Collaboration Across the Curriculum: A Disciplined Approach to Developing Team Skills

Improving communication and collaborative skills of computer science students has been a priority in the community for some time. We present our philosophy, collaboration across the curriculum, which moves beyond existing individual courses or course units to teach collaboration skills in a pervasive manner. In our approach, concepts are introduced and skills are developed throughout the computer science curriculum-from CS1 to a capstone experience. Students are provided with opportunities to exercise skills in reflective environments that eventually mirror real-world experiences, and technical course content is not compromised. We argue for this system and provide details about how collaboration across the curriculum is accomplished at a small liberal arts college.