Questions tagged [curriculum-design]

The curriculum of a Computer Science course is a sequence of planned subjects that the students will be taught in the course. This tag should be used for questions asking for guidance on designing parts of that sequence, the entire sequence or questions related to the preferred order in which to teach subjects. Question relating to a single lesson should NOT receive this tag.

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56 views

Big Data Analytics for Policy Making with No Math inside

Good afternoon, colleagues! We are now preparing to launch a new training program, which will be designed for government managers and policy makers whose competencies will include managing big data. ...
8 votes
10 answers
825 views

How to overcome the TDD/BDD time fallacy

I've observed an unusual thing happen when teachers try to introduce Test-Driven Development (TDD) or Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) to their classes. Even though the teachers invariably encourage ...
2 votes
2 answers
121 views

First Time teaching 6th & 7th grade computer science

I will be teaching 2 AP CS courses, along with 6th and 7th grade intro to computer science. I'm debating on whether teaching JavaScript (using CodeHS) to 7th graders would be an appropriate ...
25 votes
11 answers
7k views

What could be the possible advantages of teaching Scheme as first programming language?

When I started my Computer Science studies, Scheme was the first thing we learned in our first programming course. Almost 8 years later, I ask a friend of mine, and it seems that they are still ...
53 votes
12 answers
8k views

What are healthy, productive ways to encourage students to progress to more advanced constructs as opposed to staying with the familiar?

In my experience, there are always students who are resistant to moving to more advanced constructs. They want to stay with what they already know. For example, when they are taught arrays, they ...
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

What statistics should be in a computer science degree?

My university has decided that it should give a core (that is compulsory) statistics class to its computer science undergraduates. This opens the interesting question of what should be in such a ...
34 votes
7 answers
9k views

What controversies in computer science education exist today?

I remember 20 years ago (when I was doing my degree in computer science) that there were a lot of instructors who thought that the impending ("real soon now") transition from using C++ as ...
4 votes
3 answers
410 views

What sort of programming assignments do you give in an FP course?

I teach programming to a science/engineering students. Here is a typical sequence of assignments for a beginning programming class: Arithmetic and conditionals: does ...
13 votes
12 answers
12k views

On studying Computer Science vs. Software Engineering to become a proficient coder

I’m mostly interested in the coding aspect of the CS and SE majors curricula. And I’m trying to decide between the two. Each major has its pros and cons, and they prepare you in very different ways ...
28 votes
17 answers
2k views

What program follows "hello, world"?

You've just demoed your first bit of code in whatever language you're teaching. The requisite "hello, world" has been said. The program has been compiled (or interpreted) and run. Now what? There has ...
4 votes
4 answers
621 views

Some real practical example to teach object-oriented concepts and programming (in python)

I have taught my high school students to write some simple python scripts, taking some ideas from "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python", e.g. changing file names in a folder to a specific ...
3 votes
3 answers
77 views

Object patterns student presentation format

I am teaching a course in object design patterns for the first time, and it is not a topic I am extremely well versed in. My students are well aware of this, and signed up for the course fully ...
24 votes
12 answers
12k views

How important is learning Binary for first-year college students?

I teach my freshmen Binary because I'm old school I guess. I do want them to know how data is stored and that means Binary to me. How do others feel? Is it a must learn early or a nice to have if ...
8 votes
2 answers
290 views

Teaching with changing dependencies

I'm a mathematics professor tasked with teaching a computer graphics course in the spring. I decided to teach something very project-based using Javascript and THREE.js, based on my familiarity and ...
2 votes
3 answers
144 views

Do any Computer Engineering programs have a required digital logic course that comes before the first course in programming

I read with interest the thread Why Computer Science students learn Digital Logic Design?, where Dr. Buffy and others argue for a programming abstraction stack that has logic at its bottom. Is anyone ...
4 votes
1 answer
207 views

Computer Graphics Textbook Recommendations

I'm a math professor who will be teaching an undergraduate course in computer graphics next semester, and am looking for some resources to help me structure my course, specifically a textbook, ...
8 votes
6 answers
564 views

Why would mutation be considered by some as a difficult concept to grasp?

