Another approach to service courses

This paper discusses the issues surrounding service offerings by Computer Science departments and focuses specifically on the first programming course. The approach described by the author has been developed to serve business students who seek an introduction to programming, but it applies also to most non-majors. The popularity of computer applications in the various disciplines as well as the widely publicized vocational opportunities in data processing induce ever more students to try their hand at programming. The embarrassment of riches in enrollment, however, brings with it multiple problems of staffing, machine resources, and curricular balance. Less obviously it also brings the pressure for instant success in serving this new population and thereby avoiding the splintering of programming education among interested disciplines, as happened with statistics instruction. Various viewpoints on solutions to these problems have been published, but little understanding of the nature and goals of the students involved has been evidenced. What follows is an explanation of a student-oriented approach to service course instruction which has been instituted at the University of Evansville(Mitchell 78).