The prevalence of technology across disciplines has created a need for non-computing majors to learn programming and computing practices. Despite this, there is a lack of research documenting current programming course offerings for non-computing majors. Therefore, it is unclear how common these courses are, what fields these courses support, what programming languages are used in the courses, and what departments and institutions offer these courses. To answer these questions, we explored how and where computing is integrated into STEM and non-STEM undergraduate programs within different disciplines based on 81 survey responses of instructors teaching introductory programming courses at the 50 largest public universities in the United States. Our results indicate that computing courses are commonly offered to students of STEM and non-STEM disciplines in a variety of different programming languages.
Authors
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Audrey DeHoog has received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Florida Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering in Gainesville, Florida. She is currently in the application process to start an engineering education PhD program in the Fall 2025 semester. She is interested in CS education, diversity and inclusion in engineering education, and higher education.
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Jeremiah Blanchard is an Assistant Engineer at the University of Florida in the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department, where he teaches and conducts research in computer science education. Previously, he served as Program Director of Gam
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Amy Wu is a undergraduate researcher in Computer Science from the University of Florida. Her research focuses on understanding and building communication for learning technologies and experiences. She is always seeking for more opportunities in human-AI interaction and collaboration.
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John R. Hott is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. His research interests include scaling the classroom using LLMs and Artificial Intelligence, student use of collaboration policies, student engagement with course resources, academic integrity, and tools to support Computing Education and Computing Education Research.
Note
The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on
June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025