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Cooperative education and realistic student preparation

Published:01 February 1978Publication History
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Abstract

Most existing EDP Programs do not maintain the close coordination with industry required to keep programs relevant and up to date. As a result, students, unprepared for the sophisticated problems they encounter in industry often must struggle to make the formidable adjustment required. Cooperative education programs which attempt to coordinate classroom instruction with on the job training have in many cases not realized their potential because the student's academic training is too unrealistic to be of significant help on the job. Our efforts in the classroom must be directed towards preparing students to deal with the demands that will be made on them as professionals in the computer field. Emphasis must be placed on teaching students methods and techniques for solving their own problems rather than mearly conveying facts and information. A suggested method for conveying the realism of industry in the classroom is to replace the traditional <u>student-teacher</u> relationship with one of <u>employee-supervisor</u>. Students working on individual projects hold private meetings with the instructor in place of class lectures. The complete design, programming, documentation and oral presentation of a worthy EDP Project becomes the total responsibility of the student with the advice and guidance of the instructor. Companies participating in the coop program may also be given the opportunity to suggest projects. In addition to allowing a potential coop student to gain some familiarity with an employers needs, it conveys a desire on the part of the school to keep programs sensitive to the needs and changes in industry. Courses and programs as these which allow for industrial input in our curriculum development are essential to keep pace with the rapid growth and changes that characterize this dynamic field.

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  1. Cooperative education and realistic student preparation

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
      ACM SIGCSE Bulletin  Volume 10, Issue 1
      The papers of the SIGCSE/CSA technical symposium on computer science education
      February 1978
      296 pages
      ISSN:0097-8418
      DOI:10.1145/990654
      Issue’s Table of Contents
      • cover image ACM Conferences
        SIGCSE '78: Papers of the SIGCSE/CSA technical symposium on Computer science education
        February 1978
        311 pages
        ISBN:9781450374767
        DOI:10.1145/990555
        • Conference Chair:
        • Kenneth Williams

      Copyright © 1978 ACM

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 1 February 1978

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