A rapidly growing consortium of over 65 national private colleges today announced a collaborative effort with Google to offer cutting-edge, industry-relevant computer science courses to students throughout the country. This collaboration is geared toward offering more accessible, high-quality educational opportunities to students of all backgrounds.
This Computer Science major is one of the LCMC’s growing list of
collaborative majors being launched on national private college campuses throughout the country this fall. Each of these majors is developed by leading academics and practitioners to ensure their effectiveness and relevance for students. The new curriculum is then taught by a select number of LCMC professors at participating colleges via a distance education model to help provide expert instruction to students while simultaneously lowering the cost of education. By working together, LCMC colleges hope to preserve all of the aspects of the college experience that make it great, while also innovating on the model to provide students and parents with an enhanced, financially viable experience.
“The LCMC model has truly cracked the code for improved and more affordable Higher Education opportunities” said Dr. Jeffrey Docking, President of Adrian College and a member of the LCMC Steering Committee. “By combining industry expertise with highly nimble colleges that can adapt and adjust curriculum quickly, students can finally learn the exact skills they need. Google’s input on the CS curriculum is an exciting development for students who want to be prepared for a variety of high tech jobs in the future.”
This collaboration stems from Google’s Applied Computing Series launched on several LCMC college campuses in 2017 under the leadership of Dr. Maggie Johnson, VP of Education and University Relations, and Google’s Engineering Education team who created a similarly scaled, centrally delivered computer science curriculum. “Google is very pleased to provide guidance and support to these wonderful historic colleges,” Johnson said, “because it will lead to increased access to high-quality Computer Science education for students who might not otherwise have it. Given the shortage of computer science professors in the United States, this type of collaborative model is essential to reach more students. The LCMC has taken the model of instruction that we designed for the Applied Computing Series program, refined it, and taken it to the next level.”
In addition to support from Google, the curriculum is built in partnership with University of Michigan Professor Dr. Charles Severance, one of the leading technology educators in the country. “In today’s world, Computer Science is becoming more and more like a liberal art, in that it is increasingly important for everyday citizens to be ‘technology literate’” said Dr. Severance. “This curriculum is designed to not only prepare students to work in the technology sector, but to teach students from a more diverse set of backgrounds key technical concepts that are critical to professional success regardless of one’s chosen field.”
Google and Dr. Severance are just some of the many sponsors of the LCMC’s
collaborative majors available in high demand, job relevant areas. Through this initiative, LCMC schools are striving to improve outcomes in the job market for their students while simultaneously lowering tuition. The Computer Science major is in the process of being adopted by numerous LCMC members (
listed below), with many more looking to implement the major as soon as possible in order to offer their students high-quality, industry-relevant curriculum in this high demand field:
“With over 3 million jobs available in Computer Science related fields, as well as the increasing emphasis placed on basic technical skills in all careers, college graduates with programming competency will be increasingly valued by top employers” said Michael Alexander, President of Lasell University and Founder of the LCMC. “LCMC institutions are therefore incredibly excited to be able to offer a high-quality Computer Science program to their respective students, and could not be more appreciative of Google’s willingness to ensure that students are learning the most up-to-date concepts and skill-sets.”
For more information on the LCMC Computer Science Major, or the LCMC’s collaborative majors in general, please reach out to Kevin Harrington, Assistant to the President for Innovation at Adrian College, at kharrington@adrian.edu.
About the Lower Cost Models Consortium (LCMC):
The LCMC is a national consortium of fully accredited, non-profit colleges and universities formed in 2015 under the leadership of Lasell University President Michael Alexander. Members of the LCMC are committed to working together to address the challenges of increasing costs in Higher Education by implementing innovative programs and reducing institutional costs for these programs so as to pass along savings to students. In this way, the LCMC hopes to develop new models of higher education that benefit students while simultaneously contributing to the sustainability of accredited, non-profit, 4-year institutions.
