EasyCoding - methodology to support programming learning

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com o Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais – CEFET-MGThe increase in failure rate in the first programming curricular units, in engineering courses, and the school dropout growth by students shows the importance of further study on the real reasons for these episodes. When considering that this situation is amplified, in large part, by the lack of motivation and the lack of student autonomy to study programming outside the classroom context, this work proposes a methodology based on activity guides, using innovative and attractive web platforms. The proposed methodology aims to facilitate the planning of teachers’ activities and to increase students’ autonomy and motivation. For the execution of this study, we evaluated the proposed methodology with programming professors and students at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança and the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais. In addition, we developed a system for automatic generation of activity guides which aimed assisting teachers in the creation of exercises with innovative web platforms to motivate students to study programming beyond the classroom. The obtained results allow us to demonstrate the importance of using innovative teaching methodologies, inside and outside the classroom, to encourage students to practice more programming exercises. Thus, as contributions, the proposed methodology can help combat school dropout in higher education in engineering courses, once it can help to keep the students motivated during the first programming subjects.O aumento na taxa de insucesso nas primeiras unidades curriculares de programação, nos cursos de engenharia, e o crescimento do abandono escolar por parte dos alunos mostra a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado sobre os reais motivos desses episódios. Ao considerar que essa situação é ampliada, em grande parte, pela falta de motivação e falta de autonomia do aluno para estudar programação fora do contexto da sala de aula, este trabalho propõe uma metodologia baseada em guiões de atividades, utilizando plataformas web inovadoras e atrativas. A metodologia proposta visa facilitar o planejamento das atividades dos professores e aumentar a autonomia e a motivação dos alunos. Para a execução deste estudo, avaliamos a metodologia proposta com professores e alunos de programação do Instituto Politécnico de Bragança e do Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais. Além disso, desenvolvemos um sistema para geração automática de guias de atividades, com o objetivo de auxiliar os professores na criação de exercícios com plataformas web inovadoras, para motivar os alunos a estudar programação além da sala de aula. Os resultados obtidos nos permitem demonstrar a importância do uso de metodologias inovadoras de ensino, dentro e fora da sala de aula, para incentivar os alunos a praticar mais exercícios de programação. Assim, como contribuição, a metodologia proposta pode ajudar a combater o abandono escolar no ensino superior nos cursos de engenharia, uma vez que pode ajudar a manter os alunos motivados durante as primeiras disciplinas de programação

An Online Tutor for Astronomy: The GEAS Self-Review Library

We introduce an interactive online resource for use by students and college instructors in introductory astronomy courses. The General Education Astronomy Source (GEAS) online tutor guides students developing mastery of core astronomical concepts and mathematical applications of general astronomy material. It contains over 12,000 questions, with linked hints and solutions. Students who master the material quickly can advance through the topics, while under-prepared or hesitant students can focus on questions on a certain topic for as long as needed, with minimal repetition. Students receive individual accounts for study and course instructors are provided with overview tracking information, by time and by topic, for entire cohorts of students. Diagnostic tools support self-evaluation and close collaboration between instructor and student, even for distance learners. An initial usage study shows clear trends in performance which increase with study time, and indicates that distance learners using these materials perform as well as or better than a comparison cohort of on-campus astronomy students. We are actively seeking new collaborators to use this resource in astronomy courses and other educational venues.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures; Vogt, N. P., and A. S. Muise. 2015. An online tutor for general astronomy: The GEAS self-review library. Cogent Education, 2 (1

Jutge.org

Jutge.org is an open access educational online programming judge where students can try to solve more than 800 problems using 22 programming languages. The verdict of their solutions is computed using exhaustive test sets run under time, memory and security restrictions. By contrast to many popular online judges, Jutge.org is designed for students and instructors: On one hand, the problem repository is mainly aimed to beginners, with a clear organization and gradding. On the other hand, the system is designed as a virtual learning environment where instructors can administer their own courses, manage their roster of students and tutors, add problems, attach documents, create lists of problems, assignments, contests and exams. This paper presents Jutge.org and offers some case studies of courses using it.Postprint (published version

Symbiosis between the TRECVid benchmark and video libraries at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision

Audiovisual archives are investing in large-scale digitisation efforts of their analogue holdings and, in parallel, ingesting an ever-increasing amount of born- digital files in their digital storage facilities. Digitisation opens up new access paradigms and boosted re-use of audiovisual content. Query-log analyses show the shortcomings of manual annotation, therefore archives are complementing these annotations by developing novel search engines that automatically extract information from both audio and the visual tracks. Over the past few years, the TRECVid benchmark has developed a novel relationship with the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision (NISV) which goes beyond the NISV just providing data and use cases to TRECVid. Prototype and demonstrator systems developed as part of TRECVid are set to become a key driver in improving the quality of search engines at the NISV and will ultimately help other audiovisual archives to offer more efficient and more fine-grained access to their collections. This paper reports the experiences of NISV in leveraging the activities of the TRECVid benchmark

EasyCoding - methodology to support programming learning

Knowing that the programming curricular units in the first year of engineering courses have a high failure rate and, assuming that this failure is due, in large part, to the lack of motivation and the lack of autonomy of the student to program in context outside the classroom, a methodology based on activity guides using attractive web platforms is proposed. The proposed methodology aims to facilitate both the planning of activities by the teachers and the autonomy and motivation by students. In order to receive a first feedback about this work, the methodology is being used by programming professors from Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, but in the near future it will be also evaluated by professors from the Federal Center of Technological Education of Minas Gerais and from the Federal Technological University of Paraná, both from Brazil. Following this work, a system is being developed that allows the automatic construction of guides based on exercises available from the web and systems that facilitate the collection of solutions and analysis of results.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio