Yale Could Start Offering A Version Of Harvard's Hugely Popular Computer Science Class
The Harvard Crimson reports that Yale's computer science department is currently reviewing a proposal to stream CS50 lectures at Yale, "where an on-the-ground instructor and support staff, including teaching fellows, will hold standard sections and office hours and handle grading."
If approved, Yale could begin offering CS50 to its students in fall 2015.
CS50, taught by Harvard professor David J. Malan, provides an introduction to computer science and programming, covering topics such as algorithms, software engineering, and web development, according to Harvard's course catalog. Students also learn computer languages including PHP and JavaScript.
The class has become hugely popular at Harvard because it serves a broad audience, Harvard professor Harry Lewis, a former Harvard College dean who serves as director of undergraduate studies for the computer science department, recently told Business Insider.
"[CS50] is the introductory course for computer science concentrations, and it's also a course for students who want a serious introduction but are not planning to be majors," Lewis said.
Malan, a dynamic lecturer, is also popular with students, Lewis said, describing him as "a fabulous teacher" who is "very, very innovative in how he's rethinking the traditional parts of the course."
Yale computer science professor James Aspnes, who also serves as the director of undergraduate studies for the department, told The Crimson that his "understanding is that...Harvard's CS50 has substantially more resources than we do at Yale." CS50 receives external funding from tech companies such as Facebook and Google, The Crimson reported last month.
This partnership comes at a time when the number of computer science students seems to be rapidly increasing. The Crimson reports that Yale has around 200 undergraduate CS majors, while Harvard has 253.
848 Harvard students are currently enrolled in CS50, making it the most popular undergraduate course in the school. This week, a university report revealed that for the first time ever more Harvard undergraduates majored in engineering and applied science fields than studied in the arts and humanities.