Teaching Programming and Design-by-Contract

This paper summarizes the experience of teaching an introductory course to programming by using a correctness by construction approach at Innopolis University, Russian Federation. In this paper we claim that division in beginner and advanced groups improves the learning outcomes, present the discussion and the data that support the claim.Comment: 21th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learnin

Collaborative filtering recommendation system : a framework in massive open online courses

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are growing relatively rapidly in the education environment. There is a need for MOOCs to move away from its one-size-fit-all mode. This framework will introduce an algorithm based recommendation system, which will use a collaborative filtering method (CFM). Collaborative filtering method (CFM) is the process of evaluating several items through the rating choices of the participants. Recommendation system is widely becoming popular in online study activities; we want to investigate its support to learning and encouragement to more effective participation. This research will be reviewing existing literature on recommender systems for online learning and its support to learners’ experiences. Our proposed recommendation system will be based on course components rating. The idea was for learners to rate the course and components they have studied in the platform between the scales of 1 – 5. After the rating, we then extract the values into a comma separated values (CSV) file then implement recommendation using Python programming based on learners with similar rating patterns. The aim was to recommend courses to different users in a text editor mode using Python programming. Collaborative filtering will act upon similar rating patterns to recommend courses to different learners, so as to enhance their learning experience and enthusiasm

Facilitating Online Learning via Zoom Breakout Room Technology : A Case of Pair Programming Involving Students with Learning Disabilities

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required many educators to redesign how they deliver their courses. In this study, we develop innovative procedures and pedagogy to teach pair programming via Zoom breakout rooms in a cloud environment. We report six fundamental innovative teaching mechanisms and procedures: 1) strategically planning a course, 2) effectively managing teaching resources, 3) enhancing faculty responsiveness, 4) selecting reliable technology, 5) mandating online educator’s training, and 6) accommodating students with learning disabilities. From teaching pair programming via Zoom breakout rooms, we have gained valuable experience in promoting collaborative, engaging, active, and problem-based learning activities in a cloud environment. Our results enrich our knowledge of delivering online education and contribute to pair programming literature in general

Educating the Internet-of-Things generation

As highlighted by the articles in this special issue, the concept of the Internet of Things is becoming increasingly important and understanding both the technical underpinning and wider societal impacts of the Internet of Things (IoT) will be crucial for digital citizens of the future. Building on extensive experience in delivering large-scale distance learning, The Open University has redesigned its introductory computer science curriculum to place the Internet of Things at the centre of students’ experience, in a course called My Digital Life. In this article we present the design of this module, including a learning infrastructure that allows complete novices to experiment with, and learn about, Internet of Things technologies. We also share our experience of having almost 2000 students participate in the first presentation of the course, engaging in a range of activities that include collaborative and collective programming of real-world sensing applications

A novel design education approach for professional global product realization

Emerging trends in design practice, such as collaborative design and multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary (multi-x) teamwork, call for ongoing changes in design education. Educational institutions need to be proactive in adapting to such trends, in order to ensure an adequate development of the design competences of their students. The graduated design students must be able to effectively solve real-life new product development (NPD) problems in multi-x environments. In this paper we present a novel approach towards design education, where special focus is put on multi-x collaboration of design students in solving NPD tasks. We present the idea of an Academic Virtual Enterprise (AVE), a project oriented educational agreement, which is based on volatile alliance of industrial and academic partners for mutual advantages. A course, called Global Product Realization (GPR) is presented as an example of how to implement AVE into design education and provide a stimulating learning environment for students in several disciplines (i.e. mechanical engineering, programming, electronics, design, etc.), where they can get experience in multi-x collaboration in NPD and develop several aspects of design competences needed for their future professional practice

Teaching Computer Programming Through Hands-on Labs on Cognitive Computing

In this work we report the experience of a long-lasting educational project that we have been carrying since a couple of years. In particular, we summarize the results achieved by students in the last year, when they were put to work on the collaborative development of small, yet full featured, software projects. At the same time, based on more recent findings, we seek to lay the foundations to build a pragmatic model to teach cognitive computing programming. The experience was carried on in a Programming course at the Universities of Naples “Federico II” and Genoa, in Italy, and fostered the use of a PaaS (Platform as a Service) environment for a cooperative learning activity, used to disseminate theoretical concepts acquired within the course, also by means of cognitive computing tools. The project, from its inception, has involved a relevant number of students. Initially, the experiment had to be concluded in one year but, instead, has continued evolving with new projects, as new tools and services were made available, carrying new opportunities. The evolution has led, in the most recent release, to using the IBM Bluemix platform with its wide range of components, including Watson. This work goes in the direction of developing the smart university model, by using innovative and intelligent services to help develop a new generation of applications, but also to promote and disseminate a new way for designing and building them

A collaborative approach to learning programming: a hybrid learning model

The use of cooperative working as a means of developing collaborative skills has been recognised as vital in programming education. This paper presents results obtained from preliminary work to investigate the effectiveness of Pair Programming as a collaborative learning strategy and also its value towards improving programming skills within the laboratory. The potential of Problem Based Learning as a means of further developing cooperative working skills along with problem solving skills is also examined and a hybrid model encompassing both strategies outlined

Contemporary developments in teaching and learning introductory programming: Towards a research proposal

The teaching and learning of introductory programming in tertiary institutions is problematic. Failure rates are high and the inability of students to complete small programming tasks at the completion of introductory units is not unusual. The literature on teaching programming contains many examples of changes in teaching strategies and curricula that have been implemented in an effort to reduce failure rates. This paper analyses contemporary research into the area, and summarises developments in the teaching of introductory programming. It also focuses on areas for future research which will potentially lead to improvements in both the teaching and learning of introductory programming. A graphical representation of the issues from the literature that are covered in the document is provided in the introduction

Introducing semi-open learning/teaching into fundamental programming subjects

Due to the development of Internet applications, semi-open learning is increasingly being introduced into traditional face-to-face learning and teaching. In several engineering degrees many subjects are developed using a project based learning paradigm and therefore the introduction of semi-open elements seems quite natural for these subjects; it is not the case, however, of the fundamental programming subjects which are still developed using a traditional blackboard approach and have a clear lack of experience in introducing both project-based learning and semi-open learning and teaching approach. In this work we bring the two year experience gained during the innovative teaching project “Semi-open learning through sharing of information and knowledge in a virtual environment”1 at the Industrial School of Terrassa, Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The aim of the project was to develop and evaluate a methodology that would allow the introduction of semi-open learning into fundamental programming subjects using web applications. We will show here the main aspects of such methodology as well as issues we were faced to during its implementation and evaluation in a real learning/teaching environment. Our approach was implemented using the Basic Support for Collaborative Work (BSCW) though it is independent of the web application used. An additional feature of the BSCW system we have explored is the log file information on students’ actions kept by the BSCW server. We use an ad hoc software that processes the log files and stores the information in a database, which can be then used for statistical analysis. The information resulting from log files analysis is a very helpful tool for the teachers to monitor the students’ activity during the course development and intervene whenever necessary, for instance, to detect low activity students and avoid students’ abandonment. We will discuss the benefits of our approach in improving the overall learning outcome of the students and also its drawbacks especially as regards the additional amount of work it could imply for the teachers.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version