Characterizing Graduateness in Computing Education

In my research, I employ a highly qualitative, narrative methodology to explore the sense students make of their own educational experiences within their wider learning trajectories. By taking such a holistic perspective on a Computing Education, I hope to be able to identify and distil aspects of successful Computing programs, whose effects may only emerge over time

Examining Graduateness through Narratives

Graduateness as a concept describes attributes that all graduates should have developed by the time they leave university. In my work, I take a different view and explore graduateness as constructed through graduates’ individual narratives

Recommendations for improvement to the South African information technology curriculum: a case study of new higher certificate graduates' first year of employment

Employment issues in South Africa (SA) are a significant problem. There are ongoing discussions revolving around the employability challenges facing South African graduates, particularly in the Information Technology (IT) sector. The preparedness of these IT graduates has been questioned with many looking towards skill sets and employability status while others have scrutinised the validity of the IT curriculum meeting industry needs. The research focuses on a case study of graduates from an accredited, private higher education institution in SA. The study followed a qualitative approach using questionnaires and interviews to understand the experiences of employers, employed graduates and recruitment personnel upon employment of the graduates. This study investigated, determined and confirmed recommendations to adapt the South African higher education IT curriculum to improve the productivity of IT graduates upon employment.School of ComputingM. Sc. (Computing

Characterising Graduateness in Computing Education: A Narrative Approach

This thesis examines the concept of graduateness in computing education. Graduateness is related to efforts to articulate the outcomes of a university education. It is commonly defined as the attributes all graduates should develop by the time they graduate regardless of university attended or discipline studied (Glover, Law and Youngman 2002). This work takes a different perspective grounded in disciplinary and institutional contexts. It aims to explore how graduates make sense of their experiences studying computing within their wider learning trajectories. The research presented here uses a narrative approach. Whilst narrative methodologies are not commonly used in computing education, people construct stories both to make sense of their experiences and to integrate the "past, present, and an anticipated future" (McAdams 1985, p.120). Stories are then a particularly appropriate way of examining the sense people make of their learning experiences. This work draws on narrative interviews with graduates from the School of Computing at the University of Kent and Olin College of Engineering in the United States. It contributes a new perspective about the effect of a computing education beyond short-term outcome measures and proposes several analytic constructs that expose significant aspects in participants' learning experiences. In this, it describes themes related to students' acquisition of disciplinary knowledge and examines the evolution of their stories of learning computing over time