Why do some instructors delay teaching mutation due to considering it to be a more difficult concept? (than functional or recursive concepts, etc.) It is very likely that, back in the 8-bit PC days, ...
4 votes
7 answers
305 views

Any good resource for introducing kids to programming using Python's Turtle Graphics?

I would like to start volunteering with kids and young teengers in my community by introducing them to programming. I thought teaching them the basics of python would be a good start. I have some ...
21 votes
12 answers
2k views

Should assembly language be taught in an introductory course (or soon after)?

Should ye ole' fashioned assembly language be taught to help students develop a sense of how actual underlying computational hardware supports/allows running their higher-level or more abstract ...
6 votes
4 answers
146 views

Supplementing Curriculum with Online Resources

One of the blessing and curses of teaching CS is the plethora of materials freely available online. MOOCs on edX and Coursera. Tutorials on Khan Academy and Codecademy. Certifications through ...
7 votes
5 answers
1k views

How to advise change in a curriculum as a new teacher

Due to the Corona crisis I was forced in to a temporary career switch. Currently I am working as a sort of "supervisor" for students in a controlled environment where they do projects ...
8 votes
6 answers
257 views

How can I incorporate agile development into CS1/CS2 courses?

I would like my students to get the most out of the course by experiencing an agile development structure in their projects. Currently I give 5 assignments, each building on the previous one and ...
21 votes
8 answers
3k views

Order to Teach Topics in an Intro Programming Class

This is a question for those of you who have an intro class before AP Computer Science (or maybe even just an intro class). What order do you teach the topics in your intro class? I start with if ...
2 votes
1 answer
101 views

relationship between ACM curriculum guidelines from 2013 and computing curricula 2020

I have been working with the ACM Curriculum Guidelines for proposing courses and topics related to CS in the Faculty that I am currently working on. The core document that we have been using was the ...
7 votes
1 answer
249 views

Computer Science in the Waldorf curriculum

How should computer science, software engineering or ICT be integrated into the Waldorf curriculum? Steiner-Waldorf education derives from the anthroposophical philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, and ...
13 votes
12 answers
4k views

What should be included in a best practices C course?

At our University, we have in the first semester a very difficult C Introductory Course, that consists of presenting a shortened version of the language specification: What are for/while loops, if ...
4 votes
1 answer
128 views

Creating Interactive Gnu/Linux shell programming courses

I am looking to create interactive workbooks that teach the Gnu/Linux terminal to students. This would be presented in such a way that one half of the screen is an interactive terminal, running the ...
1 vote
1 answer
49 views

How can I teach the students a package/module in a computer lab?

I will be teaching a course to college students in their 3rd year in college study. So far, they have taken only one programming course in MATLAB. We have a package, i.e., is a set of functions, ...
8 votes
2 answers
899 views

Order of learning formal languages, automata, compilers and parsing

What is the most traditional or meaningful order for learning formal languages, automata, compilers and parsing, if there's one at all? Would students benefit from a parallel course in formal ...
1 vote
5 answers
198 views

Learning to program a Cell Phone

Somebody wants to develop applications for his cell phone in Java. He does not know programming and he does not know Java. Should he start learning Java on his cell phone or would he better off ...
11 votes
4 answers
1k views

Should I teach modern web development in an introductory programming course? How?

I'm currently teaching a introductory programming class in a technological university course (FYI, this is a type of university course that is not a BS). The recommended language to use for this ...
2 votes
4 answers
160 views

Shallow, broad and general introduction to programming

I've planned a shallow and broad curriculum for a summer program (5 days a week for 2 weeks, 9:00 to 17:00) or sorts, and the flow of the subjects seems flawed. The students are gifted (not a ...
3 votes
2 answers
171 views

What do A-level students, that have not done GCSE, struggle with?

