Foothill CS49/Code in Place Section Leader
Volunteer | | Links:
Presently I am continuing to volunteer as a Section Leader for Foothill College’s CS49 course, a collaborative effort between Foothill College and Stanford Digital Education using Stanford’s Code in Place educational platform.
Program Overview
From Spring 2024 Foothill College and Stanford Digital Education have been collaborating on integrating Stanford’s online learning platform and course, Code in Place, into Foothill College’s curriculum. This effort has resulted in the current iteration of Foothill College’s CS49, a remote transferrable credit granting introductory computer science course.
Code in Place
Section Leader
I have volunteered as a Section Leader since the course’s inception in Spring 2024 and continue to do so presently. Code in Place emphasizes the impact of the “human touch” in remote learning and Section Leaders exist to provide a sizeable portion of that. They meet with a sub-group of students on a weekly basis and provide additional instructional support on the curriculum along with oversight on weekly programming challenges.
The programming challenges provide students with an opportunity to collaborate with their cohorts on developing solutions to problems related to their current lecture topics. Section Leaders guide the group through the challenges, providing critical insights into developing student programming practices and theory.
Technical Curriculum
Code in Place students begin their programming journey in Python and cover the following wide array of topics:
- Control Flow
- Stepwise Refinement
- Expressions
- Functions
- Graphics
- Animation
- Data Structures
Download presentation: Example Code in Place Section Lecture Slides (PDF)
Community Impact
Code in Place serves as a gateway into Computer Science for many non-traditional students. Being a non-traditional student myself, I welcomed the opportunity to support others in similar circumstances wanting to gain increasingly critical programming skills. It provides me with the chance to put the knowledge I’ve been accumulating in my own career shifting journey to good use. As a Section Leader, I function as an educator and a mentor, and thrive on watching students realize their own tenacity and potential in crafting their own tech inspired futures.
Educational Involvement & Skills
Having completed two quarters as a Section Leader, I have contributed a collection of lecture presentation materials to the Code in Place instructional library. Section Leaders are provided with ample resources for conducting each Section and so to contribute, I developed additional section materials derived from those resources.
This role has enabled me to grow my own instructional skills in a profound way. Code in Place Sections consist of weekly lecture reviews, focused student support and group programming challenges. They serve as a welcoming space that is often instrumental in student course completion, as students can expect support in mainting progress through the curriculum. I regularly request student feedback on how I can bring more value to our Section meetings, and learn as much from the students as they do from me.
