The CS0 effort focuses on adoption of pre-CS, a three-unit course that uses graphics and animation to engage and prepare students who have no prior experience in computing. Students are provided with an opportunity to learn the basics of programming concepts and to develop problem solving and systemic reasoning skills, while becoming familiar with a programming environment. A course at Georgia Tech that uses collaborative multimedia to attract and prepare students also has been effective. Such CS0 courses can serve as a recruitment and motivational tool to attract students who are taking it as one of their science or general studies electives. 

The intervention addresses the lack of preparedness of students to succeed in their first computer science course. CS0 courses are helpful when students are under prepared or have false confidence about their abilities to succeed in CS1, as tends to be the case for Hispanics and others from underrepresented groups. 

The lead institutions are CSU-DH and UHD. UHD, CSU-DH, TAMU-CC, and NMSU are adopting the CMU model using Alice. UTEP is adopting the Georgia Tech model using Python.