Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

A computer science degree alone doesn’t equate to strong skills

A computer science degree isn’t always an indicator of strong programming skills, according to a new survey of more than 10,000 computer science students.

In the U.S. alone, there are nearly 571,000 open computing jobs with less than 50,000 computer science graduates entering the workforce–that’s roughly 11 job postings for every computer science major.

As businesses across all industries transform into tech companies, competition for software engineers is increasingly competitive. If companies want to beat the odds in a candidate’s market, it is critical for recruiters to understand the specific skills of the students they’re trying to hire, as well as the factors they evaluate when choosing a job.…Read More

6 ways to improve higher-ed computer science

New report offers policy recommendations to sustain momentum for computer science education.

U.S. institutions should make every effort to expand computer science education to keep up with workforce demands, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

And though interest in computer science education, and access to it, is growing, the report found that not enough students are taking high-quality computer science classes at high school and university levels.

The report found that at the university level, the U.S. boasts strong computer science programs, but universities still aren’t keeping up with demand.…Read More

‘Brogrammers,’ ‘hogrammers,’ and the gender gap

Only two in 10 computer programmers are women, according to federal statistics.

A small California college has bolstered women’s representation in computer sciences, but tech industry bias persists

[Editor’s note: This piece was originally published in 2012. At the time, a large number of readers agreed that the gender gap existed. We thought the story worth a re-post to ask you if you thought any and/or enough progress has been made in closing this gender gap. Is this even still a problem? Weigh in through comments, email me at mstansbury@ecampusnews.com, or find me @eSN_Meris on Twitter.]

The rise of the brash, stylish, computer-geek-turned-cool-guy known simply as a “brogrammer” among popular technology startups threatens to further alienate women from enrolling in computer science courses, where for years they have been vastly underrepresented, higher-education officials said.

Mainstreaming of the label “brogrammer”—a combination of bro and programmer—began among technology companies appealing to recent college graduates who are experts at writing computer code. It has since seeped into higher education, where students said it has reinforced the archetype of a tech-savvy student ready for post-graduation life in the technology industry: A man.…Read More

Debunking the STEM vs. humanities debate

Digital humanities combines computing with style—but there are mixed feelings

digital-humanities-scienceDid you know that almost all of the academic resources that you access online have been thoughtfully, and skillfully, presented by skilled computer technologists? And did you know that those computational experts are also in the humanities?

Users may take the ease with which they access digital archives and online projects for granted without thinking about the work that goes into creating such websites. What starts out as physical documents stacked upon a desk ultimately become the images or PDFs that people search for online after being scanned, organized, and attached with metadata by dedicated digital humanists.

Digital humanists do much of the behind-the-scenes work — such as developing resources, working on mapping or archival projects, and dating mining — that allows the public to peruse research and archives online.…Read More

Top 5 online computer science master’s degree programs

The University of Illinois had the top-ranked program this year.

The unveiling of Georgia Tech’s massive open online course (MOOC)-based computer science master’s degree, offered for about one-sixth the cost of the university’s traditional computer science master’s program, reflects the economic demand for computer-related jobs, Georgia Tech officials and technologists said.

A recent study from the job search website CareerCast pegged software engineer as the top job of 2012, based on criteria including salary, hiring outlook, stress levels, and work environment. Seven computer-related jobs made the CareerCast top jobs of 2012.

No institution will compete with Georgia Tech’s $7,000 Udacity- based computer science program — not yet, anyway — but many universities have seen their web-based comp-sci courses gain prestige over the past few years. BestComputerScienceDegrees.com compiled a list of the country’s top online computer science master’s degree programs, as seen below, along with varying tuition costs from one school to the next.…Read More

Nova Southeastern dean making IT grads more marketable

Irakliotis said computer science students should be encouraged by the rise of data mining in public policy.
Irakliotis said computer science students should be encouraged by the rise of data mining in public policy.

Leo Irakliotis doesn’t just want to develop academics and researchers. The newly appointed dean of Nova Southeastern University’s Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences also wants tech-savvy business people who can talk the talk of the corporate world.

Irakliotis was named the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based university’s computer program chief on Jan. 25 after 13 years as a professor at the University of Chicago, where his business acumen and community connections helped grow the school’s Computer Science Professional Program by 20 percent annually.

Academic immersion remains a central part of a computer science education, he said, but campus IT decision makers should help students develop the communication skills they’ll need to explain complicated IT concepts in simple terms—and network with the companies in search of young computer pros.…Read More