Enhancing university student engagement using online multiple choice questions and answers

For many education providers, student engagement can be a major issue. Given the positive correlation between engagement and good performance, providers are continually looking for ways to engage students in the learning process. The growth of student digital literacy, the wide proliferation of online tools and the understanding of why online gaming can be addictive have combined to create a set of tools that providers can leverage to enhance engagement. One such tool is Peerwise, https://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/, an online, multiple choice question (MCQ) and answer tool in which students create questions that are answered by other students. Why use MCQs? Using MCQs tests knowledge, provides reassurance of learning, identifies gaps and makes this data available to student and provider. Students use this information to focus their time on areas requiring additional work [1], benefiting from the early feedback provided. Formative assess- ments using MCQs are beneficial in preparing students for summative testing and are appreciated and liked by students [2]. Providers can use this information to determine how the material is being received and react accordingly. Students use Peerwise to create MCQs that are answered, rated and commented on by their peers. Students’ engagement in Peerwise earns trophies for contributing regular use and for providing feedback, all of which act to stimulate further engagement, using the principles of gamification. Bournemouth University, a public university in the UK with over 18,000 students, has been embedding Peerwise in under-graduate and post-graduate units since 2014. The results experienced by Bournemouth University have been beneficial and correlate with other studies of using Peerwise [3] [4]. A statistically significant improvement was seen by one cohort of students compared to the previous year where Peerwise was not used. However, no correlation was found between Peerwise participation and a student’s unit mark. The processes followed by Bournemouth University and the advantages and disadvantages, backed by qualitative and quantitative data, will be presented so that other institutions can gain an informed view of the merits of Peerwise for their own teaching and learning environments

Using Peerwise to improve engagement and learning.

This paper assesses the experiences of Bournemouth University in using the online multiple choice question (MCQ) tool, Peerwise, in student learning and engagement. MCQs are excellent for developing and testing knowledge, providing reassurance and identifying development needs. The creation of MCQs reinforces learning by tasking students to generate challenging questions. Peerwise supports self-direction and flexibility, which is embraced by students. Bournemouth University started embedding Peerwise within teaching units in 2014. The intention was to transform the approach of students towards the non-assessed elements of the unit. Peerwise was used in an undergraduate business unit consisting of 50 students over at 15 week period. 804 questions were created and 3,345 answers were recorded. 10% of the unit marks were allocated to Peerwise use. Qualitative feedback from students was very positive. Correlation analysis showed a very weak relationship, 0.120, between the number of questions answered and the overall unit mark. Self-assessment of the change in learning was statistically significantly better for students who used Peerwise compared to those who did not. Overall, the evaluation of the Peerwise was positive with many lessons learnt. Six recommendations for the further use of Peerwise were developed, including improving the scaffolding to students, refining the way quality is assessed and developing evaluation criteria

Comparing Code Explanations Created by Students and Large Language Models

Reasoning about code and explaining its purpose are fundamental skills for computer scientists. There has been extensive research in the field of computing education on the relationship between a student's ability to explain code and other skills such as writing and tracing code. In particular, the ability to describe at a high-level of abstraction how code will behave over all possible inputs correlates strongly with code writing skills. However, developing the expertise to comprehend and explain code accurately and succinctly is a challenge for many students. Existing pedagogical approaches that scaffold the ability to explain code, such as producing exemplar code explanations on demand, do not currently scale well to large classrooms. The recent emergence of powerful large language models (LLMs) may offer a solution. In this paper, we explore the potential of LLMs in generating explanations that can serve as examples to scaffold students' ability to understand and explain code. To evaluate LLM-created explanations, we compare them with explanations created by students in a large course ($n \approx 1000$) with respect to accuracy, understandability and length. We find that LLM-created explanations, which can be produced automatically on demand, are rated as being significantly easier to understand and more accurate summaries of code than student-created explanations. We discuss the significance of this finding, and suggest how such models can be incorporated into introductory programming education.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To be published in Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V.

Teaching artificial intelligence in secondary school: from development to practice

