How a Computer Science Professor Is Using Summer Teaching to Finetune for Fall

When the pandemic forced everyone home, many businesses canceled summer internships. “In computer science, that’s not good,” says Peter-Michael Osera, assistant professor of computer science. Internships are a crucial part of career preparation, and “you basically get two stabs at it — sophomore year and junior year. A lot of our students lost opportunities.”

The computer science faculty started talking about what they could do to help students this summer. Once the call for summer teaching volunteers went out, Osera agreed to teach the department’s introductory course. He’s on the schedule to teach it in the fall too.

“It’s funny that I hadn’t ever touched it before,” he says. His main area of research is in programming language theory. He’s also taught just about everything else the department offers.

CS 151 is the only course offered during summer 2020 that spans both terms, so it’s not significantly condensed — it’s being taught over 12 weeks rather than the usual 14 weeks. Osera is teaching synchronously, meeting 4 days a week for an hour-plus online, with his students.

“We’re doing synchronous because the class has the tradition of collaborative work — pair-programming — which has important benefits,” he says. “We want to create well-rounded people so that when they get into the workforce, they know how to work with people. They’re not just lone wolves. That’s the primary design strength for these courses.”

He recognizes how tough it is to teach synchronously online. “Collaboration is difficult. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. How do you actually work in groups?”

One of the things all instructors of CS 151 do is to set expectation, Osera says. “Train people to do the right thing in the programming context. Practicing collaboration is part of the learning.”

Teaching this summer is also informing his work in redesigning his fall version of the course, which will be condensed into 7.5 weeks.

“We’re trying our darnedest to get this as good as possible for the fall,” Osera says. “We really believe we can make it work. It’s different. It requires a lot from faculty and students that’s different. It requires that mental shift. We all remain optimistic for the fall.”

This story is part of a series about Grinnell's summer classes in 2020:

• Grinnell Offers Summer Classes for the First Time Since 1947
• Intellectual Engagement During a Summer with Fewer Options Than Normal