Jackson Magas

UWRT 1103-009,013,014

9 September 2019

Research Summaries

Source 1:

1. Nager, Adams, and Robert D. Atkinson. “The Case for Improving U.S. Computer Science

Education.” INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION,

May 2016.

2. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation focuses on the intersection of

technological innovation and public policy. It’s a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational

institute and is recognized as one of the world’s best science and technology databases. Their

mission is to formulate and promote policy solutions that will accelerate innovation and boost

productivity in order to encourage progress, growth, and opportunity. The institute is led by its

president and founder, Robert D. Atkinson, an author and well known policy scholar. Robert has

been praised by many massive, reliable sources for his accomplishments such as The New

Republic, Washingtonian Magazine, and the Government Technology Magazine. The team at

ITIF consists of authors and recognized experts in tax policy, trade, privacy,

telecommunications, life sciences, cybersecurity, economics, and many other fields. ITIF is also

the owner of the Center for Data Innovation and the Global Trade and Innovation Policy

Alliance, these are both widely known and highly regarded research and development programs

that focus on innovation and productivity. ITIF mainly targets an audience of technology

innovators and researchers as their publications mostly involve subjects about how technology is

used and implemented today.

3. I mainly focused on pages 5 to 6 and 16 to 23, these are the pages focusing on computer

science in universities affecting the U.S. workforce. The document addresses every reason to

why American universities haven’t been able to properly supply an effective chain of graduates

to the STEM workforce. It argues that there are too many foreign graduates who leave the

country due to a lack of a visa which decreases the available amount of CS workers in the U.S. It

also claims that colleges and universities are often unable to meet the demands of the workforce

due to a lack of funding, interest, and diversity in the field. The article uses tons of charts, data,

and expert testimonies collected from a numerous amount of credible sources like MIT,

Stanford, Harvard and many more prestigious universities as well as credible authors and

analysts. The charts included observing the strong difference between the amount of males and

females who graduated with degrees in computer science and the results are heavily skewed in

showing that there are more men in the field than there are women. The last chart recognized that

there are far more graduates with masters degrees than there are with doctoral degrees.

The conclusions they drew from the evidence are very reasonable and highlights the

exact problems the field is facing. Some of these conclusions include their claims on the fact that

computer science costs more for schools than majors like liberal arts or social sciences. They

made this valid conclusion based off of research from “Tsunami or Sea Change?” by Lazowska,

Roberts, and Kurose that insisted state schools are reluctant to take on additional costs due to

lack of funding from state legislatures. Another conclusion they made was that even prestigious

universities have trouble responding to student course priorities in regards to hiring faculty. This

conclusion was made off of a news article from Bloomberg called, “Yale Stepping Up Computer

Science After Students Demand Better Tech Training”, written by John Lauerman that asserts

that computer science faculty count at Yale hasn’t grown since the 1980s and has just now
started hiring new professors in response to student petitions. The authors used logos extremely

effectively in their document as they included many findings of data and analyses from

researchers and studies that help prove all their points effectively. They even used a bit of pathos

in scaring the reader by confronting issues such as college’s lack of support for computer science

and the concerning amount of computer science graduates leaving the country due to their

inability to obtain a work visa.

4. This voice agrees with my other findings as they all focus on reasons for low interest in

computer science in the past and they also involve similar charts that highlight statistics such as

the amount of degrees obtained in the field in a given amount of years.

5. “Too few universities are willing and able to increase the computer science faculty and offer

more classes to students; thus, not only will some students wanting to major in computer science

lack the opportunity to do so, others, interested in exploring CS will also be disappointed.” pg.

19, 20

“ Universities, particularly state schools that have faced funding cuts from state legislatures, are

loath to take on these additional costs by encouraging or enabling more students to take courses.”

pg. 20

“Harvard expanded its very popular computer science offerings after receiving a matching grant

from Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s former CEO, enabling them to hire 12 new teachers in 2014.”

pg. 23

6. I was extremely excited when I found this article as it was almost like I hit the jackpot due to it

being extremely credible and rich with useable information for my thesis. I will likely use this

source as the centerpiece of my thesis and will often refer to it in order to support my claims with

credible, strong information founded by experts in the field.

Source 2:

1. “What Is the Employment Outlook for Computer Science Careers?” Computer Science

Degree Hub, www.computersciencedegreehub.com/faq/what-is-the-employment-

outlook-for-computer-science-careers/.

2. Computer Science Degree Hub is ranked as the top resource guide to find credible, relevant

information on degree programs throughout the nation. They have expert knowledge on the

subject and reference valid sources in their findings. They have a numerous amount of rankings

on the best schools to go to for any and every characteristic of the field. They also have a few

infographics on the use of technology in the world. The intended audience for this site is likely

anyone interested in getting a computer science degree.

