Computer Science Tour Guide
The faculty of the Department of Computer Science has seen a tremendous increase in computer science interest among undergraduate students. Since 2010, the number of majors has increased by more than four hundred percent. That number has increased by more than 250 in just the last year. To help address the sudden rise in demand for seats in COMP 110 (Introduction to Programming), the Department was provided additional funding to hire a lecturer for the 2015-2016 academic year.
After reviewing many applicants, the hiring committee selected alumnus Kris Jordan (B.S. 2007). Jordan joined the faculty little more than a week before the start of the fall semester. By all accounts, he has hit the ground running, and he attributes that fact to the framework laid by the faculty prior to his arrival.
“Dr. [Jay] Aikat has done an amazing job over the past three to four years of making COMP 110 a very accepting and realistic course for folks with no prior programming experience,” Jordan said. “It’s been a really valuable experience for me going at the pace that this course has gone, because I would have probably done it way too fast.”
“The way I look at it is that I’ve been handed this known good implementation of curriculum, so I’m able to spend most of my idle cycles thinking about how I can dial it up to 11 by making it more absurd or more fun.“
Calling on his experience with New Media Campaigns, a full-service web design, development, and marketing agency of which he is a co-founder, Jordan says that one of his main goals is to make the course enjoyable and impactful. To illustrate his approach, he likens his role to that of a tour guide.
“What I try to bring to it are the traits of a really good tour guide, which I learned a few years ago while traveling through Italy with an excellent guide. What I learned from [the guide] is that you can make any experience as good or as bad as what you want just based on the attitude and the energy you bring to it and the shape that you give to it.”
“Often in intro classes, the problems you can actually solve are very small, and sometimes it can be hard to see the forest for the trees when you’re doing simple ‘if’ statements and looping.”
“With the right examples, these very simple tools can go from, ‘this seems trivial’ to, ‘Oh wow, that’s how the Instagram filter works on my phone. It’s processing a million pixels and running an image filter over it, and it turns out that the image filter is just a big array of three values: red, green, and blue. When I get out of COMP 110 I could write an image filter if I have the right set-up for it.’”
Jordan looks to provide information and experiences that will make every stop on his tour relatable and interesting to his undergraduate tourists. He wants the products of his in-class exercises to be shown proudly by his students to their roommates, prompting interesting takes on classic assignments, such as a two-truths-and-a-lie game where students hard-code true or false statements and have the user attempt to select which of three presented statements is false.
One of Jordan’s COMP 110 sections was featured in the UNC Campus Story on Snapchat when a lesson on ‘while’ loops using the lyrics to Silentó’s “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” turned into what Jordan thinks may be the first dance party ever to break out in COMP 110.
Jordan wants to make COMP 110 a “destination course” for undergraduates coming to UNC.
As of this fall, COMP 110 has become the tenth-most popular course at UNC in terms of total undergraduate enrollment. He hopes to see that climb continue to seventh or eighth by the Fall 2016 semester, which would place Introduction to Programming equal or comparable to BIOL 101 (Principles of Biology) and CHEM 101 (General Descriptive Chemistry).
The growing interest in computer science presents some challenges, but Jordan points out that it is, above all else, an opportunity.
“I think within the next 10 years--and 10 years might be generous--we’re going to see a day where more students graduate from Carolina knowing how to write a program than do not.”
“And to me, that’s insane.”