2,144 research outputs found
What is the Competitive Programming Curriculum?
Peer reviewe
Integration of Forecasting, Scheduling, Machine Learning, and Efficiency Improvement Methods into the Sport Management Industry
Sport management is a complicated and economically impactful industry and involves many crucial decisions: such as which players to retain or release, how many concession vendors to add, how many fans to expect, what teams to schedule, and many others are made each offseason and changed frequently. The task of making such decisions effectively is difficult, but the process can be made easier using methods of industrial and systems engineering (ISE). Integrating methods such as forecasting, scheduling, machine learning, and efficiency improvement from ISE can be revolutionary in helping sports organizations and franchises be consistently successful. Research shows areas including player evaluation, analytics, fan attendance, stadium design, accurate scheduling, play prediction, player development, prevention of cheating, and others can be improved when ISE methods are used to target inefficient or wasteful areas
Explaining Competitive-Level Programming Solutions using LLMs
In this paper, we approach competitive-level programming problem-solving as a
composite task of reasoning and code generation. We propose a novel method to
automatically annotate natural language explanations to \textit{<problem,
solution>} pairs. We show that despite poor performance in solving
competitive-level programming problems, state-of-the-art LLMs exhibit a strong
capacity in describing and explaining solutions. Our explanation generation
methodology can generate a structured solution explanation for the problem
containing descriptions and analysis. To evaluate the quality of the annotated
explanations, we examine their effectiveness in two aspects: 1) satisfying the
human programming expert who authored the oracle solution, and 2) aiding LLMs
in solving problems more effectively. The experimental results on the
CodeContests dataset demonstrate that while LLM GPT3.5's and GPT-4's abilities
in describing the solution are comparable, GPT-4 shows a better understanding
of the key idea behind the solution.Comment: 14 pages, presented at the 1st NLRSE worksho
Practice makes perfect – gamification of a competitive learning experience
The ability to provide and implement software solutions is a fundamental component of a computer scientist curriculum. Commonly referred to as the ability to program, this task involves the development of programs to address everyday problems. Over the last decade teaching practices have evolved alongside programming languages to facilitate the learning process. While abstracting the level of understanding has helped students with the fundamentals of software development, issues related to students’ engagement and motivation are still not adequately addressed. With motivation being a vital component of the students’ life cycle and at the basis of their engagement, the concept of software engineering introduced in the class needs to be revised and become more engaging so as to be practised thoroughly by the students.
To address these challenges, educators have devised numerous frameworks to allow students to hone their programming skills. The idea of embedding gaming aspects into the learning cycle has led to the development of techniques such as serious games and game-based learning, while more recent techniques have been unified under the term gamification. Several researchers have incorporated the gamification concept into computer science classes in order to improve students’ engagement with the teaching material, with early evaluations confirming the effectiveness of this approach. The present study focuses on the use of a gamification platform to create stimulating content and increase motivation. Students were presented with a new gamification system designed to attract and hold their attention through a number of programming challenges in the form of a contest. The results of the experiment demonstrate the students’ behavioural changes towards a deeper cognitive engagement. The paper then further discusses the challenges that have arisen in this new learning environment, such as demotivation of students with low contest rankings.
Teaching how to write good software has been part of an ongoing debate for the last decade. With student motivation being a central component, this paper discusses the use of a gamification environment to engage students with the teaching material and reinforce the concepts of software engineering introduced in class
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
Mastering the Hard Stuff: The History of College Concrete-Canoe Races and the Growth of Engineering Competition Culture
This article details the history of college engineering competitions, originating with student concrete-canoe racing in the 1970s, through today’s multi-million-dollar international multiplicity of challenges. Despite initial differences between engineering educators and industry supporters over the ultimate purpose of undergraduate competitions, these events thrived because they evolved to suit many needs of students, professors, schools, corporations, professional associations, and the engineering profession itself. The twenty-first-century proliferation of university-level competitions in turn encouraged a trickling-down of technical contests to elementary-age children and high schools, fostering the institutionalization of what might be called a competition culture in engineering
Integration of Virtual Programming Lab in a process of teaching programming EduScrum based
Programming teaching is a key factor for technological evolution. The efficient way to learn to program is by programming and hard training and thus feedback is a crucial factor in the success and flow of the process.
This work aims to analyse the potential use of VPL in the teaching process of programming in higher education. It also intends to verify whether, with VPL, it is possible to make students learning more effective and autonomous, with a reduction in the volume of assessment work by teachers. Experiments were carried out with the VPL, in the practical-laboratory classes of a curricular unit of initiation to programming in a higher education institution.
The results supported by the responses to surveys, point to the validity of the model
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