Introduction
From CSWiki
The past few years have been a time of great change, expansion, and opportunity for computer science at Grinnell College. With so many developments in a short time, the Department of Computer Science believed this was a particularly good time to gain additional insights on our current program from outside the college and to help us brainstorm for the future.
Motivation for an External Review
Thus, the department communicated the following request to Dean Swartz in January 2007:
The computer science program would like to request an external review for next year. We believe that our current program is solid in many ways, but we have several new circumstances.
- ... We have two new faculty starting their second year at Grinnell. With one year experience each, we can take advantage of new perspectives and possibilities.
- All regular faculty will be teaching next year (some on reduced loads), but the next several years will see one or another faculty member on a junior or sabbatical leave.
- We became a new department last July 1, and we should reflect on experiences that worked well and that worked less well.
- We will be moving into new and expanded quarters this coming June. We have numerous high-level ideas of how to expand and refine our program, but we have little experience in implementing these ideas e.g., with dedicated and expanded labs).
All of these factors suggest that the coming year would be an excellent time for asking an external team to visit campus. Here are some of the questions that we would like the external team to address:
- At present, much of the CS major is prescribed. What approaches might allow somewhat greater flexibility, while still covering material prescribed by national curricular guidelines?
- We believe our non-majors course, CSC 105, covers wonderful material, and we get solid feedback from students in the course. Further, similar courses at other schools draw very well, but our enrollments have consistently been limited. What adjustments might help this course draw better?
- In the new facilities, we will have one upper-level lab for "systems" courses and a second upper-level lab for AI and other electives. We have several high-level ideas to refine our current offerings, but we would like to brainstorm with outsiders who have actual experience teaching such upper-level labs.
- We are trying experiments in our introductory courses to include graphics and other exciting applications. The idea is to teach standard topics in new and contemporary settings. We would like feedback on our current efforts, and we would like to brainstorm on possible alternative settings. (One possibility would be variants of CSC 151, just as there are variants of introductory biology.)
Altogether, this seems a particularly appropriate time for us to review our current program in computer science, in order to best utilize our new faculty and facilities.
More recently, we have been authorized to expand our CS faculty under Grinnell's Expanding Knowledge Initiative (EKI), and we are seeking additional ways in which we can connect with other departments and programs.
Our Review Document
The following materials are designed to provide background about Grinnell College, the new Department of Computer Science, the CS faculty, our students, our current curriculum and our ideas for the future, and our understanding of our current strengths and challenges.
These materials also expand greatly upon our initial statements to Dean Swartz and our questions for our external reviewers.
Our Sense of Collegiality and Openness
One strength that the CS faculty cherish is our sense of collegiality and openness. This document reflects this perspective. Throughout the document, we try to be straightforward in our discussions; although we are proud of our accomplishments, we also want honest and constructive feedback. We believe this happens best when we present our circumstances and visions directly and candidly.
