Cloud Computing Curriculum: Developing Exemplar Modules for General Course Inclusion

The accelerating evolution and adoption of cloud computing services is generating increased demand for job skills in this domain. To address this growth, higher education has identified the importance of cloud computing courses that deliver practical and hands-on material relevant to this rapidly evolving field. This is especially relevant as cloud services are quickly becoming the standard computing model for many new computational approaches, including advanced subjects such as machine learning and data science. Since cloud computing influences a number of other traditional computing subjects such as networking and data storage, the ability to incorporate specific components of cloud computing teaching content into a variety of courses has also become important. However, a lack of availability of high-quality teaching material that is easy to integrate, when teaching rapidly evolving cloud-related concepts, continues to be a challenge for instructors. As the volume of teaching material that educators and other providers are willing to share increases, it is important that the content is easily discoverable and accurately catalogued. Using appropriate Learning Objectives (LOs) and tags associated with the correct course material contributes toward a reliable and trustworthy source for faculty. This Working Group (WG) has addressed these challenges by 1) creating a canonical list of LOs, based on the LOs included in the Knowledge Areas (KAs) developed by the ITiCSE working groups in 2018 and 2019; 2) searching for existing teaching material, cataloging the material by LO and then combining the LOs into exemplar modules for some of the more common classes that adopt cloud computing; 3) creating sample syllabi for these exemplars following the ACM Computer Science Curricula 2013 approach; and 4) developing a solution for disseminating the materials and keeping them up to date.