This project addresses a recognized need of the 21st century technological society: broadening participation and excellence in computing education. Computing in the Arts (CITA) is an innovative, interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree program, which integrates computer science and information technology with traditional art theory and practice. The curriculum introduces computing around a theme of creative expression, which has been found to increase participation by women and minorities. CITA is based on sound pedagogy, involving tested curricula and structured synthesis experiences. It has the potential to enrich computing education for undergraduate students across disciplines. Learning materials, teaching strategies and faculty expertise are being developed to promote computational thinking in the arts disciplines. Student learning objectives and the efficacy of CITA to increase participation in computing will be assessed. The project will promote implementation of the curriculum and effective strategies through widespread dissemination.
This project addresses a recognized need of the 21st century technological society: broadening participation and excellence in computing education. Computing in the Arts (CITA) is an innovative, interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree program, which integrates computer science and information technology with traditional art theory and practice. The curriculum introduces computing around a theme of creative expression, which has been found to increase participation by women and minorities. CITA is based on sound pedagogy, involving tested curricula and structured synthesis experiences. It has the potential to enrich computing education for undergraduate students across disciplines. Learning materials, teaching strategies and faculty expertise are being developed to promote computational thinking in the arts disciplines. Student learning objectives and the efficacy of CITA to increase participation in computing will be assessed. The project will promote implementation of the curriculum and effective strategies through widespread dissemination. The high-level structure of the CITA curriculum is completed (see http://catalogs.cofc.edu/undergraduate/computing-in-the-arts-major-requirements.htm ). Moreover, CITA has been approved and fully implemented at our institution (as of May 2014, we have 62 majors - almost doubled since Jan. 2012). This process of institutional implementation has allowed us to refine the CITA curriculum model and develop additional materials (e.g., new major proposal, course catalog descriptions, etc.) which can be used by other adapting institutions. Moreover, we have started developing models of various synthesis courses (in addition to the ones we currently offer), to make CITA easily adoptable at other institutions. Under a follow-up TUES-II grant, we are currently co-organizing one of three annual faculty workshops to disseminate our results. The first workshop will be held at Wake Forest University (one of our partner institutions) and will host over 20 faculty members from diverse US institutions interested in adopting our approach and materials. The project has produced various deliverables, including A project deliverables website, which inlcudes the curriculum and nine developed courses - www.cs.cofc.edu/~manaris/cita A creative programming textbook - http://jythonMusic.org A set of videos - http://vimeo.com/cofccita Several public exhibits and lectures, including A public lecture by David Cope, entitled "Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style" (tinyurl.com/cope2-28) A public lecture by Erik Brunvand, entitled "Arts and Technology: Strange Bedfellows or Congenial Colleagues?" (tinyurl.com/brunvand11-1 A public lecture by Andrew Brown, entitled "Live Coding Presentation and Performance" (http://tinyurl.com/abrown10-11) A Laptop Orchestra concert (youtube.com/watch?v=txS7awpCCh8) Development of an artificially intelligent (AI) musician (youtube.com/watch?v=tCGzIg-73Tw) A concert involving this AI musician (tinyurl.com/musical-intelligence) A public exhibit of student projects entitled "Visual Soundscapes" (http://tinyurl.com/visualsoundscapes) An interactive art exhibit entitled "Time Jitters" (see a demo here http://goo.gl/TIfpPl and the artistic concept here http://halsey.cofc.edu/exhibitions/jody-zellen-above-the-fold/).
