Collaborative Research: CPATH CB: Exploring Studio-Based Instructional Models for Computing Education

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ABSTRACTCNS 0721927 PI Christopher Hundhausen, Washington State UniversityCNS 0722139 PI N. H. Narayanan, Auburn UniversityCNS 0722323 PI Martha Crosby, University of HawaiiThis CPATH collaborative project between Washington State University, Auburn University, and the University of Hawaii extends and evaluates the use of studio-based instruction in undergraduate computing courses and builds regional communities of practice at universities geographically close to the three funded institutions. The studio method, adapted from standard pedagogy in architecture education, actively engages students in collaborative, design-oriented learning. The method emphasizes learning activities in which students construct personally-meaningful representations of computing concepts under study and present the representations to their instructors and peers for feedback using the concept of design criticisms. This project builds on prior work done in isolated courses to include systematically implementing and evaluating coordinated course sequences at the three participating institutions. Community building is achieved through regional workshops, regular community video conferences during the academic year, a shared resource portal, and national outreach during the final year. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its novel pedagogical approach that has shown early promise in empirical evaluations. The project includes a research team with significant expertise in both the methodologies as and with proven leadership skills essential for community building. The multiple institution implementation offers the potential to evaluate and demonstrate the benefits of the approach and its viability as a national model for undergraduate computing education. The broader impacts of the project lie with the diverse groups of students impacted at each of the institutions and the potential to reach faculty and students in geographic regions in very different parts of the nation. In addition, the project lays the foundation for creating a sustainable community of educators and put in place mechanisms to support and nurture the community in the future, thus providing a model for educational outreach that could be of value to others engaged in innovation in undergraduate computing education.