Problem statement . Currently, various global and national institutions promote mainstreaming artificial intelligence (AI) technology into training programs for school students. The effectiveness of introducing artificial intelligence into school curricula depends on four factors: 1) defining methodological foundations for creating educational content; 2) selecting and structuring appropriate learning content; 3) adapting the content to the needs of different age groups; 4) integrating the content into school programs. The current study provides theoretical foundations for generating learning content for AI lessons aimed at secondary school students and determines possible ways of integrating that content into school programs. Methodology. The empirical part of the study involved 225 secondary school students aged 11-14 (forms 5 to 9) as well as 125 teachers from comprehensive schools located in Moscow and the Moscow region. Analysis, synthesis, testing and sampling average methods were used. Results. The authors conducted a pilot testing of the developed educational materials, measured students’ AI-related skill and knowledge and processed the obtained data using the method of selective averages. The theoretical research conducted showed the leadership of artificial intelligence training in primary schools, mechanisms for developing learning outcomes in the field of artificial intelligence for primary school students, the opportunity to reveal the possibility of forming the content of artificial intelligence training based on various approaches. The goals and results of teaching the basics of artificial intelligence within the framework of basic school were determined. The content of training was formulated. Conclusion. The research is characterized by scientific and practical novelty, as it helps determine methodological grounds for teaching AI to secondary school students and proposes a detailed unit plan for an AI training course in secondary school

Cryptography in Grade 10: Core Ideas with Snap! and Unplugged

International audienceWe report our experience of an extracurricular online intervention on cryptography in Grade 10. Our first goal is to describe how we taught some fundamental cryptography ideas by making students encounter a progression of representative cryptosystems, from classical to modern, and discover their characteristics and limitations. We used Snap! (a visual programming language) to realize hands-on activities: block-programming playgrounds (a form of task-specific programming languages) to experiment with cryptosystems, and an interactive app to support an unplugged (albeit remote) Diffie-Hellman key agreement. After experimenting with each system, the students were involved in a Socratic discussion on how to overcome the discovered limitations, motivating the introduction of the following system in our path. Our second goal is to evaluate the students' perceptions and learning of cryptography core ideas. They appreciated the course and felt that, despite being remote, it was fun and engaging. According to the students, the course helped them understand the role of cryptography, CS, and Math in society and sparked their interest in cryptography and CS. The final assessment showed that the students well understood the cryptography ideas addressed. Our third goal is to discuss what worked and areas of improvement. The "remote-unplugged" Diffie-Hellman, where the meeting chat was a metaphor for the public channel, engaged the students in understanding this groundbreaking protocol. Overall, they praised the activities as engaging, even when challenging. However, a strong "instructor blindness" induced by remote teaching often prevented us from giving the students the right amount of guidance during the exploration activities

Scaffolding Java programming on a mobile phone for novice learners

The ubiquity of mobile phones provides an opportunity to use them as a resource for construction of programs beyond the classroom. However, limitations of mobile phones impede their use as typical programming environments. This research proposes that programming environments on mobile phones should include scaffolding techniques specifically designed for mobile phones, and designed based on learners’ needs. This paper discusses the effectiveness of theoretically-derived scaffolding techniques to construct Java programs on a mobile phone. The results indicate that even though scaffolding techniques could support learners to program on a mobile phone, further modifications of the designed scaffolding techniques may be necessary in order to more effectively support programming on a mobile phone

Orchestration of e-learning services for automatic evaluation of programming exercises

Managing programming exercises require several heterogeneous systems such as evaluation engines, learning objects repositories and exercise resolution environments. The coordination of networks of such disparate systems is rather complex. These tools would be too specific to incorporate in an e-Learning platform. Even if they could be provided as pluggable components, the burden of maintaining them would be prohibitive to institutions with few courses in those domains. This work presents a standard based approach for the coordination of a network of e-Learning systems participating on the automatic evaluation of programming exercises. The proposed approach uses a pivot component to orchestrate the interaction among all the systems using communication standards. This approach was validated through its effective use on classroom and we present some preliminary results

Systematic Review on Computer Literacy

This systematic review aims to consolidate the understanding of the term Computer Literacy , which corresponds to the classification of the first stage of learning skills and knowledge about the aspects of information and communication technology (ICT). In addition to this concept, the study also aims to assess the range of knowledge and skills related to computer literacy. This review was based on ACM and ERIC research bases, comprising the period of the last 10 years, and adding some extra articles that were deemed relevant. The conclusion indicates that Computer Literacy has a dynamic nature – exhibiting evolution over time – and an inherent need to upgrade constantly in order to keep up with information and communication technology’s evolutionary curve

Evaluating the effect of using scaffolding techniques to support Java programming on a mobile phone

The ubiquity of mobile phones provides an opportunity to use them as a resource for construction of programs beyond the classroom. However, limitations of mobile phones impede their use as typical programming environments. This research proposed that programming environments on mobile phones could include scaffolding techniques specifically designed for mobile phones, and designed based on learners’ needs. Experiments were conducted with 142 learners from three universities in Kenya and South Africa in order to investigate the effect on learners of using the theoretically-derived scaffolding techniques to construct Java programs on a mobile phone. The results provided empirical evidence that scaffolding techniques specifically designed for mobile phones and designed based on learners’ needs could effectively support the construction of programs on a mobile phone