Work in progress - introduction to computers: An interdisciplinary approach

Computing is now a necessary part of all academic disciplines, not just the one labeled Computer Science. However, most of our service courses in computing fail to adequately address these interdisciplinary needs. In the past, the typical computer literacy course has been an overview of Microsoft Office, or some similar set of tools. Most students entering the university today already have a working knowledge of these programs. Instead, they need a more in-depth understanding of the computing tools required for a specific discipline. Our current research is exploring the possibility of a new computer literacy curriculum designed to better meet the needs of the entire student population. The concept includes developing one unit modules to cover topics of interest to a particular major or group of majors. Each discipline could choose one or two modules to include in their required curriculum, or to recommend to their students. This paper presents the techniques used for, and preliminary results of a study designed to understand the computing needs of the various disciplines as a precursor to designing such modules.