Innovations and Opportunities
in Liberal Arts Computing Education

A SIGCSE 2025 affiliated event organized by members of the SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges.

This event builds on directions and priorities identified at our prior SIGCSE events:

• SIGCSE 2020 Pre-Symposium event
• SIGCSE 2021 Pre-Symposium event
• SIGCSE 2022 Affiliated event
• SIGCSE 2023 Affiliated event
• SIGCSE 2024 Affiliated Event

This event will include a morning session focused on topics covering the breadth of opportunities and challenges faced by liberal arts computing educators. An afternoon session will focus on the ACM/IEEE/AAAI CS2023 draft curriculum model. Members of the Committee will lead a workshop based on a liberal-arts focused process they have developed for curriculum review and revision that balances institutional identity with external guidelines for CS curricula. Feedback from this session will inform both the process under development and the Committee’s advocacy efforts with the ACM/IEEE/AAAI curriculum task force. Throughout the event, sessions will give participants an opportunity to learn about work already taking place within the liberal arts computing community as well as to engage in Q&A and breakout discussions.

Invitation for Submissions and Participation

Join us Wednesday, February 26th, 2025, for this SIGCSE pre-symposium event!

This full-day event will promote connection and collaboration within the liberal arts computing community. It will be split into a morning session of panels and an afternoon unconference session. Submissions are invited for both sessions.

Submissions are not required to attend; all interested faculty and students are welcome. Registration will be through the SIGCSE Technical Symposium registration system with no additional fee to attend.

The morning session will focus on topics covering the breadth of opportunities and challenges faced by liberal arts computing educators. These topics may include innovative courses, curricula, co-curricular programs, DEI initiatives, academic and career advising, faculty recruiting and retention, and other issues as identified to have a specific liberal arts perspective. Selected submissions will be presented, with additional opportunities for discussion in breakout sessions.

The afternoon session will be held in an “unconference” format, with proposals accepted for working group topics from the community as a whole. This will allow the community time to connect and collaborate on projects of shared interest. Participants will select between topics within this session, which can be organized in a workshop, working group, or discussion group style. Examples of possible topics are provided below, but we welcome any proposal that may be of interest to liberal arts computing educators.

Throughout the event, sessions will give participants an opportunity to learn about work already taking place within the liberal arts computing community as well as to engage in Q&A and breakout discussions. Opportunities for networking with others in the liberal arts CS community will be emphasized.

This is a SIGCSE 2025 affiliated event organized by members of the SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges. Full details about this event including this Call for Participation and links to information about our previous annual events are available at the Committee’s SIGCSE 2025 Affiliated Event site.

Important Dates

Category	Date
Submissions Due	Tuesday, January 14th, 2025
Notifications	Tuesday, January 28th, 2025
In-Person Event at SIGCSE	Wednesday, February 26th, 2025, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST

• Invitation for Submissions

  Morning Session: Innovations, Opportunities, and Challenges

  The program committee invites submissions for presentations on any topic in computing education with a particular focus on liberal arts perspectives and approaches. Templates are provided to propose either an effective innovation or an exploration of a unique opportunity or challenge faced by the liberal arts computing education community. Submitters should select the template that works best for them. Possible topics might include innovative courses, curricula, or co-curricular programs, DEI initiatives, academic and career advising, faculty recruiting and retention, and other issues as identified to have a specific liberal arts perspective. Selected submissions will be briefly presented, roughly 10-15 minutes each. Breakout sessions, led by panelists and program committee members, will then be used to allow attendees to discuss these topics in small groups with the presenter and other interested attendees.

  Submissions should follow the templates provided below. The program committee will lightly screen all submissions for suitability. All suitable submissions will be made available to the community through the Committee site, and all authors of accepted submissions will receive an invitation to participate in the event.

  Afternoon Session: Unconference on Liberal Arts CS Education

  The program committee invites proposals to lead groups during the afternoon “unconference”. Proposals should describe the topic, desired outcomes or products from the session, and a format for organizing the discussion or collaborative work (e.g., workshop, working group, discussion group). Possible topics may include but are not limited to the role of CS faculty in coordinating computing across an institution, identifying a focused “liberal arts” CS core out of the larger CS2023 core, community efforts to advocate for the value of CS education research within tenure and promotion review, and course-specific topics such as implementing specifications grading or implementing inclusive teaching practices. Information about both the topics and the format of the group collaboration will be shared in advance; participants will be encouraged to select a single group for the afternoon.

