Analysing students' attitudes towards the learning of specialized software

In this article the situation of teaching in engineering courses using specialized software support is evaluated and analysed.The statistics courses in engineering often come off as element of formal exposure to statistical analysis and research methods. The software support during classes intends to facilitate and reinforce learning with computational resolution of statistical specific problems. We report a research that investigates students' attitudes towards computers and their effect on statistics unit performance. The preliminary results of research using a small sample of 47 students enrolled in the experimental statistics unit of the 1st year of the master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Minho indicate that software perceived usefulness has a positive effect on student success, although perceived ease of use and perceived self-performance do not influence.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

EC-KitY: Evolutionary Computation Tool Kit in Python with Seamless Machine Learning Integration

EC-KitY is a comprehensive Python library for doing evolutionary computation (EC), licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License, and compatible with scikit-learn. Designed with modern software engineering and machine learning integration in mind, EC-KitY can support all popular EC paradigms, including genetic algorithms, genetic programming, coevolution, evolutionary multi-objective optimization, and more. This paper provides an overview of the package, including the ease of setting up an EC experiment, the architecture, the main features, and a comparison with other libraries.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. Published in Elsevier Software

Cognitive Understanding of Reverse Engineering Assistant

The Cognitive Understanding of Reverse Engineering Assistant, or C.U.R.E. Assistant for short, is an independently developed program with the purpose of introducing students of the software reverse-engineering world to the art of disassembly. Reverse Engineering, or R.E. for short, is the process of deducing the source instructions or mechanisms of a device. This can be done to software to figure out how it works and how it can be exploited. While hackers employ this method for breaking into software systems, this is very useful for security researchers to determine security vulnerabilities in internet browsers, operating systems, apps, and more, so they can fix the problems before people using the software get exploited. Unfortunately, this is a very difficult and even expensive skill to learn, but C.U.R.E. Assistant seeks to mitigate that effort and cost. By analyzing a binary and then displaying the results in a user-friendly graphical interface, C.U.R.E. Assistant is able to point out areas of interest to those who may not know what to look for or where to start. In addition, it is designed with added functionality to ease users into learning the intricate, but popular, reverse-engineering tool, Radare2. Inspired by the massive learning curve and scant available training for software dissection, C.U.R.E. Assistant aims to both streamline the process for experienced engineers as well as educate those new to the field in a friendly and informative manner

Integrated Learning Model: A Blend of Project-Based Approach and SDLC Concepts for Software Engineering Courses, Evaluated through EUCS

Online learning and face-to-face learning are two examples of current learning models. Online learning has the advantage of time and place flexibility as it can be conducted remotely. Meanwhile, face-to-face learning excels in the teacher-student relationship as they can meet in person. However, particularly in online learning, not all subjects can be taught optimally, such as practical courses. Blended learning is one solution for a combined learning model that can leverage both online and face-to-face learning. One of the most challenging subjects in online learning is software engineering, which requires practical exercises to write application code. There are various types of blended learning models, but we propose a blended learning model specifically based on the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) pattern in software engineering course materials. We do this to maximize the learning process. We also integrate blended learning with a project-based concept, as this course is well-suited for project-based learning. In evaluating this model, we analyze the satisfaction level using the end-user computing satisfaction method. The sample consists of 60 students from the Computer Science program, selected using accidental sampling. The data analysis and processing methods employed in this study include t-tests, F-tests, and multiple linear regression. The research yields a satisfaction level of 71%. The results of hypothesis testing also show that the variables Ease of Use and Timeliness have a significant positive partial impact on student satisfaction

A Framework for Measuring the Usability Issues and Criteria of Mobile Learning Applications

