SIGCSE 2020 Pre-Symposium Event by the SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges
Contributed by David Reed, davereed@creighton.edu
The Department of Computer Science, Design & Journalism is an innovative, collaborative department that houses programs in computer science, graphic design, and journalism. This has been a positive partnership in many respects. First, it provides majors in all three programs with a strong foundation in writing, design, and computational thinking. Computer science students are able to learn professional writing skills from trained journalists and Web/graphic design skills from professional designers. It has increased our gender diversity, as the other programs tend to be more than half female, and so our foundational courses (which are required of all three majors) are balanced in gender. We have made gender balance a priority, with the hiring of a Clare Boothe Luce Chair for Women in Science, within the department. Over the past 8 years, we have averaged ~35% female majors, and hope to increase that number moving forward. The hybrid department exposes our majors to other perspectives on information, and a number of our students take courses across the programs (e.g., minoring in graphic design, or conducting analytical research with social media). Lastly, it has created a vibrant work environment for faculty, as designers and journalists bring different and creative approaches to problems that complement our own patterns of thinking.
Students in all three programs (computer science, graphic design, and journalism) must take foundational courses in writing, design, and computational thinking. After that, the majors are discipline specific. The Computer Science & Informatics program has two tracks: a Computer Science track (which is a traditional CS curriculum, focused on software engineering) and a Digital Development track (a hybrid of computer science and graphic design, focused on mobile and Web development). Both tracks end with a senior capstone experience, which includes a student-designed team project.
The Computer Science track is a fairly traditional sequence of courses, based on the ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curriculum 2013. It includes a two-course programming sequence (Python to Java), Computer Organization, Data Structures, Algorithms, Software Engineering, Programming Languages, two upper-level electives, and the senior capstone. The Digital Development track requires the programming sequence, Web Programming, Mobile App Development, one CS elective, Information Ethics, three graphic design/interaction courses, and the senior capstone. We are planning to add a Database & Security course to the CS track, and are considering revising the two tracks to be a B.S. and a B.A.
We have ~5 students who complete a computer science minor each year, and computer science courses contribute to the neuroscience major, the data science major, an engineering/science 3+2 program (with Washington University), the digital humanities minor, and a number of smaller programs. Our non-majors course, Computer and Scientific Thinking, meets a college science requirement and is popular with both Arts & Sciences students and Business students.
Most of our students conduct one or more internships over the course of their studies, which can also receive academic credit. More than half of our students have a research experiences, with computer science faculty or other discipline experts (e.g., biology, medical school). We have an active, student-run computer science club, and teams regularly compete at hackathons and programming contests.
Partnering with distinct yet related programs has been both challenging and rewarding. We feel that this hybrid department has been beneficial to our students and exposed them to other ways of thinking. It has also emphasized how computer science careers require non-technical skills, and we have heard repeatedly from employers how valuable our graduates’ writing and design skills are. There have been political advantages as well, as the department’s size makes it a player in college politics.
Like many programs, we are looking at increased enrollments and challenges in finding qualified faculty. We are currently working to expand the number of students we can serve in our non-majors course while still maintaining the personal, hands-on learning environment that has worked well in the past.