3. The webpage mainly focuses on computer science graduates chances of getting a job and

the average salary of graduates with jobs. It also details the positive reasons of why you should

get a computer science degree as it is extremely flexible, rewarding, and necessary for our future.

It even gives a few opportunities for computer science graduates and undergraduates to “beef up”

their credentials. The article uses statistics from Looksharp, a company focused on helping

students find jobs, in order to provide the satisfaction of graduates’ salaries in the field ($66,161)

as well as to showcase the high employment rate (61%) of computer science graduates.

The conclusions drawn from their evidence seems very reasonable as the evidence

projects a high incentive to get a degree in computer science. The fact that technology is ever-

increasing in daily usage also indicates the importance they stated to get a degree in the field.

They mainly use logos in the article through their use of statistics found by Looksharp. These

statistics increase their credibility and quality of information. They use a bit of pathos by
observing the long list of appeals to the field which makes readers feel excited to major in the

subject.

4. This webpage mostly agrees with my other findings as it wants more people to get computer

science degrees. My other findings all argued the importance of increasing the amount of

graduates in the field and this webpage just acts on those ideas by motivating readers. The

webpage effectively supports my other findings due to this information.

5. “Computer science graduates expect starting salaries in the high five-figure to six-figure

range, and many of them are actually landing jobs that meet this expectation.”

“Over 61 percent of graduates of computer science-related programs were employed full time in

their field.”

“Another reason for optimism with regards to the employment outlook for computer science

graduates is the fact that this particular skill set is needed in just about every business and

organization.”

6. Overall this webpage is very helpful in summarizing the incentive and importance in having

more graduates with computer science degrees. I will likely use it to expand on the benefits from

having a CS degree and lead this into the current rate of increase in computer science graduates. I

feel that this information will make my thesis more relatable and persuasive.

Source 3:

1. Hora, Matthew T., et al. Beyond the Skills Gap: Preparing College Students for Life and

Work. Harvard Education Press, 2016.

2. Matthew T. Hora works as an assistant professor of Adult and Higher Education at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences. He

has a master’s in applied anthropology from the University of Maryland-College Park. Before
earning his PhD he worked as a program evaluator of public health initiatives and STEM

education initiatives. He then earned his PhD in Learning Sciences from the Department of

Educational Psychology University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has conducted tons of research on

the topics of applied anthropology, the learning sciences, and education policy analysis. Today

he mainly focuses on issues regarding the quality of higher education and its impact on the

workforce.

3. I mainly focused on pages 39 to 44 in the chapter titled: The Skills Gap Narrative, A

Critique of Higher Education. Through these pages he mainly touches on the exact reasons that

graduates aren’t qualified for the general workforce and how as a society we can change this. His

perspective is refreshingly different than others as Matthew believes that we should be increasing

the amount of people with associate’s degrees for mid-range jobs instead of having most students

graduate with bachelor’s degrees. He finds this important due to the fact that the workforce for

high-end jobs is outweighing the workforce for mid-range jobs resulting in an imbalance. For

this to be enacted he exclaims that schools should focus more on convincing students to go for

associate’s degrees by making them more enticing, adding more options of how to get these

degrees. He also notes the importance of focusing on hard skills rather than soft skills in order to

develop a workforce that has the necessary skills needed. Lastly he argues that colleges should

be more focused on teaching subjects that apply directly to what the job market needs rather than

focusing so much on the liberal arts, as this will help to develop competencies in hard skills.

Matthew often refers to many findings of expert researchers and even includes a chart of

the amount of students graduating with certain degrees and the amount of students who drop out.

Most of these findings are statistical and help prove his argument by providing strong, factual

information that directly applies to his views. The conclusions Matthew draws from the evidence
seem very reasonable as his arguments coincide directly with the results he shows. For example,

he proves the point that employers are having a difficult time finding skilled workers by

providing statistics from the WMC finding that 70 percent of manufacturing executives in

Wisconsin are experiencing troubles with finding qualified employees due to a predominance of

applicants having inadequate, inappropriate qualifications for position openings. Matthew often

uses logos throughout these pages as he provides many expert statistics in regards to his subject

matter. With these strong findings, his points become much more credible. He also uses a little

bit of pathos when he touches on the fact that many graduates with bachelor’s degrees become

unemployed as the market for high-skilled graduates becomes bottle-knecked by the high amount

of applicants and low amount of positions. This makes you feel bad for those graduates who put

in so much work just to end up without a job.

4. This voice mainly agrees with that of my other findings. Matthew takes on a slightly different

perspective in focusing on two-year programs but all of his other information directly relates to

that of my other sources in that popular fields should be expanded upon and that graduates lack

the appropriate skills needed due to faulty curriculum.

