Designing Computing Education Courses for Liberal Arts and Science Students

Computing education practitioners and researchers know a lot about how to design courses for students who are going to pursue a career in computing (e.g., professional software developer, data scientist, or computer engineer). Today, computing is a necessary part of other careers, such as scientists who create computational models and simulations, artists working in computational media, and critical computing scholars. The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) charged a task force with defining the computing education needs for their students. The task force conducted a year long process involving searches of courses and programs, interviews with students and faculty, and a large survey. The task force proposed themes of Computing for Discovery, Expression, and Justice as useful in organizing computing within the liberal arts and sciences. We are now designing the introductory courses for expression and justice. We are using participatory design methods where faculty advisors engage in tasks (like card sorting) to define projects and learning goals. The expression and justice card sorts are markedly different. We are planning to use a block-based language (Snap!) for instruction and homework, but students will also engage with a purpose-built Runestone ebook in a textual language like Processing (for expression), and Python and HTML (for justice). The ebook activities are informed by purpose-first programming in order to support transfer of knowledge and to encourage a sense of self-efficacy and authenticity.