If you're teaching programming to high-school students, what can you do for students who are ready for an advanced programming course in data structures? Some universities won't accept credit for a high-school data structures course without AP credit for the AP CS AB Exam, but the exam is no longer being given. Fortunately, college transfer credit equivalent to the AP exam is acceptable and available.

If you're planning to teach a data structures course in Java during the second semester of the 2011–2012 school year, you can augment your instruction and get your students college credit by having your students take an online class — in parallel with your course — from the Department of Computer Science at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Your students would be admitted as non-degree students at IIT and register for an online section of Data Structures and Algorithms (CS 331) in Spring 2012.

CS 331 is taught by Dr. Mattox Beckman, an award-winning teacher of computer science. His online lectures will be made available directly from the Spring 2012 semester's live class at IIT as streaming video with synchronized slides. Students who want to review material can replay lectures at will for the entire semester. You or another CS faculty at your school will be supplied with materials to assist with the programming laboratory portion of the class, and you will proctor the exams given by Dr. Beckman.

Last year's high school offering of CS 331 was very successful and included 45 students from Burbank Senior High School, Anderson High School, Dundee-Crown High School, York Community High School, and Northside College Prep.

What will CS 331 cover? Its course outcomes are:

• Explain, implement, and apply the following data structures: lists (unordered and ordered), stacks, queues, expression trees, binary search trees, heaps, hash tables.
• Analyze the time and space complexity of algorithms using asymptotic upper bounds (big-O notation).
• Explain and use references and linked structures.
• Outline basic object-oriented concepts: composition, inheritance, polymorphism.
• Write and test recursive procedures, and explain the run-time stack concept.
• Analyze searching and sorting algorithms, and explain their relationship to data structures.
• Choose and implement appropriate data-structures to solve an application problem.
• Explain how to use unit tests and version control in your software development.

Cost and Requirements: The program is free for Chicago Public School students. For other students, the cost is $250. Your student must have completed a CS1-equivalent course or the AP CS A course/exam with a 4 or better. Some universities will not accept the IIT credit for Data Structures unless the student already has Introductory Programming credit from the AP CS A exam.

Applications are available and are due by November 30, 2011. For more information, please contact Matthew Bauer at IIT.

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