5. “For example, in advocating for more students to attend technical colleges, WMC’s Jim

Morgan argued that “technical skills” are the primary skill set an applicant needs to get a middle-

skill job in manufacturing.” pg. 40

“Instead, it is the liberal arts tradition and general education courses that are often singled out as

inadequately suited for preparing students for the world of work.” pg. 42

“Policy makers are skills gap proponents have largely argued that supporting vocationally

oriented training programs is the best solution to the nation’s workforce challenges.” pg. 43
6. These pages in the chapter were extremely helpful in providing me with more context on the

situation of preparing college students for the workforce and I liked that it focused on a variety

of fields as well as computer science. With this I can bring up the fact that the issue strikes many

fields and not just computer science and provide a few more solutions to the problem as well

with Matthews findings. Overall I was very impressed with what I found, trusting and agreeing

with Matthew’s perspectives on the issue.

Source 4:

1. Suhartono, Joni, and J. Sudirwan. “Academic Competence of Computer Science Graduate

Degree from the Employer's Perspective.” Academic Competence of Computer

Science Graduate Degree from the Employer's Perspective - IEEE Conference

Publication, International Conference on Information Management and Technology,

2016, ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7930325.

2. Joni Suhartono and Joseph Sudirwan both work at Binus University located in Jakarta,

Indonesia in the Department of Information Systems, while Joseph focuses more on the

accounting side. Joni has skills in Information System Management, IT Project Management,

Knowledge Management, Information Management, and E-Business. Joseph has expertise in

Quantitative Research, Data Analysis, Quantitative Data Analysis, Research Methodology,

Quantitative Methodology, and Structural Equation Modeling. They both also conduct much

research regarding management, higher education, and computer science. The International

Conference on Information Management and Technology started in 2016 and is an annual

conference that invites researchers and experts in information systems to share ideas, experiences

and insights. Here they focus on the issues and challenges of creating the future through

information systems; delivered through Keynotes, Speakers, and Distinguished Lecturers. It is

organized by the School of Information Systems, Bina Nusantara University and supported by

IEEE Indonesia Section. They also publish accepted papers and send them to IEEE Xplore.

3. This piece mainly focuses on the discrepancies between what computer science graduates

know upon graduating compared to what employers expect. It touches on what employers want,

mainly being a variety of programming languages, database requirements, operating system

requirements, and network and data communications knowledge. It then emphasizes what most

students are learning and experiencing being that most students don’t know exactly what

employers want which causes them to not develop the necessary skills they need for their future

jobs. They also argue that the curriculum provided by schools remains static and is not keeping

up with the industries’ standards and expectations. The authors used several graphs of their own

findings to prove their argument and they also used a few statistics and claims from other sources

as well. Their graphs took results from 309 computer science jobs over two periods of time.

Their results show a high volume of jobs in Programming and Staff IT with lower amounts in

Software Developing and other fields. The results also showed the specific programming

languages that were necessary to know for Programmers, Staff IT, and Developers, which

emphasizes the importance of this technical knowledge that some schools lack. They also found

that most users don’t see a need in studying one specific language which could be a factor in a

low level of hard skilled graduates. They also used a list of requirements and preferences that

employers are looking for, founded by Nana Martono which highlights the fields of study that

employers want to employ graduates from as well as the specific requirements necessary for the

fields.

The conclusions they drew from their evidence was very reasonable and their claims

directly align with their results. They concluded that it is important for students to gain an
education in both basic concepts that can transfer to any language while also diving into the

details of languages in order to become more competent in relevant languages for more technical

skills. They derived this claim from their results which showed that jobs want competence in

specific languages but also that users want competence in multiple languages, not seeing a need

to study only one language. For graduates, knowing more languages will open up more

opportunities while studying one language will develop them for only a specific job that requires

that language. With these findings they saw it fit to make the assumption that both routes are

important in having a variety of knowledge as well as specified knowledge. They mostly used

logos in their paper with the use of graphs and claims from sources to prove their point and

improve their credibility. They used a little bit of pathos in implying that lots of students are lost

and don’t know exactly what to study for their future careers which makes you feel worried and

sad for them to be working towards something that they might end up not having the necessary

skills for.

4. This voice mainly agrees with my others as it feels that the curriculum for computer science

needs to be improved to better fit the industries’ standards. Although it does support the idea of

building a few soft skills in the field for versatility which some of my other findings don’t

completely agree with, mainly favoring hard skills.

5. “There are many students in Computer Science who do not know the intended profession,

competence and skills required by the institutions of the employer, so it does not prepare

competency and skills as required while still learning.” pg. 1

“ Computer science education curriculum design, tend to be static does not grow follow the

needs of the competence and skills required workplaces or industries that provide employment.”

pg. 1
“Graduates who are not ready to work for low quality” pg. 1

6. Since this paper was made by Indonesian researchers who aren’t great with english, grammar,

spelling, and sentence structure was off in some places. Aside from this, their findings and

claims were great and I can use them very effectively in my thesis. I will likely bring up their

arguments in the body of my thesis, when questioning if the knowledge of hard skills is better

than the knowledge of soft skills, or if both combined is the best option for the computer science

workforce.

