Stanford Turns To Pair Programming: 1 CS Education For the Price of 2?

theodp writes: Stanford students may pay $44,184 in tuition, but that may not even entitle them to individually graded homework. The Stanford Daily reports that this quarter, Stanford's Computer Science Department will implement 'pair programming' in the introductory computer science courses CS 106A: Programming Methodology and CS 106B: Programming Abstractions. "The purpose of this change," reports the paper, "is to reduce the increasingly demanding workload for section leaders due to high enrollment and also help students to develop important collaboration skills." The CS 106A Pair Programming Q&A page further explains, "Our enrollments have grown rapidly, and we are trying to explore creative new ways to manage student work that will also reduce the heavy workload on our section leaders," adding that students who don't get with the Pair Programming program and elect to go solo will not be awarded "late days" that can be used to avoid penalties on overdue assignments, unlike their paired classmates. Google in November put out an RFP to universities for its invite-only 3X in 3 Years: CS Capacity Award program, which aimed "to support faculty in finding innovative ways to address the capacity problem in their CS courses," which included a suggestion that "students that have some CS background" should not be allowed to attend in-person intro CS courses. Coincidentally, Google Director of Education and University Relations Maggie Johnson, whose name appeared on the CS Capacity RFP, was Director of Undergraduate Studies in Stanford's CS Department before joining Google.

Comments

Less Supervsion for More Money

[Anonymous Coward]

Makes sense, right?

Students go to school to learn.
I always did better with personal access to my teachers and I never knew more than the teacher/instructor/professor (that is, Not Graduate "Assistants").
I always did better with personal attention. Some concepts are not easy to grasp.

But Standford, refusing to hire more "Educational Helpers" gets the students to teach each other.
And they wrap this dismal plan in teaching the student how to work together. (I always liked linking my fate to ignorant classmates.)
More money for less education.
Bunch of turds.

The university system needs a reality check

[Karmashock]

The education bubble has been something people have been talking about for years. It is coming. What am I getting from most of these classes that I couldn't get from a good online course? Or better yet an online course with some sort of proctor in a class room that managed the class? professor isn't going to grade my work anyway. So what is the difference?

That way at least you might get a top class lecturer.

Re:it's XP all again

[mwvdlee]

I wonder; was there ever such a thing as "Pair architecture" or "Pair mathematics"?