Liberal Arts Computing Curricula

SIGCSE 2020 Pre-Symposium Event by the SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges

Loyola University Maryland

Contributed by Megan Olsen, mmolsen@loyola.edu

Institutional and departmental context

Loyola University Maryland is a Jesuit institution, and as such has a mission focused on educating the whole person, justice, service, diversity, and integrity. The historical focus on campus is on the Humanities, but we have a large and very strong Business School as well. The Natural and Applied Science division of the College of Arts and Sciences is the smallest division on campus. Despite our size, we are able to maintain separate departments for computer science, mathematics/statistics, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. There is currently a push on campus to increase interdisciplinarity, and decrease requirements in student course requirements. The computer science department has been pushing for over a decade to broaden participation in CS courses.

Curricular overview

Major program(s)

Prerequisite course structure

Our required courses can be seen in the above prerequisite diagram. The ABET accredited B.S. degree requires all shown courses (14 CS courses, 4 math/stat courses, 2 science courses), the more flexible B.A. degree requires the courses with a double outline (12 CS courses, 3 math/stat courses, 2 science courses), and the interdisciplinary major requires the grey background courses (9 CS, 2 math/stat courses). In addition, we have many electives that students can freely choose among, depending on what is offered each semester. We try to run three electives every semester, and repeat electives every 2-3 years. Elective prerequisites are either CS212, CS312, or CS371, with a handful of courses also requiring a single additional math course, ensuring that students can start taking electives by their junior year even if they start the major as a sophomore. Electives with CS212 as a prerequisite are Human Computer Interaction, Web Programming, Databases, Computer Graphics (also requires linear algebra), and Big Data. Electives with CS312 as a prerequisite are Discovering Info in Data, Networks, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design, Theory of Computation (also requires discrete math), Software Testing, and Artificial Intelligence (also requires statistics). Electives with CS371 as a prerequisite are always run as cross-listed courses taught by the engineering department: Computer Architecture, and Electronic Digital Circuit. We also have an elective called Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which requires instructor permission to register and is only for students in the minor of the same name.

We also offer a B.S. in Data Science that is an interdisciplinary major between computer science, statistics, and business. All students take CS151, CS295, and CS403 (cross-listed); two business courses; a database course in either CS or business; three statistics courses; three electives chosen from specified options in CS, math, statistics, and business; and a capstone course. CS403 was created for this major, and is an introduction to data science course whose project requirements vary slightly based on the students’ major.

Non-major program(s)

We offer a six course CS minor: the introductory programming sequence of three courses, discrete math, and two electives. We offer a programming certificate with the introductory programming sequence, which helps alleviate fears of students who don’t want to take just a few CS courses and then “get nothing” for the work if they decide not to continue in the major or minor. CS151 is listed as a core course for the university, meaning that any student on campus can take it to fulfill one of their math/science requirements. We also offer a separate non-major course available to all non-majors. Any CS course may be taken by any student as long as they have met the prerequisites.

Key contributions

Our contributions include: creating a prerequisite structure that meets ABET requirements while simultaneously handling common liberal arts scheduling difficulties; a flexible set of majors that don’t increase the number of courses we need offer; and one of the first interdisciplinary data science undergraduate majors in the country.

Four years ago we changed our prerequisite structure and introductory sequence courses to better accommodate some of the restrictions we face that are typical at liberal arts institutions: students don’t declare a major until their sophomore year, students are limited in how many courses they can take in their major, study abroad is encouraged but can be difficult due to required courses that are only offered one semester a year, and students have very few overall electives in their schedule. The longest prerequisite line in our sequence is now five courses, allowing students to declare a CS major in the sophomore year and still graduate on time and potentially study abroad. We have a B.S. degree that is ABET accredited; a B.A. degree that allows more flexibility with fewer requirements and more electives; a B.A. in Data Science that was created from pre-existing courses within CS, Math, Stat, and Business, with a new data science course that is cross listed as an elective in CS, Math, Stat, and Physics; and an interdisciplinary major that can be combined with almost any other major on campus, which includes 9 CS courses, 2 math courses, plus the 6-8 required courses from the other major.

Our B.S. in data science is designed to meet the interdisciplinary needs of the field, as well as enable a small school to create a new major without creating additional courses that must be run without increases faculty time or classroom space needs. We have seen strong interest from students in this major, and it has been useful for meeting the needs of students who want to do data analysis but aren’t interested in a full CS degree.

Limitations/challenges

We have noticeable limitations in the number of CS courses we can require due to the core curriculum, as is true at most liberal arts institutions. We are also significantly limited by the number of faculty, which makes offering courses in all “hot topic” areas difficult. Security, for instance, is taught as a module in many courses such as web programming and operating systems, as opposed to maintaining its own course. Ethics is additionally incorporated into many courses starting in the first course, and ending in the capstone course, as we cannot require an additional technology ethics course.