Integrating Creative Writing and Computational Thinking to Develop Interdisciplinary Connections

A typical college curriculum does not make it easy for students to establish connections between required general education courses and courses in their majors. Intentional linking of courses from different disciplines using interdisciplinary pedagogical strategies allows students to make those connections while developing the interdisciplinary skills which will benefit their college and post-college careers. In addition to communication, critical thinking and reasoning, and collaborative skills, it has been recently argued that computational thinking (i.e., the application of computing concepts and methods to solve problems) should also be a part of a twenty-first century liberal education for a broad range of college students, including those not majoring in computing. Computational thinking concepts and skills can help students frame problems in a variety of fields and disciplines (not just STEM disciplines) using novel strategies, and, in so doing, to become better problem solvers in their professions. At our institution, many students not majoring in computing (or a STEM discipline) take a firstyear problem-solving with computer programming course (PS), which is designed for Computer Science majors, to satisfy the computer literacy/fluency requirement in their degree or to learn computational thinking concepts and skills. However, since PS is a gateway course for Computer Science majors, it is even more challenging for non-majors, resulting in high non-passing and withdrawal rates. To integrate computational thinking in required liberal arts courses, we created a general education interdisciplinary course, Programming Narratives: Computer Animated Storytelling, aimed at non-computer majors, which emphasizes creative writing and computational thinking. In this interdisciplinary course, students learn the structure of narrative, concepts of problem solving, and the logic of computer programming languages as they develop a narrative-driven video game prototype. This process helps students achieve the college-wide learning goal of making meaningful and multiple connections among the liberal arts majors, as well as between the liberal arts and the areas of study leading to a major or profession. Our findings suggest that the learning objectives and the pedagogical approaches used in the course are adequate for a broad range of non-computer majors. Performance on writing and computing assessments as well as final grades (75% of students obtained a grade of C or better) indicated that a vast majority of students successfully achieved the learning objectives. These results were consistent with student perceptions as reflected in an end-of-course survey. There is also evidence that students satisfactorily integrated creative writing and computer programming to develop their video game prototypes, making in-depth interdisciplinary connections along the way. We believe that this intentional emphasis on connections between disciplines develops the interdisciplinary skills and perspectives which are important for graduation, and it lays the groundwork for interdisciplinary thinking in the workplace. 1. Interdisciplinary Learning in Undergraduate Education Undergraduate degree programs consist of courses for a major and general education courses. Each degree program has learning outcomes mapped to the outcomes of its courses. Ideally, students establish synergistic connections among the different courses in the curriculum. However, abundant evidence suggests that transfer of skills between courses is relatively rare. Students often do not make connections between general education courses and courses in the major, or among courses in the major. While many factors hinder this transfer of learning, part of the problem may be the instructor’s pedagogical approach. Conversely, when instructors use reflective writing, contextualize learning experiences, and apply learning to real life, they help students make connections among disciplines. However, regardless of the strategies used, curriculum and course design must emphasize the connections among courses to stimulate the transfer of learning. The primary strategy used at our institution to connect courses is the first-year learning community (LC) model, in which a group of students enroll in two or more courses, generally in different disciplines, linked by a common theme in an academic semester. For over 10 years, the academic performance of our students participating in LCs reflects national trends. To develop further an interdisciplinary culture, our institution now requires students to complete an interdisciplinary general education course. This emphasis on connections between courses and disciplines helps in developing interdisciplinary skills and perspectives important for degree completion while laying the groundwork for interdisciplinary thinking in the workplace upon graduation. 2. Integrating Computational Thinking in a Liberal Education Computing permeates all disciplines and areas of knowledge, and so it could be argued that computational thinking—including the application of computing concepts and skills to solve problems, not only in Computer Science but also in other disciplines—should be a part of a twenty-first century liberal education for a broad range of college students, including those not majoring in computing. Computational thinking can help students to frame problems in STEM disciplines and a variety of other fields, and, in so doing, to become better problem solvers in their professions. Currently, many students not majoring in Computer Science at our institution take the first-year PS course, designed for Computer Science majors, to satisfy the computer literacy requirement in their degree or to learn computational thinking concepts. However, since PS is a gateway course for Computer Science majors, it is even more challenging for non-majors. In a recent assessment of computer programming concepts and skills, 44 percent of Computer Science majors taking the PS course without being a part of a LC demonstrated an adequate understanding of computer programming concepts and could write viable programs. When computer majors take PS as part of a LC, the percentage of students with adequate performance increases to 56 percent. In contrast, only 30 percent of non-majors taking PS courses for nonmajors that are not part of a LC perform adequately in computer programming concepts and skills. These results of the assessments above indicate that teaching computational thinking concepts and skills to non-majors requires pedagogical strategies which are different than those that may work with Computer Science majors. Two issues are important in designing either a computational thinking course, or a course that introduces computational thinking elements, for a broad range of college students, including nonmajors: (1) what knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire in the course, and (2) what learning context and pedagogical approach to use in order to make computational thinking more accessible. In our view, a computational thinking course should include a combination of procedural and object-oriented programming concepts, including the steps required in using computers to solve a problem and the use of flowcharting techniques and such programming structures as sequencing, repetition loops, and decision statements to solve an algorithm. It is also important that students are introduced to concepts of object-oriented programming, such as classes, objects, properties, and methods. The selection of the learning context and pedagogical approach used to teach those concepts results from our experience in linking writing and computer programming in the interdisciplinary LC. Just as an interdisciplinary context linking writing and computer programming was beneficial for Computer Science majors, so can it also contribute to facilitate the learning of computational thinking concepts and skills for nonmajors. 3. Interdisciplinary Creative Writing and Computational Thinking Course for Non-Majors We have developed an interdisciplinary course, Programming Narratives: Computer Animated Storytelling (PN), designed to help non-computer systems major students develop computational thinking skills through computer programming combined with writing skills to satisfy the college requirement of an interdisciplinary liberal arts and science course. The PN course combines the perspectives and methodologies of two academic disciplines, English and Computer Science, in pursuit of a common goal. The common goal is to create a narrative-driven videogame prototype so students can identify with that which is immersive, engaging, and rewarding. To complete this video game prototype, students need the perspectives and methodologies in two distinct academic disciplines, English and Computer Science. Students rely on the perspectives and methodologies learned in the English component of the course to develop a story. The reading of various kinds of short narratives is very valuable in helping the students make the kinds of connections necessary to recognize synergies between writing stories and writing programs. As part of the course, students read, annotate, and discuss short narratives of various kinds (e.g., short stories, myth, plays, fantasy, horror, science fiction, historical fiction, and quest narratives as well as open-ended stories) and apply appropriate narrative structures to the construction of their video game prototype. As students study the structure of narratives and learn problem-solving strategies for writing, they are introduced to concepts of problem solving using constructs of logic inherent in computer programming languages. Students then implement the story as a computer program with the perspectives and methodologies learned in the computing component. Such gained knowledge facilitates creative writing and the application of solutions to computer programmin