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Expanding the frontiers of computer science: designing a curriculum to reflect a diverse field

Published: 10 March 2010 Publication History

Abstract

While the discipline of computing has evolved significantly in the past 30 years, Computer Science curricula have not as readily adapted to these changes. In response, we have recently completely redesigned the undergraduate CS curriculum at Stanford University, both modernizing the program as well as highlighting new directions in the field and its multi-disciplinary nature. As we explain in this paper, our restructured major features a streamlined core of foundation courses followed by a depth concentration in a track area as well as additional elective courses. Since its deployment this past year, the new program has proven to be very attractive to students, contributing to an increase of over 40% in the number of CS major declarations. We analyze feedback we received on the program from students, as well as commentary from industrial affiliates and other universities, providing further evidence of the promise this new curriculum holds.

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  • (2023)Modeling Women's Elective Choices in ComputingProceedings of the 2023 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3623762.3633497(196-226)Online publication date: 22-Dec-2023
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      cover image ACM Conferences
      SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
      March 2010
      618 pages
      ISBN:9781450300063
      DOI:10.1145/1734263
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      Published: 10 March 2010

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      1. concentrations
      2. curriculum
      3. multi-disciplinary
      4. tracks

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      • (2023)Modeling Women's Elective Choices in ComputingProceedings of the 2023 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3623762.3633497(196-226)Online publication date: 22-Dec-2023
      • (2023)Arguments for and Approaches to Computing Education in Undergraduate Computer Science ProgrammesProceedings of the 2023 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3623762.3633494(160-195)Online publication date: 22-Dec-2023
      • (2023)An Equity-minded Multi-dimensional Framework for Exploring the Dynamics of Sense of Belonging in an Introductory CS CourseProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3587102.3588780(131-137)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
      • (2021)Keeping Curriculum Relevant: Identifying Longitudinal Shifts in Computer Science Topics through Analysis of Q&A Communities2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637144(1-7)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2021
      • (2021)Data Science in Undergraduate Life Science Education: A Need for Instructor Skills TrainingBioScience10.1093/biosci/biab107Online publication date: 27-Oct-2021
      • (2020)Insights for Curriculum DevelopmentProceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3328778.3366817(192-198)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2020
      • (2016)FCEInternational Journal of Human Capital and Information Technology Professionals10.4018/IJHCITP.20160701027:3(19-32)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2016
      • (2016)Disciplinary thinking, computational doingACM Inroads10.1145/28914147:2(48-57)Online publication date: 16-May-2016
      • (2015)What Are We Teaching?Proceedings of the eleventh annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/2787622.2787723(189-197)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2015
      • (2015)Elementary Students’ Motivation Towards Informatics CourseProcedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1113174(3780-3787)Online publication date: Feb-2015
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