Modern Constraint Programming Education: Lessons for the Future
This work addresses educational challenges in constraint programming for instructors and students, but it is incremental as it builds on existing teaching methods.
The paper examines modern constraint programming education, focusing on online and virtual delivery methods, and presents a novel approach used in a large-scale introductory course at Georgia Tech, summarizing key takeaways and proposing ideas for future growth.
This paper details an outlook on modern constraint programming (CP) education through the lens of a CP instructor. A general overview of current CP courses and instructional methods is presented, with a focus on online and virtually-delivered courses. This is followed by a discussion of the novel approach taken to introductory CP education for engineering students at large scale at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, GA, USA. The paper summarizes important takeaways from the Georgia Tech CP course and ends with a discussion on the future of CP education. Some ideas for instructional methods, promotional methods, and organizational changes are proposed to aid in the long-term growth of CP education.