Discovering Computing: Perspectives of Web DesignersBrian Dorn (now, University of Hartford) and Mark Guzdial (School of Interactive Computing)

Story

• Who are the graphics designers who start to program?

• What are they finding when they forage for information?

•Today’s Story• What do they think of computer science?

Why aren’t they in our classes?• What do they want to know about computer

science?

• Can we do better?• ScriptAble: The Code Repository vs. the Case Library

The typical CS student:Future Software Engineer

• To produce reliable, robust, secure software.

• To work in interdisciplinary teams.

• To use appropriate design notations, such as UML.

• To work in multiple programming languages.

3

Latest Taulbee-CRA numbers

4

2010 CRA Taulbee Survey of PhD-granting institutions

Who wants what CS has to offer?

• Computing is at the core of the modern society and modern economy.

• Many people recognize the value of education in computing.• Including many of our students.

• However, only a few of them want to become professional software engineers.• Why? Complex question.

• However, Computer Science has a much larger potential audience elsewhere.• Estimates: ~13 million non-professional programmer/end-

user programmers in US by 2012, vs. ~3 million professional software developers (Scaffidi, Shaw, & Myers, 2005)

5

An atypical CS student:Graphics/Web Designer

• To write programs to improve their efficiency, and to implement their dynamic (e.g., Web) designs.

• To do as little coding as possible.

• To learn about computing ideas in order to improve their process, but with a focus on people and creativity.• Probably won’t work with

professional software engineers6

Who are these people?

• Mostly arts/media trained.

• Don’t consider themselves programmers.

• But do some significant automation of their process.

7

Dorn & Guzdial, ICER 2006Dorn & Guzdial, ICER 2006

What do they know about CS?

• They use relatively few design, development, and testing practices.

• There are important topics in CS that they don’t use and find hard.

8

Dorn & Guzdial, ICER 2006Dorn & Guzdial, ICER 2006

What gets used?What’s hard?

9

Dorn & Guzdial, CHI 2010Dorn & Guzdial, CHI 2010

Where are they getting their CS knowledge?

• Mostly on-line:• FAQs and other

documentation• Books (when

applicable)• Lots of examples

and networking.

• Not so much classes

10

Dorn & Guzdial, CHI 2010Dorn & Guzdial, CHI 2010

What are they finding in those examples?

• Some things that they find hard (e.g., exception handling).

• Little of some really important ideas.• Objects• Reuse of code• Recursion

11

Dorn, Tew, & Guzdial, VL/HCC 2007Dorn, Tew, & Guzdial, VL/HCC 2007

Why don’t they come to our classes?

• We have expertise in teaching important topics like objects and code reuse.

• Those who take our classes have somewhat better practices.• But few take our classes.

• Why not?

12

Today’s Story

13

Interview study with 12 participants (five women, seven men)

Results of Thematic Analysis

• 1. Participants expressed their perceptions of traditional computing careers and those who choose such careers.

• 2. Participants commented on their personal experiences in computer science classrooms.

• 3. Participants shared their excitement about working with the Web and the power that programming affords.

• 4. Lastly, while reflecting on what they would like to know more about, several participants relayed a desire for knowledge of topics that are traditionally part of the CS curriculum.

14

Do they want what we have to offer?

• P10:.A lot of people can just fly airplanes..But if you put them in an unusual situation, and they don't understand it…

I think programming's probably the same way. I've written classes and thought, wow I've just created a binary tree here. If I knew what I was doing when I was doing it because I had the academic understanding, then I'd probably look for a base class that's already been optimized, and I wouldn't have to rewrite it. So, that was a really long way of saying yes, I think that an academic study would make me a better programmer, but not by a whole lot.

15

What do software engineers do?Answer: The Boring Stuff.

• P2: I was able to take different samples from different places and instead of just being let's say an MIS major, or computer science major, you know it's—you're not going to be front-end anything with computer science. You're going to be back-end everything.

• P4: I think as a front-end developer, you focus more on the design and the usability, and you're focusing more on the audience. And then on the back-end I think you're focused on more, these are like the software developers. And they're programming something, and they don't really see what it's gonna look like; they're just making it work. 16

Why don’t they take CS classes?

• P7: I started out in computer science, but didn't like it at all. The fact that I wasn't learning anything new. I took an intro to programming course, and then I talked to some other people in the program and it was all repetition and I guess there wasn't any really new. So you weren't really learning any concepts. You were learning the languages, and I didn't like that at all. So that's why I left…

• P7: I'm looking for more concepts instead of examples I guess. I think the, my problem with books was the same thing. They're teaching more of a language than the concepts, and so I just want a place where I can learn the concepts and that's it. And I really can't find that, you know? It's either you learn a language and you hope to find out about the concepts, but you never really do.

17

Who is in CS?

• P2: I went to a meeting for some kind of programmers, something or other. And they were OLD, and they were nerdy, and they were boring! And I'm like, this is not my personality. Like I can't work with people like that. And they worked at like IBM, or places like that. They've been doing, they were working with Pascal. And I didn’t…I couldn't see myself in that lifestyle for that long.

• P5: I don't know a whole ton of programmers, but the ones I know, they enjoy seeing them type up all these numbers and stuff and what it makes things do. Um, whereas I just do it, to get it done and to get paid. To be honest. The design aspect is what really interests me a lot more.

18

They are not afraid of coding

• “What interests you about web design?”• P12: The coding! I don't like to code. But the

things that the code can do is amazing, like you can come up with this and voila, you know, it's there. Javascript for one. The plugins and stuff. I think that's very interesting, intriguing and stuff. Because I mean like the code is just, there's so much you can do with code and stuff. It's just like wow.

19

They want to know more

• P1: So I mean technology changes. So what I am ideally looking to focus on are like the foundation. The things that change less, you know what I'm saying? Like computer science um, theory, you know I'm saying I mean? That kind of like, it's applicable to what I do, and it's not so constantly shifting.

• P10: I was the kind of programmer that could make stuff work. But I didn't really have solid understandings. At one point I picked up a book on design patterns and I looked at it, and I was like that's really, that's really interesting…So I was like well I wanna keep doing that because it made me a better programmer. And it was more fun to program, and it was more thought provoking.20

Brian’s next step: ScriptAble

• They want examples. • Can we give them examples plus CS

concepts? • CS-fortified information, in the form that

they like to forage now.

• Will they dislike the case library because it’s not just examples?

• Will they use it the same or differently?

• Will the concepts get in the way, or will they code the same? 21

ScriptAble (x 2): Cases vs. Repository

22

Bottomline: It works

• They like the cases.• They code the same.• Case-users learn the

concepts.

• Brian defends August 19

23

Conclusions• There are more people who don’t focus on

computing, but need it, than those who major in computing.

• End-user programmers want CS has to offer. Graphics/Web designers are one group of these.

• They want what we have to offer, and they need it.But they avoid our classes.

• New work: We can meet them partway, by providing CS knowledge in a form they like to use.

With thanks to US NSF for support of this work!With thanks to US NSF for support of this work!