CPATH-1: Spreading Small Footprints

该CPATH项目将富兰克林·奥林工程学院成功开创和开发的“小足迹”模式扩展到其他四所机构，即马萨诸塞州阿默斯特学院、哈佛大学、科尔比学院和伦斯勒理工学院。首席研究员将与其他学术机构合作，将奥林中学的经验教训应用到更广泛的学校中，具体解决不同类型教育机构的不同需求。“小足迹”课程的优点包括：减少核心内容，专注于学习计算机其余部分所需的特定元素；强调教学生学习更多的自己；重视积极的、动手的、基于项目和探究驱动的项目，通常在团队中进行；有机会与其他学科合作，建立真正的联合课程；以及计算机教育核心的情境化。一群形形色色的先驱合作者已致力于立即进行课程改革。一系列的研讨会和市政厅会议以及在线咨询将被用来确定和招募更多的合作机构，并在理解什么是振兴计算机教育所必需的方面创造一个全国性的转变。智力优势：计算机课程的广泛变化需要仔细构建可行的模型。这个项目的方法应该为多学科合作提供机会，因为核心计算课程被重构，以强调计算的耐用性。PI带来了独特的背景，包括从单一机构向外发展课程的成功经验，以及开发小型计算机课程和工程教育项目的丰富经验。第一轮合作学校经过精心挑选，提供了多种模式，以引导全国对话和社区。更广泛的影响：这个项目的主要焦点是计算机教学、培训和学习的内容和风格。该项目将吸引许多教育工作者积极对话，然后转变本科计算机课程。反过来，这些课程改革将改变学生在传统计算机学科的教育经验，并通过跨学科项目的发展为学生创造新的机会。最初，该项目以地理位置为中心，但随着时间的推移，该项目将通过研讨会、市政厅会议、出版物、PI的电子和亲自咨询以及动手修改课程来扩大其范围。最终，全国的每一所大学都应该能够看到至少有一所大学成功地适应了同类机构的“小足迹”课程，这样课程改革就会从激进的创新转向更容易的模仿和采用过程。

This CPATH Project extends the Small Footprint model, successfully pioneered and developed at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, to four other institutions, Massachusetts Amherst, Harvard, Colby, and Rensselear Polytechnic. The principal investigator will work with other academic institutions to adapt the lessons learned at Olin to a broader set of schools, specifically addressing the diverse needs of different kinds of educational institutions. Among the virtues of the small footprint curriculum are: a reduced core that concentrates on the particular elements that are required in order to learn the rest of computing; an emphasis on teaching students to learn more on their own; room for and an emphasis on active, hands-on, project-based and inquiry-driven projects, often carried out in teams; opportunities to collaborate with other disciplines and to build genuinely joint curriculum; and contextualization of the core of computing education. A diverse initial group of pioneer collaborators have are committed to immediate curricular reform. A series of workshops and town hall meetings as well as an online consultation will be used to identify and recruit additional partner institutions and to create a national shift in understanding of what is necessary to the revitalization of computing education.Intellectual Merit: Widespread change in computing curricula requires careful construction of viable models. The approaches of this project should provide opportunities for multi-disciplinary collaboration as the core computing curriculum is refactored to emphasize computing's durable bones. The PI brings a unique background including prior successes in growing curricula outwards from single institutions and extensive experience developing both a small footprint curriculum for computing and an engineering educational program. The first round partner schools have been carefully selected to provide diverse models from which to bootstrap a national conversation and community.Broader Impact: The primary focus of this project is the content and style of teaching, training, and learning in computing. The project will engage many educators in active conversation and then transformation of undergraduate computing programs. In turn, these curricular reforms will change the educational experiences of students in traditional computing disciplines and create new opportunities for students through the development of interdisciplinary programs. Initially the project is geographically centered but over time the project will broaden its reach through workshops, town hall meetings, publications, electronic and in-person consultation by the PI, and hands-on curricular revision. Eventually, every university in the nation should be able to look to at least one successful adaptation of the small footprint curriculum at a peer institution, so that curricular reform moves from radical innovation to the easier processes of emulation and adoption.