Comparison of Traditional and Alternative Approaches

Course Element	Traditional CS 115	Alternative CS 115
Imperative Problem Solving	structured programming concepts; top-down design and refinements
Supporting Programming Language	Python	C (not C++ with its OO additions)
Problems for Solution	students practice solving many types of problems problems may or may not have a theme.	control of robots is an on-going theme some additional problem domains included
Class Format (about 6 hours/week)	Traditional two 80-minute lectures/week one 3-hour lab/week about 15 labs/semester	Focus on active learning integrated lecture/discussion/lab three 110-minute sessions/week about 35-40 labs/semester
Style of Work	all work done individually	in-class labs/projects done collaboratively in pairs programming assignments, quizzes, tests done individually
Control Structures	decision and iteration
Programming Style	readability, documentation
Additional Programming Elements	arithmetic and logical expressions, debugging, testing

created 21 March 2022
revised 21 March 2022 previous next