Source 5:

1. Medina-Dominguez, Fuensanta, et al. “Collaborative Tools: Computer Science Students’

Skills versus Software Industry Needs.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, Journal of

Software: Evolution and Process, Mar. 2015, onlinelibrary-wiley-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/smr.1708.

2. The author and contributors to this piece all have very strong backgrounds coming from

Computer Science, Engineering, and Economic programs at universities such as Carlos III

University of Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Universidad Complutense de

Madrid. Fuensanta, the main author in particular has been in countless amounts of published

pieces in regards to studying multiple aspects of computer science. All of her work is very

relevant and she’s even worked on a piece with Microsoft. This piece is written in response to

the fact that computer science graduates lack the skills necessary for them to succeed in the

workforce, and she is providing a solution for this. The intended audience for this piece is likely

computer science graduates and students as well as professors in the field who may want to get

advice on improving their curriculum for their students.

3. This piece focuses on the importance of teaching computer supported collaborative work

(CSCW) to computer science students, especially those focusing on the Software Engineering

side of things. It dives into the effect that CSCW has on graduates ability to land a job and why it

is important for students to learn this subject to become more marketable. The author includes a

survey developed by her and her collaborators that highlights the statistics taken from 86

graduates, asking if they found their study of CSCW in their program at Carlos III University of

Madrid to be helpful in their career and in finding a good job. The results overall suggested that

most of the graduates(50%), agree that their knowledge was useful in helping them find a job.

On top of this survey they also used a numerous amount of information and claims gathered from

a variety of reputable outlets. One such example of this is when Fuensanta exclaims that a

shortage of professionals with collaborative skills causes companies to search for incentives to

motivate employees to participate in enterprise social networking systems. She found this from

Tellioglu H, in a paper from the 9th IEEE International Conference on Collaborative Computing:

Networking, Applications and WorkSharing.

Fuensanta’s conclusions are very reasonable and concincide properly with her findings.

She concludes that it is very beneficial to invest in CSCW programs in schools and her results

effectively proves that it is extremely helpful for graduates finding jobs. She believes that upon

acquiring general knowledge about this subject that CS majors will vastly improve their chances

of landing a quality job out of college. She also concludes that the step now is finding how to fit

this curriculum into the syllabus of different programs. Fuensanta mainly uses logos as she

provides a vast array of statistics from her survey and claims founded by experts in the field, that

all comes together to majorly strengthen her argument. She uses a tiny bit of pathos in expressing
her excitement for CSCW by encouraging students and universities to invest in it based on her

results.

4. This voice somewhat disagrees with my other sources but provides a very different

perspective on the issue. Fuensanta argues on the importance of collaborative study for the

workforce rather than focusing so much on program concepts and specific program details. She

still believes that more preparation can be done for graduates like my other sources but this is

just how she goes about addressing the issue.

5. “Software companies encourage and further the use of collaborative tools and skills at the

work place in pursuit of the benefits of their use: they improve communication, productivity and

efficiency, and competitiveness.” pg. 1

“Therefore, universities face the challenge of training students not only in the foundations of

computer science or software engineering but also in the latest technologies and skills required

by the labor market, as these will be essential requirements to which companies will attach

importance when recruiting new graduates.” pg. 3

“Also, we can say that enterprises promote the use of the CSCW tools in routine work, and this is

related to the fact that CSCW knowledge helps practitioners to find a new or better job, that is,

enterprises really do want to hire professionals with CSCW knowledge.” pg. 10

6. I found this source to be very helpful in providing a new perspective that I didn’t even think

about. The data and claims are clear and make sense and it makes me want to find more peer-

reviewed articles in my research, since this one was so reliable and easy to follow. I will likely

use this source in bringing up solutions for the issue of student and graduate preparation for the

computer science workforce. I can also use specific statistics from their survey to back up my

claims when referring to this article.

Source 6:

1. Ashadevi, B. and MuthamilSelvi P. “Open Educational Resources in Computer Science:

Opportunities and Challenges.” ProQuest, International Journal of Computer Science

Issues, Sept. 2017, search.proquest.com/docview/1957087030?

accountid=14605&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo.

2. Ashadevi received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and MCA from Madurai Kamaraj

University. She also received her M.Phil and Ph.D. in computer science from Mother Teresa

Women’s University in Kodaikanal. She’s been in the field for 17 years and conducts research

on Data Warehousing and Data Mining. She has presented over 15 papers in national and

international journals and she’s published many research papers. Her list of accomplishments

expands beyond these items as well as she’s also a life member of ISTE (International Society

for Technology in Education), has organized National level conferences, guest lectures,

seminars, and workshops mainly for post graduate students of Computer Applications and

Computer Science. Lastly she’s even supervised several MCA project works and M.Phil theses.

