Education

ACM has released the new report, “Computing Enrollment and Retention: Results From the 2021-22 Undergraduate Enrollment Cohort," by Jodi L.Tims, Cindy Tucker, Mark A. Weiss, and Stuart Zweben. Developed by the ACM Education Board’s Actionable Enrollment and Retention Task Force, the report is an annual summary of data about enrollment, degree completions, and retention of undergraduate computing degree programs in the United States. In particular, it notes that the representation of women in computing programs is at its highest point in the last five years, and that enrollment has increased in all areas of computing except computer engineering.

The Council of the European Union has adopted a set of recommendations on digital skills and education. The Informatics for All Coalition has endorsed the bold recommendations outlined in the new Council report. The recommendations of the Council reflect a timely and ambitious approach towards the development of digital competences, addressing the need to make education fit for a genuine digital transformation and able to keep pace with the times, while providing the necessary skills and competences that are necessary in this new reality.

ACM2Y, a group for those interested in computing education in two-year programs, hosted an online panel, "Is OER (Open Educational Resources) Right for Your Computing Classroom?" The panelists were Jeffrey Elkner (Arlington Public Schools), Teri Lane (Mountain Empire Community College), Lisa Payne (Brightpoint Community College), Robert Tureman (Paul D. Camp Community College), and Markus Geissler (Cosumnes River College). The moderator was Carrie Tang, (Portland Community College).

Did you know that the ACM Education Board has a special project that allows you to share outstanding instructional materials from your classes? EngageCSEdu publishes high-quality, engaging, classroom-tested Open Educational Resources (OER’s) for computer science education. OER’s accepted for publication must use at least one research-based engagement mechanism aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion, e.g., culturally responsive pedagogy or an engagement practice from the NCWIT engagement framework. General submission information can be found on the content submission site.

ACM Education Board’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Computing Education Task Force and ACM’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, for the webinar "Power On! Addressing Issues of Equity and Youth Agency in Computing Education Through a Graphic Novel for Educators and Students." Authors Jane Margolis and Jean Ryoo offered insights on how students of all ages can become more aware of the ethical complexities of technology and how technology intersects with systemic inequality and racism. DEI-CE co-chairs Fay Cobb Payton and Susan Reiser moderated.

View the webinar, “Language Matters: DEI and the Question of URM,” featuring Nicki Washington of Duke University and Tiffani L. Williams of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in discussion on the importance of language to promote inclusive environments for work and study. The webinar was organized by the ACM Education Board’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Computing Education Task Force and ACM’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, and was moderated by DEI-CE co-chair Fay Cobb Payton.

Although research on computational thinking (CT) within K-12 has been emerging over the past few years, few studies have investigated the teaching of CT at the younger ages. The ACM and the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund co-funded this special research publication to examine empirically-based studies that focused on the integration of computational thinking at the elementary levels into a variety of learning disciplines including math, ELA, science, and computer science.

ACM and IEEE Computer Society have issued "Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020): Paradigms for Global Computing Education." Developed by a 50-member task force drawn from 20 countries, CC2020 outlines global recommendations for baccalaureate degrees in computing. Designed to be comprehensive, CC2020 delineates the latest curricula for computer engineering, computer science, information systems, information technology, and software engineering, as well building on the CC2005 document with newer disciplines such as cybersecurity and data science.

A new report from the ACM Data Science Task Force, convened by ACM’s Education Board, seeks to define what the computing/computational contributions are to this new field, as well as to provide guidance on computing-specific competencies in data science for departments offering such programs of study at the undergraduate level. The document, “Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula,” also invites collaborations with statisticians, mathematicians, and others in this interdisciplinary field.

The ACM Education Board's Retention Committee has released "Retention in Computer Science Undergraduate Programs in the U.S.: Data Challenges and Promising Interventions." The report calls for additional research to provide a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of attrition and retention, and encourages higher education institutions to provide proactive counseling to undergraduate students about career opportunities in CS.

A report by the ACM Education Policy Committee analyzes various initiatives being implemented throughout the US that aim to increase the pipeline of students pursuing computing degrees; identify programs that have had the most success; and describe aspects of these programs that could be emulated elsewhere.

Read the ACM news release.

The ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe have collaborated on a report that builds on an earlier document, "Informatics Education in Europe: Are We All in the Same Boat?". The report, "Informatics for All: The Strategy," aims to establish Informatics as an essential discipline for all, a subject available at all levels throughout the educational system. The strategy is also summarized in a one-page document.

The Computing Research Association (CRA) conducted two surveys about the COVID-19 disruption in summer 2020. One surveyed computer science faculty members about their experiences transitioning from teaching in person to teaching online as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The other surveyed department chairs, asking them about the impact of COVID-19 on their faculty, department operations, student job searches, and budgets, and their concerns going into fall 2020.

The Informatics for All coalition recently released their Informatics Reference Framework for School. The new report advances informatics as a fundamental discipline for the 21st century, while also indicating how informatics may become a driver for renewal and innovation of other disciplines. The Framework is designed to help schools develop their informatics curricula and includes a set of core topic areas with their associated practices that all students are expected to be competent in by the end of their upper secondary education (age 18 years). Read the news release.