Service-oriented flexible and interoperable assessment: towards a standardised e-assessment system

Free-text answers assessment has been a field of interest during the last 50 years. Several free-text answers assessment tools underpinned by different techniques have been developed. In most cases, the complexity of the underpinned techniques has caused those tools to be designed and developed as stand-alone tools. The rationales behind using computers to assist learning assessment are mainly to save time and cost, as well as to reduce staff workload. However, utilising free-text answers assessment tools separately form the learning environment may increase the staff workload and increase the complexity of the assessment process. Therefore, free-text answers scorers have to have a flexible design to be integrated within the context of the e-assessment system architectures taking advantages of software-as-a-service architecture. Moreover, flexible and interoperable e-assessment architecture has to be utilised in order to facilitate this integration. This paper discusses the importance of flexible and interoperable e-assessment. Moreover, it proposes a service-oriented flexible and interoperable architecture for futuristic e-assessment systems. Nevertheless, it shows how such architecture can foster the e-assessment process in general and the free-text answers assessment in particular

Proceedings of the Second Program Visualization Workshop, 2002

The Program Visualization Workshops aim to bring together researchers who design and construct program visualizations and, above all, educators who use and evaluate visualizations in their teaching. The first workshop took place in July 2000 at Porvoo, Finland. The second workshop was held in cooperation with ACM SIGCSE and took place at HornstrupCentret, Denmark in June 2002, immediately following the ITiCSE 2002 Conference in Aarhus, Denmark

Enhancing the learning of programming using Scratch: a recommender-systems-based approach in non WEIRD communities

In today’s world, there is a growing need for professionals with computer skills in general, and programming in particular. This is so, both in WEIRD contexts and in contexts that are not. WEIRD is an acronym from English (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic Societies) and is used to refer to certain sectors of societies that are ”Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. The Ecuadorian State makes a high investment in the training of engineering career professionals offered by public universities. In Ecuador, these careers are highly demanded. However, a high student dropout is verified because of basic courses such as Fundamentals of programming in the first levels, with the consequent deficiencies in the performance of the careers. Additionally, the low qualification of students in computer skills indicates that they have not developed their computational thinking skills. In general terms, this situation contributes to the loss of competitiveness of non-WEIRD countries. For this reason, a pedagogical tool was introduced in teaching that allowed motivating programming learning, reducing dropout and improving academic performance in introductory programming courses at the university level. We present empirical evidence of the positive impact of Scratch on the Fundamentals of Programming courses. The use of this pedagogical tool allowed students to develop the concepts of programming logic and the use of basic control structures. Students who used Scratch scored better, reduced the number of suspensions and dropouts, and students were encouraged to enjoy the subject. On the other hand, when developing the exercises with Scratch in combination with the CARAMBA recommendation system, students were motivated to autonomous learning. The use of CARAMBA showed a positive correlation with the chances of success in the course. Specifically, > 52% success, whose result is 8% higher than the use of Scratch alone (without recommendations) and 21% higher than traditional education (without Scratch). The Scratch + CARAMBA tools were scaled to a school environment in non-WEIR contexts for programming learning. The post-application evaluation of the instrument indicated increases in exam scores in all grades analyzed. It should be noted that there was an average increase of 32% in the afternoon sections compared to the morning sections. This work opens a line of future research by bringing a pedagogical tool to different educational environments. The results allow us to propose improvements in CARAMBA’s recommendations, especially regarding the variables of usability, interactivity, language and pedagogical aspects. CARAMBA functionality should incorporate educational data mining tools that allow learning models based on the profile of the students. Another aspect that we intend to address is the scalability of the system in order to adapt it to other study scenarios with more users and number of exercises.En el mundo actual, existe cada vez mayor necesidad de profesionales con conocimientos de computación en general, y programación en particular. Esto es así, tanto en contextos WEIRD como en contextos que no lo son. WEIRD es un acrónimo procedente del inglés (Western, Educated, Industri alized, Rich and Democratic Societies) y es utilizado para referirse a ciertos sectores de sociedades que son “occidentales, educadas, industrializadas, ricas y democráticas. El Estado ecuatoriano realiza una alta inversión en la formación de profesionales de carreras de ingeniería ofertadas por las universidades públicas. En el Ecuador estas carreras son altamente demandadas. Sin embargo, se verifica una alta deserción estudiantil a causa de cursos básicos como Fundamentos de programación en los primeros niveles, con las consecuentes deficiencias en el desempeño de las carreras. Adicionalmente, la baja calificación de los estudiantes en competencias de computación indica que no tengan desarrollo-ladas sus habilidades de pensamiento computacional. En términos generales, esta situación contribuye a la perdida de la competitividad de los países non WEIRD. Por esta razón se introdujo en la enseñanza una herramienta pedagógica que permitió motivar el aprendizaje de programación, disminuir la deserción´ y mejorar el rendimiento académico en los cursos introductorios de programación a nivel universitario. Presentamos evidencia empírica del impacto positivo de Catch en los cursos de Fundamentos de Programación. El uso de esta herramienta pedagógica permitió desarrollar en los estudiantes los conceptos de lógica de programación y el uso de estructuras básicas de control. Los estudiantes que es-aron Catch obtuvieron mejores notas, redujeron la cantidad de suspensos y de deserciones, y se alentaron a los estudiantes a disfrutar de la asignatura. Por otro lado, al desarrollar los ejercicios con Catch en combinación con el sistema de recomendaciones CARAMBA los estudiantes se vieron motivados al aprendizaje autónomo. El uso de CARAMBA mostro una correlación positiva con las posibilidades de éxito en el curso. Concretamente, ¿52% de éxito, cuyo resultado 8% superior al uso solo de Catch (sin recomendaciones) y 21% superior a la enseñanza tradicional (sin Catch). Las herramientas Scratch+CARAMBA fueron escaladas a un ambiente escolar en contextos non WEIR para el aprendizaje de programación. La evaluación posterior a la aplicación del instrumento indico incrementos en las notas de los exámenes en todos los grados analizados. Vale destacar, que hubo un incremento del promedio de las notas del 32% en las secciones de la tarde respecto a las secciones matutinas. Este trabajo abre una línea de investigación futura al llevar una herramienta pedagógica a diferentes entornos educativos. Se pretende plantear mejoras en las recomendaciones de CARAMBA, en especial respecto a las variables de usabilidad, interactividad, lenguaje y de aspectos pedagógicos. En la funcionalidad de CARAMBA se deben incorporar herramientas de minería de datos educacionales que permitan modelos de aprendizaje basados en el perfil de los estudiantes. Otro aspecto que pretendemos abordar es la escalabilidad del sistema a fin de adaptarlo a otros escenarios de estudio con mas usuarios cantidad de ejercicios

