UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULA IN AGRIBUSINESS AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

We summarize undergraduate agribusiness and agricultural economics curricula for 112 US institutions. Relative to agricultural economics majors, agribusiness majors on average take fewer courses in math, economics, and general agricultural economics; and more courses in agribusiness, general business, and general agriculture.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

A First Course in Software Engineering for Aerospace Engineers

Software is a critical component of mission capability in all aerospace systems. This capability is realized directly through the use of onboard software, and enabled through the use of software on ground support systems. Students attending an aerospace engineering program come with a highly diversified background in software development ranging from novice user to expert programmer. A first course in software development has to account for the diversity, and as an outcome provide both a common vocabulary, as well as a common baseline of skills. This paper presents our learning from designing and teaching such a course for aerospace engineering undergraduates

Perceptions of Web Accessibility in Future Web and App Developers

Web Accessibility is the concept that anyone, regardless of the disabilities or situation, should have access to the Web. Organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have developed guidelines outlining specific features that website developers and application developers can implement in their designs. The goal of this study is to determine the general knowledge that future Web developers have of Web Accessibility and to find out their perceptions of it. We want to find out where the biggest holes are in people’s knowledge and perception of Web accessibility so that future endeavors can be made to fill in these gaps

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Addressing the "Leaky Pipeline": A Review and Categorisation of Actions to Recruit and Retain Women in Computing Education

Gender imbalance in computing education is a well-known issue around the world. The term "leaky pipeline" is often used to describe the lack of retention of women before they progress to senior roles. Numerous initiatives have targeted the problem of the leaky pipeline in recent decades. This paper provides a comprehensive review of initiatives related to techniques used to boost recruitment and retention of women in undergraduate computing and related courses in higher education. The primary aim was to identify interventions or initiatives (which we called "actions") that have shown some effectiveness. A secondary objective was to structure our findings as a categorisation, in order to enable future action discussion, comparison and planning. A particular challenge faced in a significant portion of the work was the lack of evaluation: i.e. the assessment of the direct relationship between the initiatives and the outcomes on retention or recruitment. The actions were categorised into four groups: Policy, Pedagogy, Influence and Support and Promotion and Engagement. Policy actions need support and potentially structural change at institution level. Pedagogy actions are initiatives related to the teaching of computing courses. The Influence and Support category includes actions associated with ways to influence women to choose computing and once enrolled to support and encourage them to stay. Finally, Promotion and Engagement actions are initiatives to promote computing based courses and involve engagement and outreach activities. We present our categorisation, identifying the literature related to actions under each category and subcategory. We discuss the challenges with evaluating the direct impact of actions and outline how this work leads towards the next phase of our work - a toolkit of actions to promote retention and recruitment of women in computing undergraduate courses.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl