Re:Academic Majors (Score 1)

I'm a graduate student in EECS at the University of Michigan -- what is the argument here? I don't think there are any EE classes required for a CS major, even if done as part of Engineering (i.e. not LSA).

I agree that intro-level CS classes are a problem. They often end up as weed-out classes -- I noticed this at my undergraduate institution as well. I've TA'ed a few classes like this, and common problem is that there are really several groups of students:

• (a) students who master everything easily -- usually they've programmed on their own in high school
• (b) students who can actually accomplish the material but need more time because it is actually new to them
• (c) students required to take the class for major requirements, who don't have a programming mindset and never will, and really shouldn't be in the class

The real challenge is how to teach students in both set A and B effectively -- half your class is moving way faster than the other half. Simply telling students in A to take a different section doesn't always work -- they might just want the easy grade.