In 2007, about 50 students enrolled in professor Stephanie Weirich’s Computer Science 120 course, a beginning course intended for students with a background in the discipline. This semester, the class was nearly three times as large, enrolling 170 students.
Since only about 200 students fit in the largest Engineering lecture hall —Towne 100 — the issue of overcrowding may be on the horizon for CIS 120 and other computer science courses.
To address the growing numbers, the Computer Science department has hired more teaching assistants and is creating more recitation sections.
According to professor Stephan Zdancewic, the undergraduate chair of the Computer Science Department, the enrollment in all engineering departments — including computer science — at Penn and other universities across the country is rapidly increasing. Additionally, more students from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School choose to take introductory computer science courses.
“Enrollment has gone up so much. Starting last year, the demand for [Computer Science 110] has exceeded the capacity of the largest engineering auditorium … I would say that [the department is] not yet overcrowded, but we are at the limit,” Zdancewic said.
Professors look at growing class sizes with a mix of excitement and unease. “As an instructor, I’m happy about it because I think [computer science] is a very important thing to learn. But as an instructor, I’m very concerned about the quality of my course. We’ve been working hard to accommodate [more students] but it is a lot of work,” Weirich said.
In order to accommodate increased student enrollment, the department has added extra lectures and hired a new instructor, lecturer Benedict Brown, to teach the popular CIS 110. The class now has multiple lectures each semester, as opposed to only one last semester.
The department is also offering CIS 240 for both semesters instead of only once a year because there was a long waiting list last year.
Other courses, such as CIS 200, had to turn students away last semester. CIS 195 — a popular half-credit elective about iPhone app development — is also difficult to get into and turns students away.
The department has also had to open up additional recitations and hire more TAs in order to allow more students to take their courses.
“We’re pretty much at capacity and had to open up another recitation … [but] looking at the recitation sections [now], we have very comfortable numbers,” said Jason Kong, a Wharton and Engineering sophomore and TA for CIS 120.
Still, the Computer Science 120 lecture hall was very full at the start of the semester. “At the beginning, when everyone goes to class, [space] becomes a problem. But as the year goes on, not everyone comes to class,” Kong said.
Grading additional assignments is one problem that the department was able to solve both by hiring additional TAs and implementing a computer system to grade homework.
According to Jason Merrin, a senior in Engineering studying Digital Media Design and a TA in the course, the instructor of CIS 110 has also set up automated systems to alert himself when students’ grades fall below a certain level so that they can get individual attention.
However, CIS 110 still seems overcrowded because, according to Merrin, students who are registered for the morning lecture choose to sleep in and go to the afternoon lecture instead.
Overcrowding is also felt by students at office hours.
“I think office hours is the one area where this issue comes up,” Kong said. “Close to the deadline [and with] harder projects, you see a spikes [in attendance].”
In addition to an increased number of TAs, the department hired CIS 110 mentors, who answer questions at office hours, but do not teach recitation sections, to help alleviate this issue.
The department also implemented an online system on Piazza where students can submit questions for TAs to answer. The questions and answers are then posted publicly so that other students can reference them.
“I think [Piazza] is pretty good,” said Alex Brashear, a sophomore in computer science and mentor for CIS 110. “Computer science is a subject where you really rely on office hours so it’s helpful to have this system to get your questions answered.”
There is no guarantee that the courses will continue to grow at the same rate. “These things are cyclical,” Weirich said. “Enrollment went way up 1999, 2000, 2001, then decreased. It’s very hard to say if this is the new normal or if it will go down.”
While the Class of 2017 can expect large lectures, they will also have lots of TAs and more interactive lectures. Professors say that they are looking for ways to keep large lectures engaging.
“I look into how I can flip my classrooms so that my lecture is not just a lecture but interactive,” Weirich said.
__The article has been updated from a previous version that incorrectly identified a computer science course on iPhone app development as CIS 190. The class is actually CIS 195._
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.