METHODOLOGY OF GROUP WORK ORGANISATION FOR STUDENT LEARNING PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

The article describes the methodology of learning programming for students of various engineering disciplines. The course "Algorithmization and Programming of Solutions" is taught to all first-year students of the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology in Riga Technical University and provides the basic knowledge of the principles of computational process algorithmization and software creation technology using Java programming language. There are 8 laboratory assignments in the course, where students have to develop a software programme and 2 group work assignments, where the student has to develop some algorithms to solve a given problem, write a programme, evaluate the speed of developed algorithms and prepare a presentation on the results of their research. The article describes the main principles of efficient student group work organisation that lets to increase their interest and motivate them to participate in the course in a responsible way. This paper is focused on research on how group work influences student learning performance

Models of data and their processing for introductory courses of computer science

Evolution of secondary school course on Informatics during 1990s is discussed. This evolution gave for secondary school graduates rather high level knowledge of applications usage. On the other hand Informatics became purely pragmatic matter within generally academic nature of secondary school curricula. As the result graduates of secondary schools are not prepared enough for mastering of university’s course in Computer Science. Authors are not aware of serious studies and methods of prevention of such negative habits caused by evolution of Informatics course. In this article one method applied in university’s introduction course of Computer Science is considered. The method provides use of algorithmic system closed to the human mind, and to some extent compensates topics removed from the Informatics course in secondary school

Development of a Shared Curriculum for Studies in Computer Science and Information Systems

The basic principles of the development of modern curriculum in computer science and information systems in Latvia as well as lessons learnt are discussed. The curriculum is based on two widely used documents “Computing Curricula 1991” and “IS’97”. At the same time the curriculum is strongly influenced by the local conditions of Latvian higher education system and requirements of the labour market. Some international experience in a model curriculum development has been acquired, too. New trends have emerged and new requirements have been fixed. Now, after ten years of experience there is a strong necessity to weight the pros and cons and to start revising of the curriculum

Including universal design in a summer camp workshop on robotics

In this paper we will describe a summer camp short-course intended for high-school students with excellent qualifications. The course is addressed to students who are thinking on studying a technical career including a section on universal design for the first time. The department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Universitat de Barcelona will host a workshop on robotics next summer within the context of Campus Científicos de Verano by Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología.. High-school students will be selected around Spain based on their qualifications and motivation to attend the workshop. The first activity in the summer camp will be the building of Lego Mindstorms robots. These robots contain several sensors and actuators that can be programmed to do different tasks. One of the robots will be programmed to be able to track a line and another two will be programmed to do a Sumo fight on their own. Students will learn how to use sensors and actuators and code programming algorithms. For the second activity the students will develop a Mobile App with the MIT App Inventor2 software [1] in order to control the robots. In this activity students will learn how to program apps in a simple way to complete their understanding of programming. Taking into account European Higher Education Area requirements for Accessibility in technical careers, this workshop will introduce an innovation; the third activity will consist in the adaptation of the app and robots for multimodal access (including sound and sight redundant warnings) and the readjustment of the app’s buttons for users with motor and visual disabilities (e.g. making the buttons bigger and with non-repeating behaviour). Students attending the summer camp will be introduced to the needs and skills of different user profiles of people with disabilities. After this theoretical introduction, they will experience motor and visual disabilities with simulations inspired by the Inclusive design Toolkit resource [2] ].And finally, they will modify the app based on IEEE RWEP Accessible apps by Ayanna Howard [3] so to maximise the accessibility possibilities of App Inventor. Complementary resources will be made available to those students showing interest in this area, such as RWEP prosthetic hands projects, other toolkits and bibliography. This will serve as a first experience for the students and there is no prevision of including technical aids such as GRID2 or similar [4] due to budget restrictions. There are no students with disabilities registered for this year edition so the course does not seek accessibility for participants as authors. We will consider working on accessibility for participants of the following editions of this workshop, building on past experiences reaching this goal [5] [6] [7]. The main focus of the workshop is to encourage the creative learning of a robots summer camp [8], [9] with the inclusion of universal design as an essential requirement in the design and development of computer applications or systems. With this initiative we want to increase awareness on accessibility requirements for future technical students.PID U

