Cara Tang

Faculty in computing disciplines at colleges and universities are adopting the use of Bloom’s for Computing to aid in crafting competencies and learning outcomes for their programs and courses. Based on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy with its six levels of cognition that represent the level of cognitive depth a student is expected to achieve, Bloom’s for Computing enhances the standard verb lists associated with each cognitive level with verbs designed for computing competencies. As a focus on competencies is becoming more prominent in computing disciplines, there are nevertheless varying definitions and uses of competencies and competency models. This paper discusses some of the competency models appearing in recent ACM curriculum reports and the CAE Community (Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity), and provides a framework and examples of applying Bloom’s for Computing in each case.

Community Colleges provide a variety of academic and terminal degrees, such as associates in applied science and certificates of completion. Data Science is considered an emerging computing area that spans many areas of study and impacts academics and the workforce. The ACM published in 2021 Data Science Task Force Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula, a curricular report articulates the role of computing discipline-specific contributions to this emerging field. Although this report counts 12 knowledge areas that impact academics and industry, there is an opportunity to align these areas in a two-year context. In this poster, we present the adoption of the ACM report from a two-year perspective.

This Birds of a Feather (BoF) session brings together attendees interested in computing education at the associate degree (two-year) level to discuss issues of specific interest to this group of educators. Faculty members from small community colleges who may be the only instructor in computing will be able to exchange ideas with faculty members of other institutions. Members of larger departments will find like-situated individuals with similar issues to help them solve problems and make progress. All attendees will find a community of educators who understand the issues that make teaching in an associate degree program, such as at a community or technical college, different from the job at a university teaching in a baccalaureate level computing program. The BoF facilitators will serve as discussion leaders, with prepared topics and discussion questions to keep the session flowing and productive. At the same time, the session will be open to relevant topics raised by participants. The focus on community, similar problems and solutions, resources, vision and mission that sets two-year computing programs apart will be apparent, and members will be able to return to their campuses refreshed and ready to move forward. Above all, students will be affected, and their opportunities improved because their instructors can directly apply what they discover to the current classroom.

Community and Technical Colleges are pivotal two-year educational institutions within the United States. These colleges have been at the crossroads of numerous educational initiatives and partnerships, spanning K-12 education, traditional four-year colleges, and collaborations with various workforce and industry sectors. A highlight of Community Colleges lies in their diverse and heterogeneous student body, which is further shaped by the influence of workforce demands that guide the crafting of specific curriculum components. As a result of these dynamics, Community Colleges present a rich array of computing programs, among them Computer Science degrees, particularly the Associate in Science (AS) and Associate in Arts (AA) variations, commonly known as academic transfer degrees. These transfer-focused degrees are meticulously structured to harmonize learning outcomes, objectives, and competencies with the esteemed ACM/IEEE curricular guidelines. This alignment primarily aims to forge comprehensive two-year pathways that seamlessly bridge curricula and facilitate the transfer of credits to Computer Science programs at four-year institutions. Computer Science programs offered at the lower-division undergraduate level face curriculum-related challenges and emerging prospects while embracing the recommendations set forth by curricular guidelines such as ACM/IEEE-CS/AAAI CS2023. These challenges encompass factors like the allocation of transfer hours, the breadth of subject matter within computer science, and the evolving efforts to secure ABET accreditation for two-year computing programs. In this paper, authors from several community colleges present significant curricular and pedagogical challenges confronting Computer Science programs in two-year programs, additionally to contextualize the role of community colleges in the ACM/IEEE-CS/AAAI CS2023 project.

Incorporating mathematics in computing has been a subject of ongoing deliberation within computing curriculum recommendations spanning several decades. Depending on the specific computing area or program, there is a variation in the advocated number of math contact hours. For instance, two-year programs like community colleges require many math hours due to curriculum alignment and agreements with four-year colleges. In other cases, the regional workforce and the career opportunities provided by local industry partners influence a degree program’s math courses/topics. The debate surrounding the appropriate number of math contact hours in computing programs has persisted over the years and has yet to be a definitive solution. Curricular guidelines such as ACM/IEEE-CS/AAAI CS 2023 and Information Technology 2017 have proposed math education based on competencies and workforce perspectives. Specifically, the former now recommends a tailored math background based on the knowledge area within computer science. This approach allows for a more flexible structure of knowledge units, encompassing specific topics, learning outcomes, and competencies. This paper explores various approaches and solutions proposed in the first two years of computing education programs to address challenges and gaps in computing education. It also highlights the short-term and long-term challenges computing programs and educators face.

The ACM Education Board recently endorsed the ACM CCECC's Bloom's for Computing publication [2] which enhances the traditional verb list of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy [3] with computing-related verbs to facilitate the development of learning outcomes and competencies which enable more effective assessment of student achievement in the computing disciplines. The specific goals of this poster are a) to inform the global computing community about Bloom's for Computing and various opportunities it provides, and b) to invite members to contribute to the community by translating the Bloom's for Computing verbs into their native language and publicizing them throughout their language area. While terminology originating from the English language dominates many areas of study, including the computing disciplines, creating detailed learning outcomes consisting of native language elements can facilitate more effective communication between faculty, students, and industry partners about academic expectations and achievement. Several learning taxonomies have been translated into different languages to broaden their impact [1,5]. By creating Bloom's for Computing, the ACM CCECC worked to remove the layer of abstraction between cross-disciplinary Bloom's verbs and more effective learning outcomes which implement verbs used in various computing disciplines. Having the computing-related verbs available in different languages would make them more easily accessible for non-native English speakers.

Community Colleges provide a variety of academic and terminal degrees, such as associates in applied science and certificates of completion. Data Science is considered an emerging computing area that spans many areas of study and impacts academics and the workforce. The ACM published in 2021 Data Science Task Force Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula, a curricular report articulates the role of computing discipline-specific contributions to this emerging field. Although this report counts 12 knowledge areas that impact academics and industry, there is an opportunity to align these areas in a two-year context. In this poster, we present the adoption of the ACM report from a two-year perspective.