Faculty

The Luther Computer Science faculty are committed to research and education. Most recently the faculty have worked extensively in the area of Computer Science Education. In addition to the numerous texts the faculty have written and published, some of the latest teaching techniques are also being explored at Luther.

New Techniques

Active learning plays a big role in the Computer Science department at Luther. In his introductory class, Kent Lee uses flip teaching where students watch lectures outside of class and do homework in class allowing students get instant feedback while learning to program. The lectures for this style of flip teaching are available on Youtube. Recently Miller and Ranum have created a new interactive textbook publishing system and used it to publish their Franklin Beedle text, and a new introductory text called How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Interactive Edition. Both books, as well as the publishing system, are open source and are being used in computer science courses around the world.

Student Research

Student research is also encouraged at Luther. In 2008 a project called "Ride Share" was initiated which is a sustainability project designed to encourage students in the Luther community to share rides. This program has been made available to the open source community and several other colleges are now using the Luther developed ride share program. In addition, every Senior Computer Science major at Luther is required to participate in a Senior Project where they develop a software project of their choice in a year-long experience that gives them a taste of what real-life software development is like.