Assessing Computer Knowledge among College Students.
Allen S. Parrish · 1995
This paper rePorts on a study involving the administration of two examinations that were designed to evaluate student knowledge in several areas of computing. The tests were given both to computer science majors and to those enrolled in computer science classes from other majors. They sought to discover whether computer science majors demonstrated greater knowledge than non-majors about traditional computer science concepts, persons and (events in the history of computing, and general literacy with products on the commercial computing market. The tests were also developed to measure the degree to which the introductory computer science course provided high-level familiarity with the breadth of the discipline. Results indicated that computer science majors are substantially more familiar than non-majors with computing topics in general, even those topics not explicitly targeted by the curriculum. Testing also revealed that students just completing a breadth-first introductory computtx science course did not necessarily exhibit knowledge spa--ing the entire breadth of computing. Seven saMple test questions are provided, along with seven tables displaying test results in each section. The findings of the study may be used to develop a senior capstone course which addresses the areas of computing history, the commercial product market, and legal and ethical computing issues. (Author/BEW) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************