Initial Evaluation of Accessibility and Design Awareness with 3-D Immersive Environments

This paper describes an effort to build and evaluate the effectiveness of an immersive 3-D visualization system to help increase the awareness that students have when designing software that has a high level of accessibility for the differently abled. The demonstration utilizes an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment in which we simulated two types of colorblindness in a generally familiar environment. We report on the initial trial of this tool and the results of student surveys designed to assess impact on student perception and understanding and demonstrate that the use of virtual environments can give students greater empathy for individuals with visual impairments

Comparison of Existing Computing Curricula and the New ACM-IEEE Computing Curricula 2013

The ACM-IEEE Computing Curricula 2005 was published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and the Computer Society (IEEE-CS). After few years and many updates, the new version was published at the end of 2013 year. This last version can be named ACM-IEEE Computing Curricula 2013 (CC2013). In this paper, we present a comparison of the computing curricula degree programs from five countries (Ecuador, France, Germany, Poland and Spain) and the CC2013. The comparison takes into account both the duration and the content of the studies. This comparison can provide several benefits. Firstly, this comparison highlights the differences that exist among the five analysed countries; it can be used to define correspondence tables between different degree programs. Secondly, this comparison also shows the differences from the CC2005 and the following updates (e.g. CC2013) and it shows what should be changed to align with the latest updates.This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government. This work has been partially supported by the GEODAS-BI (TIN2012-37493-C03-03) project from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Information Systems in CC2020: Comparing Key Structural Elements of Curriculum Recommendations in Computing

This paper describes the characteristics of the Computing Curricula 2020 process, discusses the reasons why it is essential for information systems to be involved, and explores the core structures of existing computing curriculum recommendations, particularly from the learning outcome and competency perspective. The two main categories are the knowledge area – knowledge unit structure used by CE, CS, and SE and the competency structure used by IT and MSIS. Finding a way to express the competency expectations of all degree program types in computing at the same level of abstraction will be a key to the success of the CC2020 project. The upcoming process to develop a new IS undergraduate recommendation will also benefit from CC2020 work and contribute to it

A conceptual model for re ecting on expected learning vs. demonstrated student performance

© 2013, Australian Computer Society, Inc. Educators are faced with many challenging questions in designing an effective curriculum. What prerequisite knowledge do students have before commencing a new subject? At what level of mastery? What is the spread of capabilities between bare-passing students vs. the top-performing group? How does the intended learning specification compare to student performance at the end of a subject? In this paper we present a conceptual model that helps in answering some of these questions. It has the following main capabilities: capturing the learning specification in terms of syllabus topics and outcomes; capturing mastery levels to model progression; capturing the minimal vs. aspirational learning design; capturing confidence and reliability metrics for each of these mappings; and finally, comparing and re ecting on the learning specification against actual student performance. We present a web-based implementation of the model, and validate it by mapping the final exams from four programming subjects against the ACM/IEEE CS2013 topics and outcomes, using Bloom's Taxonomy as the mastery scale. We then import the itemised exam grades from 632 students across the four subjects and compare the demonstrated student performance against the expected learning for each of these. Key contributions of this work are the validated conceptual model for capturing and comparing expected learning vs. demonstrated performance, and a web-based implementation of this model, which is made freely available online as a community resource

Exploring study paths and study success in undergraduate Computer Science studies

While the role of IT and computer science in the society is on the rise, interest in computer science education is also on the rise. Research covering study success and study paths is important for understanding both student needs and developing the educational programmes further. Using a data set covering student records from 2010 to 2020, this thesis aims to find key insights and base research in the topic of computer science study success and study paths in the University of Helsinki. Using novel visualizations and descriptive statistics this thesis builds a picture of the evolution of study paths and student success during a 10-year timeframe, providing much needed contextual information to be used as inspiration for future focused research into the phenomena discovered. The visualizations combined with statistical results show that certain student groups seem to have better study success and that there are differences in the study paths chosen by the student groups. It is also shown that the graduation rates from the Bachelor’s Programme in Computer Science are generally low, with some student groups showing higher than average graduation rates. Time from admission to graduation is longer than suggested and the sample study paths provided by the university are not generally followed, leading to the conclusion that the programme structure would need some assessment to better incorporate students with diverse academic backgrounds and differing personal study plans

Enhancing Yield Potential of Hard Red Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) via Use of Improved Synthetic Backcrosses

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the most-widely cultivated and third most-produced grain crop in the world. Wheat contributes 19% calories and 21% protein of the global population diet. With an astounding increase in this global population, that is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, demand for wheat is expected to reach 900 million tons by 2050. However, narrow genetic base and continued pressure from abiotic and biotic stresses pose a tough challenge to achieve the expected increase in grain yield. Research leading to the evolution of synthetic hexaploid wheat (Triticum durum x Aegilops tauschii) and synthetic derived wheat (SDW) (elite bread wheat X synthetic hexaploid wheat) provided a tremendous opportunity to improve wheat production. Preliminary studies showed that SDW had the potential to increase grain yield due to larger seed size and weight. However, heads per square meter and seeds per head are also major determinants of grain yield. Single seed weight was found to be highly heritable in SDW populations in our previous studies. Therefore, we hypothesized that indirectly selecting for heads per square meter and seeds per head, while maintaining single seed weight, will boost yield further. Multi location yield trials were conducted in 2013 and 2014 to determine grain yield and it’s components, morphological traits, resistance to green bug (Schizaphis graminum, Rond), leaf rust (Puccinia triticina), stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f.sp. Tritici), and powdery mildew (Erysiphe graminis f. sp. Tritici). We estimated quantitative genetic parameters including variance components, heritability, and genetic gain. In addition, we determined response to direct selection and correlated response to an indirect selection using heads per square meter and seeds per head as the indirect selection components. We further estimated the efficiency of indirect selection. Multi-location yield trials indicated certain SDW produced higher grain yield than their recurrent parents and common check varieties. Comparison of the top ten yielding SDW lines mean with the mean of recurrent parents showed SDW lines produced 11.7% higher grain yield than recurrent parents. The SDW lines maintained a similar number of seeds per head and heads per square meter as recurrent parents but had 10% higher single seed weight. Also, SDW showed higher levels of leaf and stripe rust, greenbug, and powdery mildew resistance compared to their recurrent parents. There were certain indications to show that some resistance was transmitted from primary synthetics. Genetic analyses, such as the genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability, and genetic gain showed that there is tremendous scope for grain yield improvement by utilizing SDW. Genetic gain results indicated that grain yield can be improved by 15.6% per cycle at 10% selection intensity (i = 1.76). The efficiency of indirect selection for yield, using heads per meter square, was only 0.41. Similarly, seeds per head and single seed weight had an efficiency of 0.46 and 0.21, respectively. These results indicate that SDW contributed some favorable alleles for yield, biotic stress resistance, and abiotic stress tolerance. These results also showed that SDW contributions were advantageous under both rainfed and irrigated conditions, which makes them an invaluable source for increasing genetic diversity and improving performance of Texas A&M AgriLife wheat germplasm

Организация тестирования решения олимпиадной задачи по информатике

Проведение тестовых испытаний является основным способом проверки правильности функционирования программного обеспечения на этапе его разработки. Этот же способ определения правильности решения участника применяется на олимпиаде по информатике. В статье обосновывается гипотеза, состоящая в том, что подготовка учащихся к олимпиаде способствует получению специфических знаний, умений и навыков специалиста информационных технологий в сфере тестирования программного обеспечения. Рис. – 1. Библиогр. – 4 назв