A CS1 Course Designed
to Address Interests of
Women
Lauren Rich¹*, Heather Perry,
and Mark Guzdial*
College of Computing/GVU
Georgia Tech
¹Now, Radiant Systems
*Presenting
Computer Science Education
is Facing Challenging Times

Nationally



Women and minority percentage of
enrollment dropping
High failure rates in CS1 (35-50% or more)
Fewer applications into CS



“All programming jobs going overseas”
Research results: “Tedious,” “boring,”
“lacking creativity,” “asocial”
At a time when we recognize the critical
role of IT in our economy, in all jobs
CS1315 Introduction to Media
Computation

Focus: Learning programming and CS concepts within
the context of media manipulation and creation




Converting images to grayscale and negatives, splicing and
reversing sounds, writing programs to generate HTML,
creating movies out of Web-accessed content.
Computing for communications, not calculation
Required course at Georgia Tech for Architecture,
Management, and Liberal Arts students; Optional for
Biology
121 students in Spring 2003,
303 in Fall ’03, and 395 for Spring ‘04

2/3 female in Spring 2003 MediaComp
Key Design Goals

Relevance


Creative: To counter the “boring” claim


Focus on communications
Used open-ended assignments, like visual and audio
collages.
Collaboration: To counter the “asocial” stereotype


Most assignments were collaborative,
Used an on-line space to create a social context (e.g.,
students encouraged to post and share collages in
“Galleries”)
Restricted registration to reduce intimidation
Rough overview of Syllabus


Defining and executing functions
Pictures


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Sounds

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
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Psychophysics, data structures, defining functions, for
loops, if conditionals
Sampled sounds vs. synthesized, MP3 vs. MIDI
Text


Psychophysics, data structures, defining functions, for
loops, if conditionals
Bitmap vs. vector notations
Converting between media, generating HTML, database,
and networking
A little trees (directories) and hash tables (database)
Movies
Then, Computer Science topics (last 1/3 class)
Computer Science Topics
as solutions to their problems

“Why is PhotoShop so much faster?”



“Writing programs is hard! Are there ways to make it
easier? Or at least shorter?”


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Compiling vs. interpreting
Machine language and how the computer works
Object-oriented programming
Functional programming and recursion
“Movie-manipulating programs take a long time to
execute. Why? How fast/slow can programs be?”

Algorithmic complexity
Evaluation Questions


Does the class address the
failure/drop rates that
originally motivated the
project?
Are we meeting the stated
design goals to address…?



Relevance
Creativity
Social context
Registration data
being used here.
Interview and
Survey data
being used
here.
Interviews were
done in both
MediaComp and
Traditional CS1.
Does the class work to
address failure/drop rates?

In Spring 2003, 121 students (2/3
female),
3 drops



60% of students surveyed at
end of Sp2003 course say that
they want a second course.


Fall 2003, 303 students,
8 drops
Spring 2004, 395 students, 19
drops
These are non-majors, who
have already fulfilled their
requirement
We are getting transfers into
the CS major.
Success
Rate
Average
GT’s CS1
72.2%
(2000-2002)
Media
Computation
Spring 2003
Media
Computation
Fall 2003
88.5%
87.5%
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?
Q. What do you like best about this
course?
Survey responses
(Sp03) suggest that
students responded
well to the context of
media manipulation
and creation.
Course
Don't like
it/Nothing
Enjoy
Content
Content
is
Useful
Trad.
CS1
18.2%
12.1%
0.0%
Engin
12.9%
16.1%
25.8%
Media
Comp
0.0%
21.3%
12.4%
Interviews with MediaComp
students: Is the class ‘boring’?
Q: What is the most surprising, or interesting thing you've
learned?
Student 3: That it's fun. I know that's not specific.
Q: ``It'' being CS, or programming, or what?
Student 3: Both. The history of the computer and the Web. And
that programming is not scary, it is actually pretty cool and
when you make a program that actually runs it's a really good
feeling. I didn't expect to enjoy it at all because all I'd heard
were just the bad stories…
Student (on Survey): I dreaded CS, but all of the topics thus far
have been applicable to my future career and personal plans.
There isn't anything I don't like about this class!
Creating a social context
Q: Did you ever feel
intimidated by anyone in the
class?
Student 3: Nope. I think it's
really good that we don't
have a lot of CS majors in
the class. Because if we
did, I would feel very
intimidated because I
wouldn't know everything
that they know.
Student 3: Actually, I think that
[collaboration] is one of the
best things about this class.
My roommate and I abided
by all the rules, and we
didn't collaborate on
anything we weren't
supposed to even though
we live like 5 feet away from
each other. I don't think that
this class would have been
as much fun if I wasn't able
to collaborate.
Role of the Homework
“Galleries”
Q: What do you think about the homework galleries on theCoWeb?
Student 4: It's nice to see other people, like what they did with it…
And there is no better feeling than getting something done and
knowing that you've done it right.
Student 3: I don't ever look at it [the homework gallery] until after I'm
done. I have a thing about not wanting to copy someone else's
ideas. I just wish I had more time to play around with that and
make neat effects. But JES [Jython Environment forStudents--the programming environment created for this class] will be on
my computer forever, so…the nice thing about this class is that
you could go as deep into the homework as you wanted. So, I'd
turn it [the homework assignment] in, and then me and my
roommate would do more after to see what we could do with
it.
Interviews with Traditional CS1
Students: Is it ‘boring’?
Q: Is CS fun?
Student 1: Yeah…Like I never thought that I
would enjoy sitting here at 11 at night doing
Scheme programs but you get to see people
and you bond, and we order pizza. It's better
than constantly working with numbers and
math, physics…
Student 3: Well, I wouldn't do it on the
weekends. It's like doing a crossword puzzle
or something, so it's good for a class.
Is it useful?
Student 1: I don't know yet. Some of the
examples that we've done you can see how
you can apply the concepts to real life. Like
there was an example with seeing how when
you make a deposit in the bank it finds the
balance, you can see how that's related to
real life, but I don't know if you can do that
with Scheme.
Is it relevant?
Q: Is CS relevant to your career and/or personal life?
Student 3: Maybe, I'm not sure yet. I don't know about
my personal life, but I guess if I want to be a doctor
later, yeah, the skills I learned will be important, like
logical thinking.
Student 1: I still don't know about how it will apply to
my career. Personal? Right. Like, I just got back
from lunch with (my friend), and he suggested that
we could decide where to go to eat by making up
lists of restaurants. Right. (Laughs)
Summary



CS Education is challenged today to be more
relevant and inclusive.
We developed the Introduction to Media
Computation to respond to concerns about
relevance, creativity, and social context.
Interviews with women in MediaComp and our
traditional CS1 suggest that the course is leading to
changes in attitudes.
Our thanks to our collaborator Heather Perry and for support
from the National Science Foundation, College of Computing’s
Undergrad Research Opportunities Program, and Georgia
Tech’s President’s Undergraduate Research Awards program
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?

Homework
assignments
suggest they were.


Shared on-line in
collaborative web
space (CoWeb)
Some students
reported writing
programs outside of
class for fun.
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?
Soup
Stephen Hawking
Latest: Spring 2004
“Well, I looked at last years’
collages, and I certainly can’t
be beat.”