Gender Differences in Computer Science Education: Lessons Learnt from an Empirical Study at NTNU

Research in Computer Science (CS) education has focused on gender differences and there is high interest in increasing female participation in CS. The present study reviews important factors that influence CS students’ decision to complete their studies in CS (retention), and empirically examines how these factors differ for males and females. To this end, we identify cognitive and non-cognitive gains, cognitive and affective engagement, motivation to study, and three different barriers as critical factors in CS students’. We test these factors on 236 Norwegian CS students in order to find any potential gender differences. The findings indicate a gender difference for cognitive gains, affective engagement, motivation to study, and satisfaction with learning effectiveness. On the other hand, no difference was found for non-cognitive gains, cognitive engagement, personal values/teaching quality, and students’ intention to dropout from their studies. The study concludes with implications that will guide both research and practice towards a better understanding of both male and female CS students

Strategies for Successfully Completing Online Professional Development

Recently, increasing demand for teacher professional development and significant advances in information and communication technologies has led to a proliferation of online professional development. In spite of online professional development's popularity and advantages, research indicates that there is a concern of considerably high dropout rates of online learners. Therefore, to reduce the dropout rates of the learners, this paper is designed to help teachers identify professional development opportunities that are tailored to their needs as well as successfully complete these learning experiences. To achieve the purpose of the study, the paper explores the considerations for evaluating the characteristics of online learners and online professional development. Using these evaluations, this paper provides practical strategies for helping elementary and secondary education teachers successfully complete online professional development without dropping out an online course

Towards an empirical development of critical value factors of online learning activities

Activities are at the center of human behavior. Extensive attention has been given in literature to the success and effectiveness of online learning programs. Value theory suggests that human perceived value is a critical construct in investigating what is important to individuals. However, very limited attention has been given in literature to the role of users’ perceived value of learning activities in educational settings. Scholars suggest that additional studies on learning activities are needed in order to progress the current knowledge of the use of information systems in education. Therefore, this study investigated issues related to learners’ perceived value by uncovering the critical value factors (CVFs) of online learning activities. Participants in this study included 209 graduate students attending an online learning program. This study extended the first phase done in a prior research to uncover the CVFs of online learning activities. Results of this research study produced five reliable CVFs: (a) Collaborative, Social, and Passive Learning Activities; (b) Formal Communication Activities; (c) Formal Learning Activities; (d) Logistic Activities; and (e) Printing Activities

MATURED STUDENTS IN GREEK UNIVERSITY: DIFFICULTIES IN ATTENDING UNIVERSITY AND STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THEM (A QUALITATIVE APPROACH)

The aim of our study is to highlight the characteristics of mature students who study in person in Greek universities , the difficulties they face and the strategies they use to overcome them. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with a sample of 10 students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of a regional Greek university and the data were analyzed using Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework. The results of the research showed that the characteristics that differentiate mature students from university students of typical age (18 - 22 years old) are related to adulthood. They enroll at university mainly to increase their institutional and symbolic capital, while the obstacles they face are mainly related to their family and professional obligations. They also develop specific strategies to achieve their goals. Finally, the Greek university needs to focus on this particular group of students and formulate a specific policy to contribute to addressing their problems.  Article visualizations

Measuring Students’ Performance with Data Mining

Understanding the true reasons behind students’ failure, and bringing preventive measures to this issue at early stages are invaluable in the educational learning process. Preventing problems such as language deficiency or misclassification of the students in the appropriate academic levels is primordial for any educational institution. Many factors influence the learning process of the students, such as the demographic characteristics, educational background as well as language barrier. This work highlights the most preponderant factors affecting students’ advancement in the learning process and provides support to academic administrators. It uses some of state of the art classification and regression algorithms in the application domain of predicting students’ progress. Datasets were filtered and trained using predictive algorithms. It is shown that Science learning and English language skills are highly correlated. Datasets are not always suitable for data mining unless it is preprocessed and well adapted to the context being studied. A tool has been developed to preprocess the data provided that feeds into Weka Data Mining Software to profile students’ performance

ARE ONLINE COURSES CANNIBALIZING STUDENTS FROM EXISTING COURSES?

One of the reasons most often cited for the increasing number and popularity of online courses is the format’s ability to provide access to students who cannot attend conventionally delivered face-to-face courses. Are these underserved students in fact the ones enrolling in online courses? Or are online course enrollees the same students who would otherwise be taking face-to-face courses? This analysis uses student registration information from six different online courses at two campuses of a Midwestern university to investigate how students taking online courses compare to the entire student population. In particular, this study addresses whether or not students take online courses to eliminate significant commuting time when they are located long distances from campus

Parents and Students Perspectives of School Culture Effects on Dropouts and Non-dropouts in Sokoto Metropolis Nigeria

The perspectives of four groups ‘were examined in related to school culture, on dropouts, non-dropouts students, parents for dropouts and non-dropouts students respectively in schools of Sokoto metropolis. This was inspired by the high rise of students’ dropouts in Sokoto state, Nigeria. Technically, dropouts and non-dropouts teaching and learning issues were associated to challenges of school cultures on students. Survey method was adapted, which used questionnaire for data collected, from a population of 1560, which included 30 junior secondary school students (JSS). A One-way analysis of variance was conducted for the research and the result was significant (sig) at the 0.05 level. Findings of the study suggested that school cultural factors influenced junior secondary school students (JSS) dropouts and non-dropouts in schools based on the four groups perspectives compared in Sokoto metropolis Nigeria. Keywords: School culture, Dropouts, Non-dropouts, Sokoto metropolis, School environment, Social orderliness