Developing a 15-Year Agenda for Computing Education Research

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Computing has an essential role in nearly all aspects of the modern world. Beginning as specialized equipment used by few people, computers are now integral to virtually every field and are used by billions of people across every continent. As a result, computing education is no longer a specialized field that only future computing professionals need to master. Instead, computing education must evolve to ensure that all students master the computing skills needed to thrive in a world that will increasingly depend on computing. The goal of this project is to facilitate a virtual workshop attended by a range of computing professionals, including academics and practitioners. These professionals will explore the problems and challenges affecting the growth and vitality of computing education. They will also identify strategies and solutions to help address these challenges and to ensure that computing education meets future societal needs. The results of this workshop will provide a research agenda of the critical topics and questions that must be addressed by computing education research so that the nation can prepare a computing literate public as well as the computing workforce of the future. The workshop will facilitate a discussion among the affinity groups who collectively participate in computing education research, specifically targeting issues related to preparing students who are computationally fluent, and building and enhancing the computing professional workforce, which includes research software engineers, research data science professionals, advanced cyberinfrastructure systems professionals, and others. The goals will be to identify challenge areas, discuss and identify potential research directions, and develop a set of recommendations for consideration by the national research community and funding agencies. The workshop will explore how to advance the computing education research areas that will produce the knowledge needed to advance computing education’s outcomes, efficiency, and effectiveness for all learners. The project will produce a report with recommendations for a computing education research agenda that will lay the foundation for educating a computing-savvy public and preparing learners for computing career paths. Completing this agenda is expected to support the growth of a diverse computing workforce that can collaborate across traditional boundaries and that supports the computing research and education enterprise. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. It is also supported by the IUSE:CUE program, which seeks to re-envision the role of computing in undergraduate education while continuing to emphasize the need for more diverse student populations for careers in both computing and non-computing fields, and the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity education.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.