Teaching human computer interaction, information assurance, and computational science in the undergraduate computer science curriculum.
Naugler, David
As the subject of computer science evolves there are more and more
topics that need or should be covered. An undergraduate degree in
computer science serves as a preparation for professional employment for
many of our students and also serves as the foundation for more
specialized graduate studies in many computing subjects. Because so many
of our students expect to be employed professionally with only an
undergraduate degree we do not have the luxury of leaving essential
topics to graduate programs. Increasingly, however, colleges and
universities are limiting the number of hours needed for graduation and
as a consequence the number of hours needed for a major and necessary
ancillary studies. How are newly important areas such as human computer
interaction (HCI), computational science, and information assurance to
be incorporated in a limited number of credit hours containing few
"non-essential" topics? For example, the suggestion to
introduce HCI topics into a software engineering course where they would
naturally fit meets with the objection that there is already too much
that has to be covered and there is simply no room for additional
topics. But there is limited opportunity for requiring new courses in
these areas. Occasionally offered courses miss most of the computer
science majors. In many programs the topics must be integrated into
existing courses if they are to be covered at all. This integration
requires coordination and a clear idea of what is essential in a
program. These issues are discussed with respect to covering essential
aspects of HCI, Information Assurance and Computational science.
* Naugler, D. R. Department of Computer Science, Southeast Missouri
State University.
