Wide Ranging Student Backgrounds in Introductory Courses

Contributed by Amanda Holland-Minkley, ahollandminkley@washjeff.edu

Institutional and departmental context

• Institution Name: Washington and Jefferson College
• Location: Washington, PA USA
• Student body size: 1400
• Degree(s) offered: BA Computing and Information Studies
• Department/major name: Department of Computing and Information Studies
• Number of contributing faculty: 4 tenure lines
• Number of majors annually: 10-15

Facilitation

Are you willing to facilitate this discussion? Yes

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Description

Many liberal arts computing programs operate in an educational culture where all students are welcomed into any major regardless of background (in contrast to large universities where students may need to apply to be accepted to certain Colleges or Majors). Additionally, liberal arts students may be more prone to take courses outside their major as part of their breadth or academic exploration. This can create challenges for introductory courses, particularly in small-school settings where adding multiple variants of the introductory course may not be possible. This discussion will focus on strategies for teaching computing to a class of students with a wide range of backgrounds, ideally challenging the more experienced students while supporting and encouraging the less experienced students.