MuthamilSelvi, a contributor, has also accomplished some of the same things but her focus is

more so on Neural Networks, Fuzzy Logic, Collaborative Computing, and Big Data. The target

audience for this piece is likely computer science students and graduates as well as professors

and innovators developing OER resources.

3. This piece mainly focuses on the idea of using Open Educational Resources (OERs) in

the workforce for computer science, and it touches on implementing it more into college

programs. The authors dig into the specific websites and companies affiliated with OERs and

argue why they are an important, effective resource. As the authors argue, OERs are cheap,

collaborative, and innovative. By using more of these open public domains, it allows for way
more people to gain access to quality educational resources. They also touch on the fact that

some schools already use these resources in their programs but since the number is so small, they

are encouraging more schools to open up to it. If this is done it will allow for once restrictive

information to become public knowledge, opening up opportunities for a vast array of people.

They also claim that if these resources become available to more computer science students and

graduates, that they would gain a better education from exposure to more useful tools and

research.

The authors use a lot of references to credible articles that contain statistics and claims

that they use to further their point. An example of this is when they bring up the issue of CS

graduates preparation for the workforce when they observe that the workforce demands skills

from graduates that they need to acquire through informal learning experiences. They found this

from a report titled, NMC Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition by the New Media

Consortium in 2013.

The conclusions the authors drew from the evidence all seem very reasonable. They

found information observing the benefits of OERs and they simply pointed out those benefits and

elaborated on them. They argued that OERs should be implemented into more college programs

and that the amount of OERs should expand in order to allow for more content and educational

opportunities. They also highlighted the fact that OER resources are still very new and that it will

take time for them to develop and make their way into more programs. They use mostly logos in

regards to all of their findings and statistics they used in order to prove their point as this helped

with credibility. They used a tiny bit of pathos at the end in leaving off with a cliff-hanging

excitement for the opportunities of OERs in the future.

4. This voice mostly agrees with the others I’ve found as they agree that the computer science

curriculum can be improved but their perspective is a little different in suggesting OERs as a

solution. This mostly aligns with the idea of using CSCWs in order to collaborate as OERs

involve a bit of collaboration aspects as well in creating team-produced public resources to be

used by many people.

5. “OER are teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have

been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing

by others.” p. 4

“OER provides a unique opportunity to expand the research traditions of building on the ideas of

others into teaching practice.” p. 5

“Open teaching materials, covering emerging fields can help instructors and students unfamiliar

with particular topics.” p. 6

6. Much like my other peer-reviewed article, I was very impressed with this piece. It brought up

yet another unique perspective for a solution towards my issue. I will likely use it in the body of

my thesis when bringing up possible solutions for my issue and deciding which one works the

best.

Source 7:

1. Close, Kerry. “Why It Matters Where You Go to College as a STEM Major.” Money, 7 Apr.

2016, money.com/money/4254817/college-matters-stem-majors/.

2. Kerry got her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government at Cornell University

and her Master’s degree in Business and Economic Reporting from New York University. She

has a ton of experience in reporting with many internships as well as working for MONEY, The

Wall Street Journal, and The Cornell Daily Sun. She even has some accounting experience and is
currently the Director of Group Gordon in the Greater New York City Area. This article was

likely intended for computer science students and applicants who need to decide which college

would be best for their career.

3. This piece mainly focuses on the idea of how college choice affects the income of STEM

majors. Kerry starts off by claiming that most reporters have found that the average salary upon

graduation is pretty much the same no matter where you go but upon an analysis done by

MONEY she found that the results are actually pretty wide for some schools. She also argues

that what the students do while in school matters a lot as well as some will take internships or

conduct research that boosts their credentials. She also points out the importance of the schools

graduation rate that you attend as most of the schools with lower salary rates have low

graduation rates as well as high loan usage rates. Lastly she points out that the school’s

reputation does matter as well.

Kerry uses multiple findings from experts in economics, credible websites, and statistics

found by MONEY. One example of this is when she refers to Mark Schneider, a vice president

and institute fellow at the American Institutes for Research and a consultant on MONEY’s

college rankings, about how graduation rates do matter at the college you attend and how to

pursue student loans. He exclaims that the amount you take out in student loans shouldn’t exceed

your first-year salary. He also argues that you should cross schools off your list that have a

graduation rate below 30%.

