Designing and Evaluating a CS + Law Introduction to Computer Science

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The significance and importance of this project lies in developing a novel and attractive form of a college-level introductory Computer Science course. The course will integrate the traditional topics of a programming-based introductory Computer Science course with a consideration of the law and public policy issues surrounding online privacy and security. For example, a topic like 2-dimensional arrays will be illustrated by building a map of murders in a city like Chicago instead of the board of some computer game; and will be accompanied by discussion of the pros and cons of a Police Department's use of such maps for predictive policing together with the legal issues predictive policing raises. The specific education research goals of the project are testing three claims. First, whether new introductory curricula, with content drawn from a field (law) whose students are roughly 50 percent female, can attract more women to major in Computer Science at a public university. Second, whether the same practices aimed at increasing the participation of women in computing might also increase the participation of other underrepresented student groups. Third, whether an introductory Computer Science course grounded in a subject of wide interest to much of the general public (law, and especially online privacy and security law) will succeed in drawing more non-CS majors into taking additional Computer Science courses.