CUE Ethics: A Curricular Design Community for Broadening Participation through Computing in the Arts

College Of Charleston, Charleston SC

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to redefine how to teach computer science to students who approach computing from a broader and more diverse set of interests than typical in most programs. These students are not traditional computer science majors but, instead, students who will follow their interests to apply computing to fields as diverse as fine arts, humanities, political science, music, writing, social science, and history, among others. There are many decades of deep integration between arts and technology from which to draw inspiration for new curricular frameworks. The primary objective is to create an educational community consisting of diverse institutions, which will be poised to develop effective Computing in the Arts (CITA) degree programs. Graduates of these CITA programs will create, design, and code new tools for artistic creativity. From contemporary music-, art- and theater-production, to creating new forms of animation, digital media, and games, to invigorating the visual and audio systems of tomorrow's computers, to inventing revolutionary networked applications, the work students do in these collaborative programs will prepare them for computing-aware, productive, and integrated careers in the information and arts economies. While the project concentrates on computing and the arts (e.g., art, music, dance, sculpture, theater), this approach in curricular integration is general and can apply across many fields. CITA curricula have been shown to attract a new, diverse population, including retaining and graduating significantly larger numbers of women. Moreover, by combining art and computing, this curricular approach enhances creativity, design skills, and innovation potential. In this age of social media, immersive and digital art, ubiquitous computing, and new transformative computer-based systems awaiting discovery, this project may have a significant cultural and economic impact on our nation and society. To achieve these goals, a strong, cohesive, and diverse educational community will be created, consisting of a mid-size liberal arts and sciences university, two research-1 institutions, and a smaller liberal arts college, centered on Computing in the Arts degrees. A six-year longitudinal study at the lead institution shows that a CITA degree attracts a different student population to computing; attracts and retains almost twice as many female students; and graduates 45.5% women compared to the 19% average in computer science across the nation. The project will assemble representative Art+CS teams from departments of computer science, art, music, dance and theater at each institution, establish regular online inter-school meetings, and hold at least two meetings at different schools during the grant period to bring the teams together. To strengthen this multi-institutional community, a concrete synthesis activity will be carried out -- a joint, telematic, real-time, four-institution CITA performance project, which will involve students, faculty, and necessary resources to combine motion capture, audience participation, dance, music, and visual art. Upon completion of this activity, the assembled team aims to be ready to develop Curricular Guidelines for CITA degree programs, to broadly disseminate successes, lessons learned, and methods for broadening participation across the nation, with concrete student and potentially transformative social outcomes. This IUSE: CUE project is co-funded by EHR/DUE and CISE Directorates CNS, CCF, IIS, and OAC, reflecting the project's alignment with the broader goals of the IUSE: EHR program in DUE and complementary programs in CISE. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.