Contemporary Capstone Computer Courses: Lessons From The Service Sciences

Abstract

Enrollment in computer programming courses has plummeted in the past decade.  Facing a similar situation in the 1960s, the mathematics community responded by inventing the “new math.”  Unfortunately the new math failed because it was too abstract for students to see connections with their lives, and because math teachers were not adequately prepared.  Many of today’s computing related degree programs are in danger of failing for similar reasons. This paper argues that, besides off-shoring; there may be other less obvious reasons for the drop in enrollment.  These reasons include curriculums that overemphasize functional programming, and under-emphasize ethics and practical service internships.  This paper further argues that modern curriculums for the fields of Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, and Software Engineering could all be improved by viewing them as sub-specialties of the newly emerging discipline of Service Sciences.  The paper concludes by sketching a basic curriculum for a hypothetical new program we call the School of Artificial Systems and Service Sciences.  It is an extension of the philosophical approach used at Yale Medical School.