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CS50 at Scale

CS50
March 24, 2017

CS50 at Scale

CS50 is Harvard University's introductory course for majors and non-majors alike, a one-semester amalgam of courses generally known as CS1 and CS2. In 2007, we set out to alter the course's style and tone to resonate with those "less comfortable" and "more comfortable" alike, albeit without sacrificing the course's historical rigor. We maintained the course's underlying syllabus but revamped every problem set, providing students not only with more direction but context as well. And we augmented the course's support structure. As of Fall 2016, CS50 is Harvard's largest course with over 700 students, up from 132 in 2006, and those "less comfortable" now compose the course's largest demographic. Since 2015 has CS50 been offered in parallel at Yale University. And CS50 also exists as CS50 AP, an adaptation for high schools that satisfies the College Board's new AP CS Principles curriculum framework.

We present in this talk what we have done and why we have done it. We also look at CS50’s online counterpart, CS50x, Harvard College's first course to be offered on an even larger scale via edX with nearly 1M registrants. And we examine CS50 AP and our vision for secondary-school education.

CS50

March 24, 2017
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  1. CS50 at Scale David J. Malan [email protected] University of Manchester

    24 March 2017 https://speakerdeck.com/cs50/cs50-at-scale
  2. 2007 CS50 at Harvard 2012 CS50x via edX 2015 CS50

    for MBAs 2015 CS50 at Yale 2015 CS50 AP
  3. • CS50 • 700 students at Harvard College • 150

    students at Yale College • 300 students at Harvard Extension • CS50 for MBAs • 100 students at Harvard Business School • CS50x • 1M+ registrants • Kansas City, Miami, Rhode Island, St. Louis, ... • Bolivia, Burma, Chile, Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, ... • CS50 AP • 150 high schools • 5,000 students
  4. • CS50 • 700 students at Harvard College • 150

    students at Yale College • 300 students at Harvard Extension • CS50 for MBAs • 100 students at Harvard Business School • CS50x • 1M+ registrants • Kansas City, Miami, Rhode Island, St. Louis, ... • Bolivia, Burma, Chile, Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, ... • CS50 AP • 150 high schools • 5,000 students
  5. • CS50 • 700 students at Harvard College • 150

    students at Yale College • 300 students at Harvard Extension • CS50 for MBAs • 100 students at Harvard Business School • CS50x • 1M+ registrants • Kansas City, Miami, Rhode Island, St. Louis, ... • Bolivia, Burma, Chile, Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, ... • CS50 AP • 150 high schools • 5,000 students
  6. • CS50 • 700 students at Harvard College • 150

    students at Yale College • 300 students at Harvard Extension • CS50 for MBAs • 100 students at Harvard Business School • CS50x • 1M+ registrants • Kansas City, Miami, Rhode Island, St. Louis, ... • Bolivia, Burma, Chile, Netherlands, UK, Ukraine, ... • CS50 AP • 150 high schools • 5,000 students
  7. Computational Thinking Programming Languages Algorithms, Data Structures Internet Technologies Web

    Design Cloud Computing Privacy, Security Database Design Web Programming Mobile Strategies Technology Stacks
  8. Guidelines Lectures Notes Postmortems Problem Sets Seminars Shorts Slides Software

    Solutions Syllabus Transcripts Videos Walkthroughs …
  9. CS50 at Scale David J. Malan [email protected] University of Manchester

    24 March 2017 https://speakerdeck.com/cs50/cs50-at-scale