The conclusions that Kerry draws from the evidence are very reasonable as she mainly

uses the evidence in conjunction with her claims, she sometimes even makes her evidence her

claim. She sticks to her findings and doesn’t claim anything outside of her support which

strengthens her arguments as they’re all backed up and supported by credible sources. She even
includes a chart at the end which further backs up her point that there is a wide variety between

schools’ graduate salaries as the chart shows a wide difference between salaries based on

schools’ graduation rates, loan rates, and amount taken out in loans. Kerry mainly uses logos

through her use of statistics, expert quotes and findings which all support her claim. However,

she does use a bit of pathos by making you feel bad for the graduates with low salaries as they

deserve the same as everyone else.

4. This voice mainly disagrees with that of my other findings as they didn’t focus on which

school you attend affecting your job and they all mainly felt that it didn’t matter. Kerry on the

other hand mainly claims that it does matter a lot based on her findings towards your salary.

However, she does agree that research and internships are important in the success of graduates

in finding jobs like my other sources suggest.

5. “However, a MONEY analysis of the earnings of students who majored in science,

technology, engineering, and math found there is actually a wide variation and that some

colleges are more likely to produce dropouts or debt-laden graduates than Silicon Valley success

stories.” p. 4

“Indeed, the numbers show that, even if you’re a STEM major, the decision about which college

to attend could be crucial not only in terms of your future earnings but in the amount of debt

you’ll carry after you graduate—and even your likelihood of graduating at all.” p. 7

“Even the authors of the much-cited study mentioned above caution that there are a number of

factors—such as different majors’ earning potential, job and internship placement rates, and

opportunities for research with professors—that should be considered along with a school’s

reputation.” p. 11
6. I found this source to be very useful in providing a completely different perspective on my

issue as it focused more on graduate’s salary based on the college they attend rather than how the

resources and curriculum in college affect their job quality. I liked the wide use of expert

testimony Kerry used as well as her easy to read, inciteful chart at the end of her article. I will

likely use this source in providing a different approach to my argument towards the end of my

body paragraphs in order to emphasize the importance of factors outside of curriculum and

resources for students and graduates.

Source 8:

1. Flaherty, Colleen. “No Clear Solution to Nationwide Shortage of Computer Science

Professors.” No Clear Solution to Nationwide Shortage of Computer Science Professors,

InsideHigherEd, 9 May 2018, www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/05/09/no-clear-

solution-nationwide-shortage-computer-science-professors.

2. Colleen is a reporter who covers faculty issues on Inside Higher Ed. She used to be a military

editor at the Killeen Daily Herald. Before that she covered government and land use issues at the

Greenwich Time and Hersam Acorn Newspapers in her home state of Connecticut. She

graduated from McGill University in Montreal in 2005 with a degree in English Literature. Then

she taught English and English as a second language in public schools in the Bronx, N.Y. She

also earned her M.S.Ed. from City University of New York Lehman College in 2008 as part of

the New York City Teaching Fellows program. She also has many publications on Inside Higher
Edall dealing with faculty issues. This article is likely intended for anyone interested in the

computer science field in general, especially CS faculty and employers.

3. This article mainly focuses on the massive shortage of computer science staff for colleges

nationwide. Colleen emphasizes the big dispute between supply and demand in regards to CS

Ph.D. applicants in the nation compared to how many spots colleges need to fill. She explains

that the field has outgrown the amount of professors willing to teach it and that due to this there

are many colleges left with massive gaps in their curriculum for CS. Most of these schools

experiencing big problems with this are non-research institutes as many Ph.D. holding applicants

would rather work at a college offering researcher opportunities. One of the main reasons for this

shortage of faculty is due to the difference in pay between industry jobs and teaching jobs as the

CS industry is willing to pay much more than colleges are. This gap is so wide that even CS

Ph.D. holders are striving for industry jobs rather than teaching jobs for better pay. Even

universities like Princeton, where CS is the main major, are having issues with hiring CS

professors. In order to maintain a wide, quality workforce for CS there has to be a change and

there needs to be more professors filling the gaps in colleges nationwide.

Colleen uses a lot of quotes and findings from experts in the field in order to strengthen

her argument. She even includes a chart displaying the increase in CS majors compared to the

low line of hired faculty from 2006 to 2015, from the Computing Research Association,

Generation CS, February 2017. Another example of her evidence is when she quotes David G.

Wonnacott in order to harp on the difference between the rates of CS majors and faculty as well

as to give advice to Ph.D. holders on where to pursue their studies.

Colleen’s conclusions seem very reasonable as her argument aligns perfectly with her

evidence which overall strengthens her point. She concludes that nationwide the problem of
hiring CS professors is extreme and all of her evidence directly points this out, quoting

representatives from multiple universities exclaiming their troubles with hiring professors as well

as a graph that clearly shows the lack of supply for the demand. Colleen mainly uses logos in

providing statistics and quotes from experts in the field to effectively support her argument.

