Results of a student census in CS 2

Written with Michael C. Gerten (Knox `16).
Proceedings of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Midwestern conference (CCSC-MW), pages 65-70, 2016. These proceedings are published as the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges 32(1).

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Preliminary version as a pdf. © CCSC, (2016). This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of CCSC for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version will be published in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, http://dl.acm.org/.

Abstract:

We report the results of an essay assignment in which CS 2 students were asked to summarize their interest in computer science or computing. We found strong interest in applications of CS, followed by love for some aspect of the field, and interest in employability as the main reasons students gave for studying CS. Students were also surprisingly forthcoming about how challenging they found the field. Beyond the specific results, we also believe the essay assignment has value as a way of starting a relationship with the students.