University of British Columbia
Computer ScienceUBC establishes new curriculum with NeXT
Reproduced with permission from NeXT
Computer, Inc.
A Reference
Guide to NeXT in Higher Education, Fall 1992
ยช
1992 NeXT Computer,
Inc.
In 1990, University of British
Columbia computer science faculty who taught the
introductory sequence Principles of Computer Science "felt
like we weren't getting to the students," says James
Little, assistant professor of computer science. "Students
weren't challenged by the program. The good students
already knew a lot of what we were teaching. We wanted to
find a way to get them interested in computer science as a
major and to provide them with a better grounding in the
discipline, so they'd be able to get more out of their
subsequent years in the discipline. We wanted to show them
there's much more to computer science than programming."
The faculty considered a number of alternative methods. In
the end, they decided to model their curriculum after the
one used by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology-"which is based on significant issues in
computer science rather than the raw skills of
programming," says Vincent Manis, an instructor in the
department.
Using the Scheme language (a dialect of Lisp), the UBC
course would provide a broad conceptual introduction to
computer science, focusing on four key areas: procedures
for transforming data, output, and manipulation; objects
used to model real-world problems; relations between
objects; and the computers themselves and how they work.
Once the department created the curriculum, the next step
was to decide on a computer system.
"Students would be writing, programming, and running
experiments that were too sophisticated for the typical PC
environment," says Maria Klawe, department chair. "We
wanted a machine that was challenging enough for the
students who had lost of previous computer experience, but
that also worked well for students who had little
experience. We didn't want to provide experienced students
with an extreme advantage and shut out the novices."
Adds Manis, "We wrote a request for proposal that detailed
our requirements-a box that could run the software we need,
that could run UNIX, and that could provide good graphics.
NeXTSTEP had everything we needed. In particular, NeXTSTEP
had tools like Interface Builder and the Application Kit
that would allow us easily and effectively to build up our
lab equipment, which is all software."
"NeXT machines have the right combination of user
friendliness and power," says Little. "It's a well-balanced
system. The stations require minimal support-which is great
since our tech staff is already overloaded. We use both
NetInfo and NFS, and they work just fine."
Klawe says NeXT machines and the new curriculum "have been
challenging students in a way they haven't been challenged
before." In fact, although enrollment in college computer
science courses is declining throughout the United States
and Canada, Klawe says since UBC implemented the new
curriculum, UBC students choosing computer science as a
major has increased 20 percent.
For more information, please contact:
Maria Klawe
Chair, Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
6356 Agricultural Road
(604) 822-3064
klawe@cs.ubc.ca