On Enhancing Application-Ability Training in Discrete Mathematics

In this work-in-progress innovative practice paper, we argue the application-ability training in Discrete Mathematics (DM) should be enhanced for students majoring in computing science. Our motivation is based on the analysis of the differences in learning outcomes between DM and other branches of Math courses, the special role of DM in computer science (CS) courses and the gaps between DM and other CS courses. Motivated by the above analysis, we rethink of CS undergraduate education program as a DM-centric program. Furthermore, we make an experimental implementation of the DM-centric program and enhance application-ability training by designing and adopting many large-scale projects from various related topics, such as database, satisfiability, deductive proof and so on. Each project is decomposed into several sub-projects, which are integrated with a project-based learning environment. The large-scale projects derived from related CS courses enable students to get in touch with various computing topics related to DM applications at an early stage in the learning process. The learning environment with the ability of automatic assessment enables students to complete the projects in a step-by-step manner. The preliminary feedback from 219 students after taking the redesigned DM course shows the promising effects on students' following learning.