Welcome to the Sprint!

Why are we here?

• Culture shift: Moving away from individual, isolated course maintenance toward a collaborative, community-owned approach.
• Connecting research to practice: Directly engaging with the Computing Education Research Lab (CERL) to implement evidence-based teaching practices.
• Valuing your labor: Ensuring your work is documented as a meaningful indicator of department service and teaching excellence portfolios.

What We've Done So Far

Our planning up to this point has been entirely driven by your collective input:

• Written survey: Collected initial data on departmental "pain points," course-level frustrations, and institutional goals.
• Two focus group sessions: Conducted 90-minute deep dives with faculty and graduate TAs.

This generated a rich set of observed themes, student struggles, and programmatic disconnects that will serve as a jumping-off point for our work today.

Goals for this session

Try to move quickly from high-level feedback to hands-on development:

• Review Key Themes: Briefly walk through the structural, content-based, and technical categories identified in the focus groups.
• Broad Brainstorming: Map these insights into expansive ideas for targeted curriculum improvements.
• Scope & Triage: Filter these broad ideas into viable summer sprint projects.
• Form Teams: Group up around shared interests and establish our baseline developer roles.

Framing the Focus Group Data

At the highest level, we observed the following:

Classroom Structure & Pedagogical Approaches
Addressing student engagement, the "group rush" mentality, and the widespread impact of Generative AI.

Course Content & Learning Goal Alignment
Targeting content rot, updating stale datasets, and closing persistent gaps in tools like Git.

Technical Implementation & Accessibility
Streamlining local software environments, fixing PDF export blocks, and removing screen-reader barriers.

Project Formation, Step 1: Review the Shared Summary

Take a few minutes to browse the document shared on the sprint website highlighting the exact student friction points across CMSE 201, 202, 314, and 411.

Project Formation, Step 2: Group Up by Mutual Interest

Move to the designated tables or virtual spaces that align closest with your interests:

• Table 1: Pedagogy, AI Integration, & Classroom Structure.
• Table 2: Course Content, Datasets, & Learning Goals.
• Table 3: Tooling, Environments, Grading Automation, & Accessibility.

Project Formation, Step 3: Unconstrained Brainstorming

At your tables, brainstorm curriculum enhancements based on the focus group data.

• Rule: Think broadly! Do not worry about scope, labor constraints, or technical limitations yet.
• Action Item: Designate a scribe to collect and record all ideas inside our shared document.

Project Formation, Step 4: Triaging to Sprint Scope

Now, work within your groups to filter and shape these ideas into viable summer projects. Use the following criteria:

• Getting the scope right: It shouldn't be so simple that it can be completed in an afternoon, but it shouldn't be so massive that it anchors you all summer.
• Lean into momentum: Choose something that generates excitement and can establish a highly functional baseline over the next few weeks.
• Collaborative architecture: Ensure the project has distinct components so that more than one person can actively contribute.

Team Characteristics & Composition

As we work to form teams, we're aiming to establish small groups of 2 to 4 people structured with the following ideal profiles:

Final Step: Group Formation

Facilitating the Match

To ensure everyone lands on a project they care about with a balanced team:

1. Review the consolidated list of triaged projects inside the shared workspace document.
2. Complete the brief preference-ranking form that we'll send out no later than 2pm.

We will review the preference data to form our 2-4 person sprint teams and match everyone to a project avenue. Teams will be announced during Session 3.

Thanks!

This was a great first step in building a shared vision for the sprint and connecting your expertise to the work ahead!

Questions or concerns? Reach out to Devin or Sona