Hindrances to learning to program in an introductory programmimg module

Introductory programming failure rate among students is high worldwide, including in South Africa. The failure rate remains a subject for investigation due to a high number of students who find learning to program difficult. This study evaluates factors that contribute to high failure rates in an introductory programming module at University of South Africa. The study evaluates curriculum, programming syllabus, and personal factors to evaluate reasons for high failure rates. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches are used to identify learning hindrances. The research results show that personal factors are the leading contributing factors, followed by the curriculum and then the programming syllabus. Personal factors relate to time, personal reasons, and commitments; curriculum involves tutorials; and programming syllabus factors are linked to programming concepts and application. The findings have implications for how teaching and learning in introductory programming can be improved. The study provides recommendations for improvement and future studies. Keywords: Learn to program; introductory programming; higher learning; personalSchool of ComputingM. Tech (Information Technology

Herramientas educativas para facilitar la adopción de la ingeniería de lenguajes software entre los desarrolladores informáticos

Históricamente, la materia de construcción de compiladores y procesadores de lenguaje es considerada por los estudiantes de ingeniería en informática como una materia difícil. Esto es debido, por una parte, a la naturaleza formal de las herramientas de especificación y diseño utilizadas, y, por otra, a la aplicación adecuada de diferentes técnicas sistemáticas de desarrollo para obtener los procesadores finales a partir de sus especificaciones. En esta tesis se aborda esta problemática en el caso particular de las gramáticas de atributos como formalismo básico de especificación. La tesis aborda, primeramente la concepción de una estrategia para facilitar la comprensión de los aspectos básicos de las especificaciones basadas en gramáticas de atributos, así como el soporte software de dicha estrategia. La estrategia propone un enfoque dirigido por problemas, en los que el alumno debe emular el proceso de evaluación semántica sobre distintos supuestos de procesamiento de frases de acuerdo con gramáticas de atributos. Para soportar dicha estrategia, se ha desarrollado un sistema denominado Evaluators, que, tomando como entrada baterías de ejercicios sobre evaluación semántica, produce automáticamente simuladores interactivos que los estudiantes pueden utilizar para resolver dichos ejercicios. El sistema proporciona, así mismo, una herramienta de autoría, que puede ser utilizada por los docentes para proporcionar los ejercicios, así como una herramienta de análisis, que permite trazar el comportamiento de los estudiantes durante la resolución de los mismos en los simuladores generados. Respecto a dichos simuladores, la herramienta es capaz de generar simulaciones de dos tipos: simuladores basados en juegos serios, y simulaciones interactivas basadas en las representaciones abstractas convencionales utilizadas en la materia. La tesis presenta, así mismo, diversos resultados de evaluación de la herramienta, tanto con estudiantes como con docentes, que evidencian la utilidad práctica de la misma. Por último, la tesis abstrae también el modelo de proceso utilizado en la construcción de la misma..

Video Conference as a tool for Higher Education

The book describes the activities of the consortium member institutions in the framework of the TEMPUS IV Joint Project ViCES - Video Conferencing Educational Services (144650-TEMPUS-2008-IT-JPGR). In order to provide the basis for the development of a distance learning environment based on video conferencing systems and develop a blended learning courses methodology, the TEMPUS Project VICES (2009-2012) was launched in 2009. This publication collects the conclusion of the project and it reports the main outcomes together with the approach followed by the different partners towards the achievement of the project's goal. The book includes several contributions focussed on specific topics related to videoconferencing services, namely how to enable such services in educational contexts so that, the installation and deployment of videoconferencing systems could be conceived an integral part of virtual open campuses

Challenges for engineering students working with authentic complex problems

Engineers are important participants in solving societal, environmental and technical problems. However, due to an increasing complexity in relation to these problems new interdisciplinary competences are needed in engineering. Instead of students working with monodisciplinary problems, a situation where students work with authentic complex problems in interdisciplinary teams together with a company may scaffold development of new competences. The question is: What are the challenges for students structuring the work on authentic interdisciplinary problems? This study explores a three-day event where 7 students from Aalborg University (AAU) from four different faculties and one student from University College North Denmark (UCN), (6th-10th semester), worked in two groups at a large Danish company, solving authentic complex problems. The event was structured as a Hackathon where the students for three days worked with problem identification, problem analysis and finalizing with a pitch competition presenting their findings. During the event the students had workshops to support the work and they had the opportunity to use employees from the company as facilitators. It was an extracurricular activity during the summer holiday season. The methodology used for data collection was qualitative both in terms of observations and participants’ reflection reports. The students were observed during the whole event. Findings from this part of a larger study indicated, that students experience inability to transfer and transform project competences from their previous disciplinary experiences to an interdisciplinary setting