There have been a number of efforts in recent years to attract a wider audience to the computer science major by making the first few years more cooperative and less focused on programming. Below are many efforts, along with some research papers that have studied them.
Introductory Language
- Some introductory courses spend the first half or more using either Alice or Scratch, described in more detail in the k12 section.
- Mark Guzdial pioneered the use of python with a multimedia approach, having students start by manipulating images, sound files, etc.
- With Google's API, you can make a custom search engine or a web page with active content fairly easily. Several universities are piloting introductory programming courses using these libraries.
Intro to CS, not Programming
- Freshman Seminar at UW designed to encourage females to enter computer engineering
- CS Principles is a proposed AP course under development that seeks to broaden participation in computing and computer science. Development is being led by a team of computer science educators organized by the College Board and the National Science Foundation. The idea is to focus on the concepts of computer science without getting bogged down on industry languages.
Pair Programming
- A fun, campy Intro to Pair Programming video created at North Carolina State University to explain the concepts to students.
- There is a rich body of research on pair programming.
- NCWIT has a "Pair Programming-in-a-Box tutorial on how to do pair programming successfully.