Non-CS Don't Care (Score 1)

As the article states, the classes being analyzed are just computer science introductory courses, and not necessarily introductory computer science majors[students]. At my current university, a whole batch of non-computer science students are given the ultimatum of CoSc 1010(Intro Cosc) or usually something that *sounds* much more difficult. Engineers can take a rigorous intro to all engineering topics with a heavy emphasis on physics, or intro to computer science. Also, math educators, varying scientists, business, and other majors are advised to take an introduction to computer science, or are otherwise required.

While I agree that a well-rounded person in the 21st century should be able to use a computer, I also understand that learning how to program is an up-hill battle at best for a lot of people -- Even some CS people have problems with it in the beginning. On top of that, the intro computer science course here fills two sections in a lecture hall of ~300 students(~600 students on a full semester), and the average amount of computer science majors(undergrads) is around 120 -- Freshmen through Senior!. Most of the people in these intro courses aren't computer science majors, possibly have little to no interest in programming, and probably expected it to be much easier than it is.

As if making a program to solve a sudoku board isn't stressful enough for these people(or other homework assignments), the word from the professors around here is that the upper class-men have no idea how to program, and the solution is to make the introductory courses more difficult.

Either more universities need to dial down the difficulty of these intro courses(for non-cosc majors), or offer alternative intro to computing courses...because I suspect my university isn't the only one doing this. Otherwise, these people will just keep getting pressured into cheating, will continue cheating, and will continue to get caught. As an example, the cs department here offers a class that is advertised almost exclusively as a business major class, where people learn the parts of a computer, do some Microsoft Office labs, and possibly learn a thing or two about computers.