This Work-Based Learning (WBL) for Computer Science (CS) course was developed by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) under an Education Innovation and Research award (U411C190263) from the U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with the University of Rhode Island and the RI STEAM Center at Rhode Island College. The WBL for CS course materials developed as part of this grant are released free under the Creative Commons Open Education License.

WBL for CS Course Description

This is an 18-week course designed to have 2-3 hours per week of academic instruction in the software development process. An integral part of the course is an industry project where students work as part of a team to create a website, while guided by an industry mentor. The course is designed to be effective for a diverse set of students and includes broadening participation in computing (BPC) support materials for recruiting students into the course, and for inclusive CS course instruction.

CS Workplace
Students learn professional skills and about CS careers.

Ideation
Students learn professional processes to research and choose a website project idea.

Design
Students learn professional design processes and tools to develop the user experience and user interface for their website project.

Implementation
Students learn professional processes for implementing a prototype website and manage it through version control tools.

Testing
Students learn to test their prototype using A/B testing and analytics from user focus groups.

Presentation
Students learn professional presentation skills and present their project to a review panel of industry professionals.

Student Preparation

Before taking this course, students are assumed to have some basic prior programming experience in HTML for the basic project, which is a Google Site. More advanced projects can be done with the same materials if the students, teacher, and industry mentors have more advanced coding skills.

Teacher Preparation

The course is designed for teachers who may not have a background in software development. A vast majority of the instruction is done by Google/Udacity videos where industry professionals teach the software development process. Teachers are meant to be “coaches” and “guides” through the material, not experts. Each summer, the University of Rhode Island (URI) runs synchronous virtual professional development for teachers to instruct the CS WBL course, contact URI for details.

Mentor Preparation

The commitment for an industry mentor is to work with a group of 3-6 students who create a software product, like a website. The minimal commitment for a mentor is 20 hrs total over the 6 months of the course. This includes a 2hr CS WBL mentor training, and the meetings with the students for the project during the semester. More student interaction time is encouraged, but not required. The Mentor Toolkit produced by RIDE for this course has everything the mentor needs to be prepared for each meeting with students.