Communications of the ACM
Computer Science For Non-Majors
Credit: Galveston College
As interest in computer science grows among non-majors, many students wish to continue beyond introductory courses, creating an ideal opportunity to develop new courses and curricula for non-majors, writes Harvey Mudd College computer science professor and department chair Ran Libeskind-Hadas. He says college students across all disciplines realize that all well-educated people need an understanding of computing as it becomes more ubiquitous, and that computing skills are likely to be beneficial in any field.
Libeskind-Hadas says courses for non-majors should cover programming at a "high level of abstraction," with a focus on understanding the basics of everyday software. In addition, non-majors should be exposed to a wide range of applications, either across many fields or in one specific discipline, depending on course design. Students should learn the skills they need to write programs they might actually use, and to enable them to implement their own ideas. Broad concepts such as how computers function also should be included in non-major courses, Libeskind-Hadas says.
Computer science departments at the University of Washington, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvey Mudd College are among those developing and offering courses of this type for non-majors.
From Computing Community Consortium
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