With the continuing growth of mobile devices outpacing that of desktops and laptops, mobile devices have become the new personal computer. These devices have become increasingly sophisticated and extremely powerful in the last few years. Substantial work has been done to measure mobile applications’ level of quality; many researchers have attempted to figure out why certain applications fail and others succeed. In this thesis, a conceptual framework for measuring the quality aspects and criteria of m-learning is produced. Furthermore, a software prototype application for smartphones to assess usability issues of m-learning applications has been designed and implemented. This prototype application is developed using Java language and the Android Software development Kit, such that the recommended guidelines of the proposed framework are maintained. A questionnaire survey was conducted at Western University with approximately 96 undergraduate software engineering students. Five identical smartphones are used to evaluate the developed prototype in terms of ease of use, user satisfaction, attractiveness and learnability

Desarrollo de entorno online de programación para computación natural

Máster en Investigación e Innovación en Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (i2- TIC).This work proposes a natural computer programming (for CA and NEPs) environment platform using Blockly. The platform is a web-based tool that provides simulators for two well-known natural computing systems: Cellular Automata (CA) and Network of Evolutionary Processors (NEPs). CA programming blocks presented in this work provide the ability to design and implement several types of CA including Elementary cellular automata, 2D cellular automata, and nD cellular automata. The tool also provides a graphical representation of CA’s grid through projection for any CA that has 3 or more dimensions. A NEPs Blockly programming environment is presented in this work. It provides the ability to design and simulate NEPs. Blocks are used as flexible user interface to enter NEPs specifications. The blocks automatically generate a standard XML configurations code which can be sent to the server side of the simulator for implementation. The tool also provides a graphical representation for the static topology of the system. Both CA and NEPs Blockly programming environments have been tested in several rather academic examples. The work presents an online simulation platform for natural computing algorithm using visual programing tool, namely Blockly. The proposed platform provides software engineering tools for setting up algorithms and also ease of use especially for teaching of these algorithm. The software engineering tools has been implemented on the NEPs as there is much more software tools already presented for cellular automata. The software designed for NEPs are a set of blocks to implement several types of connections between nodes. These blocks reduce time and complexity in setting up NEPs with fully connected nodes, for instance. In the other hand, cellular automata algorithm has been chosen to test the ease of the process of teaching and learning natural computing algorithms as they are much better-known model. The test has been conducted with students, teachers and researchers. Results of the experiment showed that the CA Blockly simulator outperforms traditional manual methods of implementing CA. It also showed that the proposed environment has desired features such as ease of use and decreases learning time. The NEPs part of the system has been tested against several applications. It showed that it provides a flexible designing tool for NEPs. It outperforms traditional XML coding methods in terms of ease of use and designing time. In addition we have designed specific high level constructs that automatize in some way the specific of complex NEPs’ topologies by hand. They could be considered as embryonic software engineering tools to program NEPs. Our tool is considered a generic platform for web-based implementation. It has desired features and wide range of properties that could attract the scientific community to adapt and develop in the future

Emotion-based analysis of programming languages on Stack Overflow

When developing a software engineering project, selecting the most appropriate programming language is a crucial step. Most often, feeling at ease with the possible options becomes almost as relevant as the technical features of the language. Therefore, it appears to be worth analyzing the role that the emotional component plays in this process. In this article, we analyze the trend of the emotions expressed by developers in 2018 on the Stack Overflow platform in posts concerning 26 programming languages. To do so, we propose a learning model trained by distant supervision and the comparison of two different classifier architectures

Students and Teachers’ Perception of Using CBT Seagull Training Lab for Learning Maritime English in PIP Semarang

This study attempts to explore how students and teacher perceive the usefulness of Computer Based Training (CBT) Seagull Training Lab software for teaching, and learning Maritime English in PIP Semarang. This software is used by Marine Navigation, Marine Engineering and Port and Shipping Department’s students. The study adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by Davis (1989) focusing on the perceived acceptance of the software. This study employed the survey research design with simple random sampling as the sampling technique. The questionnaires and interviews were used as the method of data collection. The population participated are 374 students and 3 teachers. The data were analyzed and interpreted descriptively. The analysis was done under 4 headings: perceived of ease, perceived usefulness, attitude towards using, and behavior intention to use. The results show that students and teachers perceived the software both positively and negatively. It also reveals that a positive impact of the usage has a positive impact on teaching. Moreover, the negative perception is also uncovered