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

在计算硬件和架构的最新趋势的推动下，项目研究人员正在与更大的计算机科学教育工作者社区合作，将并行计算概念引入计算机科学的早期课程。 可用学习材料的智能存储库（例如，讲座、练习、作业、评估），使计算机科学教育工作者能够容易地找到和采用其他教育工作者开发的学习材料。教育工作者正在接受与调查人员和储存库系统合作的培训。 该项目服务于国家利益，正如NSF的使命所述：通过在早期阶段将当前和关键的概念纳入并行计算中，以供所有计算机科学专业的学生使用，促进科学的进步。该项目采用可扩展和强大的方法，从不同的教师和机构群体中收集大量材料。这项试点研究正在采取必要的初步步骤，以实现这一目标：获得在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正确理解，并使其能够重复使用。 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，帮助确定大量材料之间的相似性和差异，并揭示现有材料中的潜在差距。该系统可通过Web界面访问，以最大限度地通过CS教育工作者希望引入并行计算的概念，特别是那些在早期的CS课程。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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.