Collaborative Proposal: CyberTraining: Pilot: Aligning Learning Materials with Curriculum Standards to Integrate Parallel and Distributed Computing Topics in Early CS Education

在计算机硬件和体系结构的最新趋势的推动下，项目调查人员正在与更大的计算机科学教育者社区合作，将并行计算概念引入计算机科学的早期课程。目前正在开发一个智能存储库，其中包含可用的学习材料（例如，讲座、练习、作业、评估），使计算机科学教育者能够轻松地找到并采用其他教育者开发的学习材料。教育工作者正在接受培训，以便与调查人员和储存库系统合作。该项目服务于国家科学基金会的使命：通过在早期阶段将当前和关键的并行计算概念结合起来，以一种对所有计算机科学专业的学生可用的方式，促进科学的进步。该项目采用可扩展且稳健的方法，从不同的教师和机构中收集大量材料。这项试点研究正在采取必要的初步步骤来实现这一目标：获得对早期计算机科学和并行计算课程中使用的当前材料和课程的充分理解，并使其能够重用。为了实现这一目标，该项目开发了一个系统，根据两个国家标准对学习材料进行分类：2013年ACM计算机科学课程指南和2012年NSF/IEEE-TCPP并行和分布式计算课程。该系统旨在支持教育材料的高级搜索功能，帮助识别大量材料之间的相似性和差异性，并揭示现有材料中的潜在差距。该系统可通过网络界面访问，以最大限度地提高计算机科学教育工作者对并行计算概念的采用，特别是那些早期计算机科学课程中的概念。该项目通过在各种计算机科学教育社区活动和并行计算社区活动中举办的一系列研讨会，吸引了来自计算机科学教育社区和并行计算社区的系统早期用户。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Driven by recent trends in computing hardware and architectures, the project investigators are working with the larger community of computer science educators to introduce parallel computing concepts into early courses in computer science. A smart repository of available learning materials (e.g., lectures, exercises, assignments, assessments) is being developed that enables computer science educators to easily find and adopt learning materials developed by other educators. Educators are being trained to work with the investigators and the repository system. The project serves the national interest as stated by NSF's mission: to promote the progress of science, by incorporating current and critical concepts in parallel computing at an early stage in a way that is available for all computer science students.The project takes a scalable and robust approach to building a large collection of materials from a diverse group of instructors and institutions. This pilot study is taking the needed initial steps to reaching this goal: obtaining a sound understanding of the current materials and curricula used in early computer science and parallel computing courses and enable their reuse. To achieve this goal, the project develops a system to classify learning materials against two national standards: the 2013 ACM Computer Science Curriculum Guidelines and the 2012 NSF/IEEE-TCPP Parallel and Distributed Computing curriculum. The system aims to support advanced search features for educational materials, help identify similarity and differences between large sets of materials, and reveal potential gaps in existing materials. The system is accessible through a web interface to maximize adoption by CS educators looking to introduce parallel computing concepts, especially those in early CS courses. The project engages early users of the system coming from the Computer Science Education community and the Parallel Computing community through a series of workshops held at various computer science education community events and parallel computing community events.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.