Faculty are developing Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning materials (POGIL) to teach computer science topics: software engineering and data structures & algorithms. POGIL is based on the biology of learning and has been developed and validated for over fifteen years. Teams of learners work on scripted inquiry activities to help them construct their own knowledge. The instructor serves as facilitator, not lecturer. Ten student activities are being developed for software engineering topics including project management and the Unified Modeling Language. Ten activities are being developed to support data structures & algorithms topics including basic data structures, searching and sorting. Materials include facilitator instructions, activity descriptions and supplemental information.
Four collaborators are developing and assessing materials at a variety of institutions including selective liberal arts colleges, a public university and an institute of technology. The project leverages and extends the successful inquiry-based approach to a new subject and explores the use of computer tablets and web-based tools that could benefit the POGIL movement in general. Faculty workshops during the third year are designed to raise awareness and adoption in the computer science education community.
