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Teaching applied computing without programming: a case-based introductory course for general education

Published: 01 February 2001 Publication History

Abstract

We introduce general-education students to key ideas in applied computing through case studies from computer graphics, computer animation, image processing, computer vision, information retrieval, and artificial intelligence. Each case study consists of two lectures: one an intuitive exposition of relevant computer-science concepts, and the other a hands-on introduction to a working system that embodies these concepts. Students use these systems to perform design and problem-solving tasks, thereby reinforcing the abstract concepts presented. Computer programming is neither required nor taught. The course has been offered for two years at the Harvard University Extension School, and has achieved high ratings in student surveys.

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CSCI E5: An Introduction to Applied Computer Science, Harvard University Extension School. http://lab.dce.harvard.edu/extension/cscie5/E52000/E5 2000.html
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The Persistence of Vision Raytracer. http://www.povray.org/
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  1. Teaching applied computing without programming: a case-based introductory course for general education

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        cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
        ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 33, Issue 1
        March 2001
        432 pages
        ISSN:0097-8418
        DOI:10.1145/366413
        Issue’s Table of Contents
        • cover image ACM Conferences
          SIGCSE '01: Proceedings of the thirty-second SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer Science Education
          February 2001
          456 pages
          ISBN:1581133294
          DOI:10.1145/364447
        Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        Published: 01 February 2001
        Published in SIGCSE Volume 33, Issue 1

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