four HBCU’s, one community college, and one Hispanic serving institution. This article summarizes perspectives, challenges, and potential strategies around a variety of themes that emerged during the discussions. For the full workshop report see https://sites.northwestern.edu/cuenext/.