Communications of the ACM

(46%) said it was too challenging; 75%
of those were women. About 29% (20%
of men and 45 of women) said they
dropped the class because they did not
enjoy the professor’s teaching, and
26% said they were “no longer interest-
ed in computers.”
Tracy Camp, professor of comput-
er science in the Department of Elec-
trical Engineering and Computer Sci-
ence at the Colorado School of Mines,
and past co-chair of CRA’s Commit-
tee on the Status of Women in Com-
puting Research (CRA-W), observed,
“The survey responses are giving us
a lot of information on how univer-
sities are handling the ‘boom’ and
what the biggest concerns are. We are
also learning why students are so in-
terested in taking an intro to comput-
ing course.”
ACM president Alexander L. Wolf
said the study’s findings were criti-
cal to ensuring North American uni-
versities are prepared to handle the
growing numbers of students who
will enter computer-related degree
programs in the coming years. “Par-
ticularly in the context of President
Obama’s Computer Science for All
initiative, we are going see enroll-
ments in computer-related classes
continue to skyrocket.”
Wolf added, “But this is not a phe-
nomenon specific to the U.S.; rather,
we’re seeing booming interest in CS
education around the world.”

Lawerence M. Fisher is Senior Editor/News for ACM magazines.

lified any enrollment-related actions taken in those departments.

The student survey received responses from 2,477 students, 98% of whom had enrolled in an introductory CS class; 72% of them were computing majors, 7% were computing minors, and the balance were either undeclared or had declared non-computing majors or minors. The gender mix was roughly 2: 1 men to women.

The survey found most (86%) enrolled in an introductory computing class because “it was required for my major/minor.” The next most frequent response, “curiosity or interest in computers,” was reported by 39% of respondents.

When the 55 respondents who had
dropped an introductory computing
course were asked why, nearly half
http://inside.mines.edu/~tcamp/SIGC-
SE2016_Boom.pdf
Among the preliminary results to
be gleaned from the institutions sur-
veyed (key findings will be presented at
CRA Snowbird 2016, with a final report
planned for the fall):

˲ About two-thirds of 123 doctoral departments and one-third of 70 non-doctoral departments surveyed reported increasing undergraduate enrollments were having a big impact on them, resulting in significant challenges.

˲ About 80% of doctoral programs reported significant increases in demand for introductory courses in a CS or CE major; less than half of participating non-doctoral programs reported similarly significant increases.

˲Increases in undergraduate enrollments were seen as creating problems in at least 40% of the departments surveyed. Most (78%) doctoral departments had issues with classroom space, followed by the availability of sufficient faculty (69%), sufficient teaching assistants (61%), and faculty workloads (61%). In non-doctoral programs, the most frequently reported concerns were sufficient faculty (44%) and faculty workload (42%).

˲In response to those concerns, more than 80% of doctoral departments increased the size of classes and the number of sections offered during the academic year. More than 40% of non-doctoral departments reported increasing class size, and more than 60% reported increasing the number of sections offered in a school year.

˲ In terms of staffing, more than 70% of doctoral departments reported increased use of undergraduate teaching assistants, while more than 60% reported the increased use of adjuncts/visiting faculty, having graduated students teach, or increasing the teaching faculty. More than 40% of non-doctoral departments reported increased use of adjuncts/visiting faculty; another 42% said they would like to expand their tenure-track faculty, but cannot.

˲ In the context of diversity, no adverse effects on recruitment or retention were reported, but only 35%–40% of responding departments said they explicitly consider the impact on diversity when choosing actions. Diversity concerns have not prevented or nul-