  Submissions should follow the template provided below. Submissions will be reviewed for their relevance to the intended audience as well as breadth of topics across the event as a whole. The program committee may recommend that some submitters merge topics if overlapping submissions are received.

  Submission Requirements

  The program committee invites submissions following the provided templates indicating the information requested in a submission. All submissions may be made through email or GitHub pull request following the process described below. Submissions, and questions about submissions, can be sent to Jakob Barnard (Jakob.Barnard@uj.edu).

  1. Morning Session (Pick one template):
     • Curricular Innovation Submissions: A brief (1 to 2-page) description of a curricular innovation that reflects a specifically liberal arts philosophy. This may include full curriculum models, individual courses, outreach programs, co-curricular programs, or other interdisciplinary or liberal-arts-focused educational initiatives. Please see the template below.
     • Submission Templates:
       • Markdown: https://github.com/computing-in-the-liberal-arts/committee-templates/blob/main/docs/events/CurricularInnovationTemplate.md
       • MS Word: https://github.com/computing-in-the-liberal-arts/committee-templates/blob/main/docs/events/CurricularInnovationTemplate.docx
     • Opportunities and Challenges Submissions: A brief (1 to 2-page) exploration of an opportunity or challenge in computing education that is either unique to the liberal arts context or where the liberal arts context provides a usefully distinctive perspective. These need not be exhaustively researched explorations but submissions should illustrate how the presenter would be able to bring context or knowledge beyond first-hand, anecdotal experience to the conversation.
     • Submission Templates:
       • Markdown: https://github.com/computing-in-the-liberal-arts/committee-templates/blob/main/docs/events/OpportunitiesChallengesTemplate.md
       • MS Word: https://github.com/computing-in-the-liberal-arts/committee-templates/blob/main/docs/events/OpportunitesChallengesTemplate.docx
  2. Afternoon Session - Unconference Submissions: A brief (1 to 2-page) description of the topic proposed for discussion, intended format for the session, and desired outcomes or products. The Unconference session has been scheduled to run for three hours, with a half-hour break in the middle. Please see the template below.
     • Markdown: https://github.com/computing-in-the-liberal-arts/committee-templates/blob/main/docs/events/UnconferenceTemplate.md
     • MS Word: https://github.com/computing-in-the-liberal-arts/committee-templates/blob/main/docs/events/UnconferenceTemplate.docx

  Submission Process

  Submissions may be made in one of two ways:

  • E-Mail:
    1. Write your submission in an MS Word or plain text markdown document using the appropriate template from above.
    2. E-mail the contact for the session, Jakob Barnard (Jakob.Barnard@uj.edu), with a zip file containing your submission and any images or other supporting files. The Program Committee will add your submission to the repository.
    3. If you wish to make more than one submission, please submit a separate zip file for each submission.
  • GitHub Pull Request: If you are comfortable with git and GitHub, submissions may be made via GitHub pull requests.
    1. Fork the Computing in the Liberal Arts SICSE2025 Affiliated Event Repository.

  https://computing-in-the-liberal-arts.github.io/SIGCSE2025-Affiliated-Event/

  1. Create a branch for your submission.
  2. Add a sub-directory for your submission to the appropriate directory (curricula, or opportunities).
  3. Populate your sub-directory with the materials for your submission. Please use a file named index.md for the text of your submission and copy any images or other supporting materials into your sub-directory. Format your submission using the appropriate markdown template from above.
  4. Push your branch to your fork.
  5. Create a pull request for your branch.
  6. If you wish to make more than one submission, please create a separate pull request for each submission.

  Program Committee

  • Jakob Barnard, University of Jamestown
  • Grant Braught, Dickinson College
  • Janet Davis, Whitman College
  • Matthew Ferland, Dickinson College
  • Olive Franzese, Northwestern University
  • Amanda Holland-Minkley, Washington & Jefferson College
  • Karl Schmitt, Trinity Christian College
  • Andrea Tartaro, Furman University
  • James Teresco, Siena College

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