[comp.edu] Service Courses

karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (12/02/88)

dab@oswego.Oswego.EDU (Dave Bozak) writes:
   A while back, I posted a request for information on what other
   Computer Science departments are doing for service courses - for credit
   courses for non-majors...

   ASTONISHINGLY, nobody is doing anything; or won't admit to it.  I
   received 2 responses, which are included.

   What's up?  Are CS departments really NOT doing anything in the service
   area?  How can they survive with radically declining enrollments
   (nationwide)?

Sorry, we do such things, but I managed to miss your previous note -
it's there, I see, but I just didn't look it over when it came by...

We aren't suffering declining enrollments.  We routinely overflow the
allocations for all of our courses, most especially the service ones.
As a side effect of this, there is a weird procedure by which the
department sets up "shadow section M" versions of certain courses
which are reserved for CIS majors only.  The service courses typically
are provided for the benefit of, e.g., the Business College and Arts &
Sciences; CIS itself is part of the College of Eng.  We teach intro
computer fundamentals to a huge number of people; we do a lot of
Pascalish things with Macs for almost that many again.  There's a
couple of business courses doing (sorry, if you're eating) COBOL - we
have a COBOL mode for GNU Emacs.  (Running COBOL programs under an X
environment - what a concept.)  Basic stuff in FORTRAN and teaching
basic algorithmic design and problem-solving; for non-CIS Eng students
and the like.  I don't believe there's anything even remotely exotic,
such as computer music or that sort of thing.  There is a way of
getting a CIS degree with A&S which relates heavily to graphics, but
that's not service courses, that's a proper major.

Is that the sort of info you were looking for?  I can perhaps point
you at a more well-informed person if you're looking for more...

Not a member of the
curriculum committee,
--Karl

PS- Population stats:
OSU: ~60,000 students
CIS: course enrollment: 2000/quarter
     declared undergrad majors: 800
     graduate students: 240(?)
     faculty: 52(?), including joint appointments
     and (non-grad-student) part-time instructors
[all from memory, not sure of details]