However, she does use a bit of pathos in making the reader worried and sad for the CS majors’

lack of professors.

4. This voice mainly agrees with my others as it also believes there to be a lack of proper

curriculum in the field but this voice believes it is due to a lack of professors and not directly

instruction.

5. “The factors at play in the computer science faculty shortage are similar to those in other fields

with lucrative job options outside academe -- a supply and demand story, but on steroids.” p. 6

“Combining data from the Computer Research Association’s comprehensive Taulbee Survey and

other sources, Roberts and his colleagues found that the rate of bachelor's-degree production in

computing increased 74 percent between 2009 and 2015 alone, with an almost 300 percent

increase at Ph.D.-granting institutions covered by the survey in particular.” p. 7

“Even Stanford -- a computing research epicenter where computer science in the No. 1 major --

isn’t immune from some of the factors plaguing the tenure-track faculty market.” p. 11

6. I found this source to again be useful in bringing up a different perspective on my topic which

I can use throughout my body paragraphs of my thesis in order to consider another issue

plaguing my topic. I liked how Colleen’s article was clear and easy to follow and provided many

solid, credible quotes and findings from experts.

Source 9:

1. Gavin, Ashley, director. Computer Science Education: Why Does It Suck so Much and What If
 It Didn’t? Youtube, TEDxNYU, 21 July 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?

v=5jmN_tBS0t4.

2. Ashle Gavin is currently a Web Developer at Get It Done Design. She graduated from Bryn

Mawr College in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. She also graduated magna

cum laude with honors in computer science. Once she graduated, she worked as a Software

Engineer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for 2 years. Then she worked as a Computer Science

Education Consultant in the Greater New York City Area for 4 years, working with

organizations such as Girls Who Code, All Star Code, Wesleyan University, Google, and even

more. She focused on making customized computer science curriculum for students in middle

school to college. She mainly targeted accessible curriculum for women and minorities. On top

of all of this, she is also a stand-up comedian and even wrote a program to help her gauge her

performance based on audience reaction and stage setting. The intended audience for this piece is

likely anyone studying computer science such as students, professors, and graduates, as well as

those who are looking for a major whether that may be computer science or something else.

3. In this TEDx talk, Ashley Gavin mainly focuses on what computer science is and why it

isn’t taught properly in schools. She dives into her background in order to emphasize that CS is

for everyone and that you don’t have to be super good at math or be nerdy to do it. She explains

why it is such a good field to go into as you can do anything with it and it pays well but then

proves that no one is taking it. She exclaims that most of the people who are taking it are white

males and that this should not be the case as it is truly accessible for everyone. She then goes on

to show that with the right teaching, it can be easy to pick up on and lead students to loving it

and considering it for their career. She proves this by explaining her work with the Girls Who

Code organization, showing results from the girls she taught scoring on the AP CS exam
compared to normal students. The results were surprising as Ashley’s students performed twice

as well as the normal students. She then observes why this is and finds that it’s due to the bad

curriculum in most schools as they stick to showing you confusing code with hard terms to

understand on the first day while Ashley believes the best thing to do is to ask the students what

they want to make with CS on the first day, making it a fun, enjoyable experience. She even

reflects that the first ever programmer was a girl and so were the programmers who worked on

the first computer during WWII, in order to provide historical context to reason that anyone can

and should program.

Ashley mainly uses her personal experience, claims, historical context, and statistics as

evidence. She argues about reasons why people should take computer science using claims such

as the fact that it pays well, increases happiness, and has good job security. She uses statistics by

showing charts and data displaying the low amount of students who major in computer science,

the low amount of students who take the AP CS exam, the low amount of women and minorities

who took the AP CS exam, the great scores of Ashley’s girls on the AP CS exam, and even a

map of the U.S. showing the low amount of states that a CS education is offered in. Ashely also

used examples of the first women who programmed to show that anyone can program and that it

should not be restricted to white nerdy males. Lastly she uses her personal experience with the

Girls Who Code organization to show that her style of teaching with a more engaging philosophy

works wonders compared to regular school teaching styles. She also used polls she’s taken on

how people picked their majors and careers based on their initial interest in the subject and their

elementary knowledge before taking the subject. The results showed that most people gain

interest in their field after trying it and that they had basic knowledge of the subject before taking

it.
 Ashley’s conclusions from her evidence are very reasonable as she makes her claims and

then uses the evidence to support her claims, effectively strengthening her conclusions. She uses

clear evidence to prove her points with charts, historical context, and thorough explanations of

claims that all tie in to her claims, allowing her to generalize her claims into her conclusion.

Ashely mainly uses logos in her talk through the use of her statistics, personal experience, and

historical context to prove her point. She uses some pathos too in making the audience

disappointed in the low amount of minorities and women in the field but excited about the

potential of the field.

