SIGCSE 2020 Pre-Symposium Event by the SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges
Contributed by Keith O’Hara, kohara@bard.edu
Our program started in 2000 and is located in the Division of Science, Mathematics and Computing. Every Bard student completes a year-long senior project in their program of study. Some students do two majors and thus two senior projects, others combine their programs into a joint senior project. Our program is highly interdisciplinary with connections to programs in all four of the college’s divisions, but we have particularly strong links with the Mathematics and Biology Programs, and two concentrations (interdisciplinary minors, although Bard does not offer minors): Mind, Brain & Behavior and Experimental Humanities.
At Bard we have a process called moderation when students officially select a program of study, typically during the second year. A moderating student writes and presents two college-wide standard papers reflecting on past and future academic work, and in our program, a project, to a board of three faculty members.
Students typically take four classes a semester; each class is worth four credits. Some of our courses have a lab component, marked with a + below, but are still four credits for the student.
Variety of “Introduction to Computing” courses taught in a programming context. Satisfies college-wide Math & Computing distribution requirement.
CS students are hired to act as dedicated course tutors for lower-college courses; they attend the lab with the instructor and hold out-of-class office hours. Other students tutor on campus and in the Bard Prison Initiative.
CS students serve as the instructors for our “Linking Language and Thinking with Code” program the past four years (see below).
Student projects/clubs include a tech education effort at a Haitian community art center; Girls who Code program in a local high school; a robotics club; participation in maker faires and hackathons.
Our curriculum is flexible allowing for late starts and interdisciplinary courses of study.
For the last five years we have been offering a coding-as-writing component in our Language and Thinking Program (L&T). All 500 first year students arrive to campus three weeks before their first semester and participate in L&T, a writing intensive introduction to the liberal arts. We have been using Twine the last few years. https://code.languageandthinking.bard.edu/