6,791 research outputs found
Introductory programming: a systematic literature review
As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming.
This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research
TVOCs and PM 2.5 in Naturally Ventilated Homes: Three Case Studies in a Mild Climate
In southern Europe, the present stock of social housing is ventilated naturally, with practice
varying in the di erent seasons of the year. In winter, windows are kept closed most of the day
with the exception of short periods for ventilation, whereas the rest of the year the windows are
almost permanently open. In cold weather, air changes depend primarily on the air infiltrating
across the envelope and when the temperature is warm, on the air flowing in through open windows.
CO2, PM2.5, and TVOC concentration patterns were gathered over a year’s time in three social
housing developments in southern Europe with di erent airtightness conditions and analyzed to
determine possible relationships between environmental parameters and occupants’ use profiles.
Correlations were found between TVOC and CO2 concentrations, for human activity was identified
as the primary source of indoor contaminants: peak TVOC concentrations were related to specific
household activities such as cooking or leisure. Indoor and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations were
likewise observed to be correlated, although not linearly due to the presence of indoor sources.
Ventilation as presently practiced in winter appears to be insufficient to dilute indoor contaminants in
all three buildings, nor does summertime behavior guarantee air quality
Visual and Textual Programming Languages: A Systematic Review of the Literature
It is well documented, and has been the topic of much research, that Computer
Science courses tend to have higher than average drop out rates at third level.
This is a problem that needs to be addressed with urgency but also caution. The
required number of Computer Science graduates is growing every year but the
number of graduates is not meeting this demand and one way that this problem
can be alleviated is to encourage students at an early age towards studying
Computer Science courses.
This paper presents a systematic literature review on the role of visual and
textual programming languages when learning to program, particularly as a first
programming language. The approach is systematic, in that a structured search
of electronic resources has been conducted, and the results are presented and
quantitatively analysed. This study will give insight into whether or not the
current approaches to teaching young learners programming are viable, and
examines what we can do to increase the interest and retention of these
students as they progress through their education.Comment: 18 pages (including 2 bibliography pages), 3 figure
Emergent requirements for supporting introductory programming
The problems associated with learning and teaching first year University Computer Science (CS1) programming classes are summarized showing that various support tools and techniques have been developed and evaluated. From this review of applicable support the paper derives ten requirements that a support tool should have in order to improve CS1 student success rate with respect to learning and understanding
Development and Evaluation of the Nebraska Assessment of Computing Knowledge
One way to increase the quality of computing education research is to increase the quality of the measurement tools that are available to researchers, especially measures of students’ knowledge and skills. This paper represents a step toward increasing the number of available thoroughly-evaluated tests that can be used in computing education research by evaluating the psychometric properties of a multiple-choice test designed to differentiate undergraduate students in terms of their mastery of foundational computing concepts. Classical test theory and item response theory analyses are reported and indicate that the test is a reliable, psychometrically-sound instrument suitable for research with undergraduate students. Limitations and the importance of using standardized measures of learning in education research are discussed
The hippocampus and cerebellum in adaptively timed learning, recognition, and movement
The concepts of declarative memory and procedural memory have been used to distinguish two basic types of learning. A neural network model suggests how such memory processes work together as recognition learning, reinforcement learning, and sensory-motor learning take place during adaptive behaviors. To coordinate these processes, the hippocampal formation and cerebellum each contain circuits that learn to adaptively time their outputs. Within the model, hippocampal timing helps to maintain attention on motivationally salient goal objects during variable task-related delays, and cerebellar timing controls the release of conditioned responses. This property is part of the model's description of how cognitive-emotional interactions focus attention on motivationally valued cues, and how this process breaks down due to hippocampal ablation. The model suggests that the hippocampal mechanisms that help to rapidly draw attention to salient cues could prematurely release motor commands were not the release of these commands adaptively timed by the cerebellum. The model hippocampal system modulates cortical recognition learning without actually encoding the representational information that the cortex encodes. These properties avoid the difficulties faced by several models that propose a direct hippocampal role in recognition learning. Learning within the model hippocampal system controls adaptive timing and spatial orientation. Model properties hereby clarify how hippocampal ablations cause amnesic symptoms and difficulties with tasks which combine task delays, novelty detection, and attention towards goal objects amid distractions. When these model recognition, reinforcement, sensory-motor, and timing processes work together, they suggest how the brain can accomplish conditioning of multiple sensory events to delayed rewards, as during serial compound conditioning.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0225, F49620-86-C-0037, 90-0128); Advanced Research Projects Agency (ONR N00014-92-J-4015); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100, N00014-92-J-1309, N00014-92-J-1904); National Institute of Mental Health (MH-42900
Anonymous Networking amidst Eavesdroppers
The problem of security against timing based traffic analysis in wireless
networks is considered in this work. An analytical measure of anonymity in
eavesdropped networks is proposed using the information theoretic concept of
equivocation. For a physical layer with orthogonal transmitter directed
signaling, scheduling and relaying techniques are designed to maximize
achievable network performance for any given level of anonymity. The network
performance is measured by the achievable relay rates from the sources to
destinations under latency and medium access constraints. In particular,
analytical results are presented for two scenarios:
For a two-hop network with maximum anonymity, achievable rate regions for a
general m x 1 relay are characterized when nodes generate independent Poisson
transmission schedules. The rate regions are presented for both strict and
average delay constraints on traffic flow through the relay.
For a multihop network with an arbitrary anonymity requirement, the problem
of maximizing the sum-rate of flows (network throughput) is considered. A
selective independent scheduling strategy is designed for this purpose, and
using the analytical results for the two-hop network, the achievable throughput
is characterized as a function of the anonymity level. The throughput-anonymity
relation for the proposed strategy is shown to be equivalent to an information
theoretic rate-distortion function
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