MOCURIS - Modern Curriculum in Information Systems at Master Level

A lot of curricula in information systems, also at master level, exists today. However, the strong need in new approaches and new curricula still exists, especially, in European area. The paper discusses the modern curriculum in information systems at master level that is currently under development in the Socrates/Erasmus project MOCURIS. The curriculum is oriented to the students of engineering schools of technical universities. The proposed approach takes into account integration trends in European area as well as the transformation of industrial economics into knowledge-based digital economics The paper presents main characteristics of the proposed curriculum, discuses curriculum development techniques used in the project MOCURIS, describes the architecture of the proposed curriculum and the body of knowledge provided by it

User-friendly e-learning Environment for Educational Action Research

AbstractThe study aims to bridge the newest information and communication technologies and action research which has come to be known as a modern inquiry driven learning method and a learning strategy. To this end, the paper presents research into the effectiveness of action research as an e-learning method, notably, identifies the basic principles of the e-learning environment, explores the importance of constructive supportive dialogue and discusses the creation of a model of interface for educational action research (EAR) in an e-learning environment.The paper analyses experience from a Business course implemented in an e-learning environment at Riga Technical University over a two-year period.Thus, the study: (1) discusses the advantages and disadvantages of EAR in an e-learning environment in the context of sustainable education and (2) evaluates the adequacy of the developed interface model to the user's cognitive needs. The proposed methodology suggests new possibilities for creative cooperation in an e-learning environment for sustainable ubiquitous education.Partially article was presented at the 10th International JTEFS/BBCC Conference “Sustainable Development. Culture. Education” University of Eastern Finland, Savonlinna, Finland

Using PPGIS to Inventory Invasive Giant Hogweed in Latvia

Abstract Giant Hogweed - a poisonous, invasive weed in Latvia - poses significant threat to biodiversity, and human health. This research develops a participatory GIS (PPGIS) program involving Latvian high school students as data collectors to monitor the geographic distribution of Giant Hogweed. This research explores challenges with implementing such a public program, how to maximize participation, and how participation impacts environmental awareness of participants. This research assesses accuracy of PPGIS-collected data, and how this impacts utilization of such data for classifying satellite imagery.Results indicate that this PPGIS program is effective in facilitating data collection for monitoring Giant Hogweed in Latvia. Tested methods of increasing participation have proven largely unsuccessful to date. Statistical analyses of survey responses indicate participation had a marked effect on sensitivity towards environmental issues. Accuracy assessments indicate that quality of point data collected by participants is sufficient for use as ground verification, but not as actual ground truth

NASA International Space Apps Challenge 2018 in Tartu

Space Apps is a two-days international hackathon that occurs in cities around the world, globally coordinated by NASA. It is an annual event that pulls citizens together regardless of their background or skill level to address challenges we face on Earth and in Space. Project teams were formed to work on specific topics that they either developed themselves or were suggested by sponsors, the panel or ourselves. The teams' results were then presented and judged by a panel at the end of the event. Overall it can be concluded that this was a very successful event: the teams developed substantial solutions and got engaged with industry and entrepreneurship; inter-departmental and inter-sectoral networks for the research institutes have been strengthened in particular between the organising institutes and with the Tartu Science Park/ESA Business Incubator and several leading innovative (geospatial) software companies.The Department of Geography, the Institute of Computer Science and the Tartu Observatory jointly organised and hosted a 48h hackathon event as part of the 2018 International NASA SpaceApps Challenge. This global event happened on the weekend 19.-21. October 2018 at more than 200 locations, 75 countries, world-wide over the course of the weekend, with Tartu as the only Estonian location. The main goal was to provide a safe platform for motivated students from various backgrounds to work together on real problems in a hackathon event, while at the same time learning the benefits of interdisciplinary work, combined team work with different skills. The second goal was to foster networking between the research institutes and the geospatial industry in Tartu, and expose students to the field of geospatial and Earth Observation (EO) applications