I will be teaching key-stage-3 pupils, in a school with no key-stage 4 or 5 in the computing subjects. Some of these pupils may wish to do computing at key-stage-5 at another school. Does anyone ...
9 votes
6 answers
585 views

Should unit testing be taught in introductory programming classes?

I understand the advantages of test-driven development, but should unit testing be taught/used in CS1 (the introductory class) for computer science students learning? I am aware of researchers saying ...
1 vote
0 answers
29 views

How to make sequence diagram? [closed]

I want to make the sequence diagram of my project.. what should i do to make it easily? Anybody know any Site then give me the link. Thanks for any help.
2 votes
2 answers
43 views

Hand-on ideas on tutorial on setting up a cloud-based server

A long shot, but perhaps somebody here can help. I'm planning a workshop (=3 hours, mixed presentation bits + "hands-on" parts, ~30 people). It includes a (brief) section on setting up a simple ...
2 votes
4 answers
207 views

Thoughts on language for Intro to Data Science?

Next term, I'm going to teach an introductory Data Science class for the first time. In the past, others have taught it in either R or Python. My first inclination was to teach it in R because the ...
3 votes
2 answers
133 views

Teaching Revision (Change) Control Systems In High School CS Classes

I teach AP Computer Science A and game design classes at the high school level in Washington state (where "revision control systems" are a grade level expectation (GLE) for 11th and 12th grade - all ...
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

What belongs in a low-math undergraduate AI elective besides ML?

The primarily undergraduate institution at which I teach does not have an Artificial Intelligence course. We do have classes on Data Analysis and Machine Learning: DATA 150: Introduction to Data ...
53 votes
11 answers
31k views

How bad is a Computer Science course that doesn't teach Design Patterns?

I'm at final year of my graduation in Computer Science in Brazil. The university that I study is one of the best in the country and my passion is for Software Engineering. It disappoints me, in ...
3 votes
2 answers
639 views

About the ACM and IEEE-CS Computing Curricula

I've been searching for a detailed definition about what computer science is about for years, when one day I came across these two documents: Computing curricula 2005 report and Computer Science ...
9 votes
2 answers
194 views

Does/should a CS education include information about responsible use of human subjects in research

We had a question over at academia.se about what responsibility a PhD supervisor has for teaching students about the use of human subjects in research. In some fields it is obvious that a research ...
6 votes
1 answer
171 views

How can I set up and deliver a Computer Hardware Course for the first time?

I'm in need of major help at my current job. I'm a HS teacher and I teach a private school - I just started in August, two days before school started and five days before the previous teacher left for ...
9 votes
4 answers
332 views

How to effectively teach strings and string literal constants?

I am teaching a general introductory CS course to 18-19 year olds, with Python3 as a support language, and I am not satisfied with how some students respond to strings and string literals. That is ...
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is SICP appropriate for an advanced high school CS course?

One of the most influential texts in computer science is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Before changing to a Python-based approach, MIT used this book for their introductory ...
2 votes
3 answers
237 views

Books to use for iOS App Development

I'm exploring iOS App Development as an elective for students, and in perusing Apple's iBooks on the subject, I see two similar books: App Development with Swift and Intro to App Development with ...
7 votes
1 answer
482 views

How Can I Apply Spaced Repetition To Teaching CS?

Lately I've been seeing quite a bit on the importance of spaced repetition in retention of skills. My job is to level up a group of C# developers and I'm trying to figure out how to apply the idea of ...
10 votes
5 answers
2k views

Curriculum choice for AP Computer Science Principles

I will be student teaching an AP Computer Science Principles class next year and have run into an issue. All of the high schools around us are using the Code.org curriculum but from talking to ...
2 votes
2 answers
200 views

The Starting Gun vs Freedom of Choice [closed]

According to research, if people are to develop abstract reasoning capabilities (Formal Operations and Post-Formal) they need the proper exposure at age 7 to 12 - generally speaking. Adults that were ...
15 votes
7 answers
575 views

Teaching a blind high school student

I am teaching a blind high school student in my APCSA class. All students are using a combination of CodeHS and Project Lead the Way curriculum. Neither of these are very friendly to my blind ...