Abstract:

It is well understood that providing all students with access to robust and inclusive computer science education (CSE) is a priority for educational systems worldwide and will better prepare every student to meet the demands of an evolving job market and to better leverage the technology around them to solve problems affecting themselves, their communities, and their world. However, there are many open areas of inquiry in the field of CSE: identifying the appropriate content across many interconnected disciplines to teach learners, determining the best pedagogical approaches and instructional practices to deliver this content, and how to craft these approaches to tackle persistent underrepresentation along racial, gender, and other sociodemographic characteristics that exist across the CS pipeline.

This paper describes the design, implementation, and impact of a university-led Computer Science Summit attended by hundreds of educators, administrators, and other stakeholders across the state serving learners in both K-12 and higher education. The research shares a detailed account of the development of the Rutgers University CS Summit, describing the motivation and intent behind a selection of its 20+ sessions and a discussion of the ways that these sessions were developed to make progress on those open areas of inquiry based on the composition of the attendees. Further, results of an exit survey, completed by over 100 of the Summit’s attendees, reveal key takeaways from the event. Insights included the importance of exposure to emerging concepts in the field (such as the recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI), its generative capabilities, machine learning (ML) and data science (DS)) alongside discussions of foundational concepts (such as computer programming and computational thinking (CT)). A focus on locally relevant issues, such as teacher certification and student learning standards, both differentiated the event from more generic, larger conferences and provided attendees with actionable guidance.

Beyond attendee takeaways, implications of this event and this research are also explored. Takeaways from the summit are examined in generalizable ways (such as “exposure to a new concept,” or “challenging a previous assumption”), shedding light on the function that events like this serve for practitioners. Insights for professional development providers and other CSE advocates are provided, such as the balance of “hot topics” with evergreen concepts, centering student outcomes, and delivering relevant and actionable messages.

Keywords:

Computer science education, education, university outreach, professional learning, professional development, AI.