Toward a New State-level Framework for Sharing Computer Science Content

Abstract

The process of sharing content among instructors at different institutions is not straightforward. In most contexts, "shared" material is unidirectional: a more experienced instructor shares their materials with a more novice instructor; a book publisher provides resources to instructors who have adopted their textbook. In a fully-realized sharing ecosystem, this flow is bi-directional. Materials can be shared, modified, corrected or edited, and then the changes are committed back to the repository for use by everyone who has adopted the material. There are many issues that must be addressed regarding the sharing process, related to both the actual content, as well as the context in which the sharing occurs. In fact, there is a wide opinion on what exactly "sharing" means. As such, we endeavoured to identify sharing opportunities and address issues that sharing course content raises. The primary goal of this initiative was to inform the development of ways in which shared courses and content can be made available online to share across higher education institutions in Virginia, as a potential model to be expanded to other localities and disciplines. A multi-institutional team developed a framework for sharing course materials within the context of Computer Science at the university-level. A number of areas of consideration have been identified as directly impacting any sharing scheme. Additionally, non-content related issues were uncovered during our investigation. These issues impact the context and process in which the sharing may occur. Finally based on the discussions conducted by the working group, a preliminary framework has been developed.