Do faculty recognize the difference between computer science and information technology?

Abstract

We asked all of the liberal arts faculty who advise undergraduates on course selection at the 14 colleges in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest a series of questions regarding their perceptions of the personality traits of Computer Science (CS) students, topics they think are covered in CS classes, and their overall impressions of CS. Our goal was to test empirically the hypothesis that many non-CS faculty are unaware of the differences between CS and Information Technology (IT). We received over 200 survey responses, which revealed that, among non-CS faculty, 10% disagree or are neutral that CS should even be part of a liberal arts curriculum, 9% think that CS students are taught to fix printers and other peripherals, and 35% believe that CS students are taught to use Microsoft Word and Excel in their courses. Our results also revealed that 60% of CS faculty believe that men are more interested in CS than are women (although we did not ask why they believe this to be the case). Overall, while we found statistically significant differences between the answers given by CS and non-CS faculty, the overall evidence suggests that the majority of non-CS faculty in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest have a good understanding of CS.