A successful computer approach to the computer literacy course

Abstract

Much emphasis has been placed on the core curriculum for the computer science major and this topic has been the focus of reports by the ACM and prominent educators (1, 4). Little attention seems to have been given, until recently, to the needs of the student not wishing to major in computer science but desiring an introduction to the discipline and an exposure to some common applications of the computer. This could be handled by two courses, computer science for the non-major and computer literacy. However, limited resources prevent the offering of two such courses at our college and a single course meeting both needs, introduction to the discipline and computer literacy, has evolved. We shall refer to this course as the computer literacy course.