4. This voice agrees with my other sources as it too agrees that the general curriculum in CS is

bad, and it also provides another solution to this problem, just like my other sources. She even

agrees that women and minorities are underrepresented in the field like my other sources state.

5. “Most people when you think of a computer scientist, you think of a nerd in a basement

coding all by himself.” 3:42

“Culture matters a lot but I actually think that teaching matters more, and I think we can do more

more quickly by changing the approach of teaching computer science.” 4:11

“So rather than showing our kids this on the first day of class, lets try another approach; let’s ask

them if you could make anything what would you make? And that’s my approach to teaching

computer science.” 19:41

6. I thought this TEDx talk was great and that Ashley did an outstanding job at selling the field

of computer science, as well as detailing how to improve on it. At first I wasn’t sure how well a

TED talk would work for my inquiry but it happened to help out a lot. I will likely use this

source when addressing the low amount of women and minorities in computer science and also

to provide another perspective and solution of the topic.

Source 10:

1. Stevens-Huffman, Leslie. “Tips for Computer Science Grads Hitting the Job Market.”

Dice Insights, Dice, 20 June 2019, insights.dice.com/2019/06/20/tips-computer-

science-grads-job-market/.

2. Leslie is a business and careers writer based in Southern California with more than 20 years of

experience in the staffing industry. She has been writing blog posts, sample resumes, and

providing sage career advice to IT professionals in the Dice Community since 2006. Leslie also

has a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism from the University of Southern California.

She has written many articles for Dice that all focus on boosting your career mainly for the tech

industry. This article is likely intended for new computer science graduates and CS upper-

classmen who are focusing on getting a job soon.

3. The article mainly focuses on ways for computer science graduates to increase their

chances of landing a starting job. At the beginning of the article, it also talks a bit about how

great the market is for graduates this year. It then dives into the details that top employers are

looking for in applicants. These details include great development of soft skills, technical

computer skills, and business skills. On top of these skills they are also looking for skills that

drive data-empowered decision-making, such as data analysis, data management and critical

thinking. Next Leslie emphasizes the importance of using sites like LinkedIn and GitHub in

order to display your projects and code snippets to future employers as they look for these items

to judge your work. She also observes the fact that there are many competitors who’ve already

started projects and code repositories in high schools, so she recommends taking internships and
doing side projects if you have fallen behind the competition. Next Leslie argues the importance

of researching the job you are interviewing for in order to gain the necessary knowledge to

answer questions in the interview and to have a good idea of what you’re applying for. Lastly

Leslie supports the idea of studying interview questions using websites like LeetCode or Pramp

in order to boost your confidence and better prepare yourself for the interview, as employers will

often ask coding questions during the interview for you to solve in front of them.

Leslie uses a few statistics founded by the National Association of Colleges and

Employers (NACE) and other professional claims. At the beginning of the article she uses the

NACE’s claim and statistics to prove that computer science and engineering majors are in the top

10 in-demand majors. She also provides the statistics observing that engineering majors starting

salaries increased by 4 percent and that starting salaries for computer science majors increased

by 2.3 percent over 2018’s grads. Another example of her evidence is when she uses a claim

from Chris Pohalski, a career coach, strategist and trainer for STEM and business professionals.

She argues that you have to shoot for being in the top 5 to 10 percent of applicants in order to

attract one or more offers from high-profile companies.

The conclusions Leslie draws from her findings are very reasonable as she doesn’t over-

exaggerate anything and she doesn’t stray too far off her point. Her evidence directly provides

context, examples, and relevant facts about her point which all help support her argument and

don’t contradict in any way. She mainly uses logos through her claims from experts and statistics

from the NACE which all help prove her argument. She uses a bit of pathos by raising

excitement over the current job market for graduates.

4. This voice mainly agrees with my others as this one also agrees that there is a lot of job

security in computer science and that you need to do internships and projects to look good for

employers, like my other sources also believe.

5. “Specifically, employers are looking for grads who have taken machine-learning courses and

know AngularJS in addition to popular building-block languages such as Java, C and C++.” p. 7

“They are also looking for critical combinations of skills and coursework that drive data-

powered decision-making, such as data analysis, data management and critical thinking.” p. 7

“A new CS grad’s code samples on GitHub, along with skill endorsements from intern managers

and colleagues on LinkedIn, carry more weight with a hiring manager than a traditional résumé.”

p. 8

6. This source was very helpful in providing great advice on landing a starting job in CS. It

directly relates to CS graduates transitioning into the workforce and therefore is filled with useful

information on how to better prepare them for the workforce. It provides some general

knowledge and detailed skills that are necessary for CS graduates to know and therefore should

be covered in the classroom. I will likely use this source at the beginning of my thesis in order to

start off with what the employers want, followed by what colleges supply and then the solutions

to the unsatisfied difference.