Education

ACM’s educational activities, conducted primarily through our Education Board and Advisory Committee, range from the K-12 space (CSTA) and two-year programs to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral-level education, and professional development for computing practitioners at every stage of their career...

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ACM Releases Report on Enrollment and Retention in Undergraduate Computing

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.

Informatics for All Welcomes European Council Recommendations

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.

Informatics for All Coalition Welcomes European Recommendation on Informatics Education at School

ACM Skills Bundle Add-On

ACM has created a new Skills Bundle add-on providing unlimited access to ACM's collection of thousands of online books, courses, and training videos from O'Reilly, Skillsoft Percipio, and Pluralsight. ACM’s collection includes more than 60,000 online books and video courses from O’Reilly, 9,700 online courses and 11,000 eBooks and audiobooks from Skillsoft, and 2,000 courses from Pluralsight.

The new Skills Bundle add-on is available to paid Professional Members only. Visit the ACM subscription page or contact Member Services to add the Skills Bundle to your membership.

View on Demand: "Is OER Right for Your Computing Classroom?"

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).

Contribute Instructional Materials to EngageCSEdu

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.

View on Demand: Webinar on Equity and Youth Agency in Computing Education

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 on Demand: Webinar on Language Matters: DEI and the Question of URM

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.

Research Publication on Integrating Computational Thinking at the PreK-5 Level

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.

Image of PreK-5 Computational Thinking Special Research Publication

ACM and IEEE-CS Release Computing Curricula 2020, Global Guidelines for Baccalaureate Degrees in Computing

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.

Image of Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020): Paradigms for Global Computing Education report

First-Ever Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula

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.

Image of Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula report

Education Board Retention Committee Report on CS Undergraduate Student Retention

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.

ACM Education Board Retention Committee Releases Report on CS Undergraduate Student Retention

Report Aims to Smooth Transition between Community College and Computing Career

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.

ACM Education Policy Committee Report on Transition from Community College to Computing Careers

ACM Europe and IE Release Informatics Education Strategy

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.

CRA Surveys Computer Science Faculty, Department Heads on COVID-19's Impacts

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.

Informatics for All Releases Their Informatics Reference Framework for School

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.

Karlstrom Educator Award Goes to Michael Caspersen

Michael E. Caspersen, Managing Director of It-vest and Honorary Professor, Aarhus University, receives the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award for his contributions to computer science education research, his policy work at the national and international levels to advance the teaching of informatics for all, and his outstanding service to the computing education community. Caspersen has authored almost 70 papers on computer science education, is also co-author of a two-volume textbook on programming, and co-editor of Reflections on the Teaching of Programming

Photo of ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award recipient Michael Caspersen

View on Demand: DEI in Computing Education Webinar

Machine Learning has tremendous potential for developing tools to improve efficiency and accuracy in decision-making. However, ML also has the potential to lead to outcomes that reinforce human biases, disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, and violate notions of privacy. View the panel "Confronting Ethical Challenges in a High-Tech World," with Mehran Sahami and moderators Fay Cobb Payton and Susan Reiser as they explore some of the promise and perils that arise from Machine Learning to understand both some of the ethical issues and competing value trade-offs at stake.

Alison Derbenwick Miller Named Co-Chair of ACM Education Board

Alison Derbenwick Miller joins Elizabeth Hawthorne as Co-Chair of ACM's Education Board and Advisory Committee, to serve for the two-year term ending June 30, 2024. Miller is Vice President at Oracle for Research and a board member of the GVU Center Industry Advisory Board at Georgia Institute of Technology. Hawthorne is an Assistant Professor at Rider University and Professor Emeritus at Union County College.

ACM Education Board and Advisory Committee

ACM education activity has been reorganized into two entities: the Education Board and the Education Advisory Committee (EAC). The Board wields the final executive and decision-making power to facilitate the work of the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee is a task-force-based, networking-oriented environment whose aim is to promote ACM's educational mission to as wide a range of constituencies as possible: universities, community colleges, high schools, corporations, and the U.S. government.

2023 Computer Science Curriculum Guidelines Revision

A joint task force of ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is revising the Computer Science curricular guidelines which were last updated in 2013. The task force is updating the knowledge model and designing a complementary competency model of the curricula, and invites CS professionals to provide feedback and suggestions on all aspects of the curricula. It plans to have the curricular recommendations reviewed in March and again in July 2023, and also invites nominations and self-nominations of reviewers.

Curricula Recommendations

ACM works with leading professional and scientific computing societies to develop curriculum recommendations for the rapidly changing landscape of computer technology. As the computing field continues to evolve, and new computing-related disciplines emerge, existing curriculum reports are updated, and additional reports for new computing disciplines drafted.

CCDS2021: Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula

CC2020: Computing Curricula 2020 Paradigms for Global Computing Education now available in Chinese (Mandarin).

CC2020: Computing Curricula 2020 Paradigms for Global Computing Education (encompassing undergraduate programs in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Information Technology, Software Engineering; with Data Science)

IS2020: A Competency Model for Undergraduate Programs in Information Systems

IT 2017: Curriculum Guidelines now available in Chinese (Mandarin).

IT 2017: Curriculum Guidelines for Baccalaureate Degree Programs in Information Technology

Lifelong Learning

ACM offers lifelong learning resources including online books and courses from Skillsoft, TechTalks on the hottest topics in computing and IT, and more.

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