What's in a Social Computing Course: Analyzing Computer and Information Science Syllabi

Social computing systems-such as social media and e-commerce platforms as well as search engines and collaboration software-not only drive vast economic value and societal impact, but are also becoming prominent topics in policy discourse. Although social technology companies heavily recruit students from Computer and Information Science (CS and IS) programs, and social computing is a well-established scholarly field within human-computer interaction (HCI) focused on the social interactions between people mediated through computational systems, little is known about social computing education. Consequently, in this paper we analyzed 25 undergraduate and graduate level courses titled "social computing." First, as a fast-paced discipline that follows developments in computing as well as related societal implications, we highlight foundational and emergent topics. Second, we map these topics onto the life cycle of social computing systems to highlight gaps in coverage. Third, we map social computing topics to the 2023 ACM CS Curricula Body of Knowledge to provide a framework for introducing social computing concepts into CS and IS curricula. We find that social computing courses require diverse skill sets both within HCI and CS, as well as inter-disciplinary concepts from Sociology, Economics, among others. We conclude with guidelines for designing new social computing courses and discuss ways to critically examine the role of-and the power held by-system builders.