Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl From: karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Service Courses Message-ID:Date: 1 Dec 88 19:36:48 GMT References: <1022@oswego.Oswego.EDU> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: OSU Lines: 48 In-reply-to: dab@oswego.Oswego.EDU's message of 1 Dec 88 16:53:40 GMT dab@oswego.Oswego.EDU (Dave Bozak) writes: A while back, I posted a request for information on what other Computer Science departments are doing for service courses - for credit courses for non-majors... ASTONISHINGLY, nobody is doing anything; or won't admit to it. I received 2 responses, which are included. What's up? Are CS departments really NOT doing anything in the service area? How can they survive with radically declining enrollments (nationwide)? Sorry, we do such things, but I managed to miss your previous note - it's there, I see, but I just didn't look it over when it came by... We aren't suffering declining enrollments. We routinely overflow the allocations for all of our courses, most especially the service ones. As a side effect of this, there is a weird procedure by which the department sets up "shadow section M" versions of certain courses which are reserved for CIS majors only. The service courses typically are provided for the benefit of, e.g., the Business College and Arts & Sciences; CIS itself is part of the College of Eng. We teach intro computer fundamentals to a huge number of people; we do a lot of Pascalish things with Macs for almost that many again. There's a couple of business courses doing (sorry, if you're eating) COBOL - we have a COBOL mode for GNU Emacs. (Running COBOL programs under an X environment - what a concept.) Basic stuff in FORTRAN and teaching basic algorithmic design and problem-solving; for non-CIS Eng students and the like. I don't believe there's anything even remotely exotic, such as computer music or that sort of thing. There is a way of getting a CIS degree with A&S which relates heavily to graphics, but that's not service courses, that's a proper major. Is that the sort of info you were looking for? I can perhaps point you at a more well-informed person if you're looking for more... Not a member of the curriculum committee, --Karl PS- Population stats: OSU: ~60,000 students CIS: course enrollment: 2000/quarter declared undergrad majors: 800 graduate students: 240(?) faculty: 52(?), including joint appointments and (non-grad-student) part-time instructors [all from memory, not sure of details]