A review into the factors affecting declines in undergraduate Computer Science enrolments and approaches for solving this problem

There has been a noticeable drop in enrolments in Computer Science (CS) courses and interest in CS careers in recent years while demand for CS skills is increasing dramatically. Not only are such skills useful for CS jobs but for all forms of business and to some extent personal lives as Information Technology (IT) is becoming ubiquitous and essential for most aspects of modern life. Therefore it is essential to address this lack of interest and skills to not only fill the demand for CS employees but to provide students with the CS skills they need for modern life especially for improving their employability and skills for further study. This report looks at possible reasons for the lack of interest in CS and different approaches used to enhance CS education and improve the appeal of CS

Subgoal-Labeled Instructional Material Improves Performance and Transfer in Learning to Develop Mobile Applications

Mental models are mental representations of how an action changes a problem state. Creating a mental model early in the learning process is a strong predictor of success in computer science classes. One major problem in computer science education, however, is that novices have difficulty creating mental models perhaps because of the cognitive overload caused by traditional teaching methods. The present study employed subgoal-labeled instructional materials to promote the creation of mental models when teaching novices to program in Android App Inventor. Utilizing this and other well-established educational tools, such as scaffolding, to reduce cognitive load in computer science education improved the performance of participants on novel tasks when learning to develop mobile applications

Finding the Best Types of Guidance for Constructing Self-Explanations of Subgoals in Programming

Subgoal learning, a technique used to break down problem solving into manageable pieces, has been used to promote retention and transfer in procedural domains, such as programming. The primary method of learning subgoals has been passive, and passive learning methods are typically less effective than constructive methods. To promote constructive methods of learning subgoals, learners were prompted to self-explain the subgoals of a problem-solving procedure. Self-explanation asks learners to make sense of new information based on prior knowledge and logical reasoning. Self-explanation by novices is typically more effective when they receive guidance, because it helps them to focus on relevant information. In the present experimental study, the types of guidance that students received while self-explaining determined whether the constructive learning method was more effective than the passive method. Participants assigned to the constructive learning method performed best when they either received hints about the subgoals or received correct explanations as feedback, but not when they received both. These findings suggest that constructive learning of subgoals can further improve the benefits of subgoal learning when students receive only guidance that complements their construction of knowledge. This nuance is important for educators who engage their students in constructive learning and self-explanation

An Evaluation of Open Digital Gaming Platforms for Developing Computational Thinking Skills

Due to business needs and the growing importance of technology in society, in recent years, the concept of computational thinking has emerged, especially focused on its inclusion in compulsory education as a relevant complement, transversal to traditional subjects. In parallel, various initiatives have developed interactive digital tools for learners to meet this type of thinking through a series of activities commonly framed as games. In this chapter, we evaluate many of the existing free access platforms to propose pedagogical, design, and content approaches with which they can be compared

Exploring student perceptions about the use of visual programming environments, their relation to student learning styles and their impact on student motivation in undergraduate introductory programming modules

My research aims to explore how students perceive the usability and enjoyment of visual/block-based programming environments (VPEs), to what extent their learning styles relate to these perceptions and finally to what extent these tools facilitate student understanding of basic programming constructs and impact their motivation to learn programming

Employing Subgoals in Computer Programming Education

The rapid integration of technology into our professional and personal lives has left many education systems ill-equipped to deal with the influx of people seeking computing education. To improve computing education, we are applying techniques that have been developed for other procedural fields. The present study applied such a technique, subgoal labeled worked examples, to explore whether it would improve programming instruction. The first two experiments, conducted in a laboratory, suggest that the intervention improves undergraduate learners’ problem solving performance and affects how learners approach problem solving. A third experiment demonstrates that the intervention has similar, and perhaps stronger, effects in an online learning environment with in-service K-12 teachers who want to become qualified to teach computing courses. By implementing this subgoal intervention as a tool for educators to teach themselves and their students, education systems could improve computing education and better prepare learners for an increasingly technical world

Credit Where It’s Due: The Law and Norms of Attribution

The reputation we develop by receiving credit for the work we do proves to the world the nature of our human capital. If professional reputation were property, it would be the most valuable property that most people own because much human capital is difficult to measure. Although attribution is ubiquitous and important, it is largely unregulated by law. In the absence of law, economic sectors that value attribution have devised non-property regimes founded on social norms to acknowledge and reward employee effort and to attribute responsibility for the success or failure of products and projects. Extant contract-based and norms-based attribution regimes fail optimally to protect attribution interests. This article proposes a new approach to employment contracts designed to shore up the desirable characteristics of existing norms-based attribution systems while allowing legal intervention in cases of market failure. The right to public attribution would be waivable upon proof of a procedurally fair negotiation. The right to attribution necessary to build human capital, however, would be inalienable. Unlike an intellectual property right, attribution rights would not be enforced by restricting access to the misattributed work itself; the only remedy would be for the lost value of human capital. The variation in attribution norms that currently exists in different workplace cultures can and should be preserved through the proposed contract approach. The proposal strikes an appropriate balance between expansive and narrow legal protections for workplace knowledge and, in that respect, addresses one of the most vexing current debates at the intersection of intellectual property and employment law

Design of Science Mobile Learning of Eclipse Phenomena with Conservation Insight Android-based App Inventor 2

Learning application is a medium that can be used to convey the content of the material involving mobile devices such as mobile phones based on Android. Learning Phenomens of Eclipse is android-based multimedia application that is created as a supplementof science instructional material in concepts of eclipses that can be accessed using a mobile device such as mobile phone. The methodology used to make this application is waterfall methodology. The purpose of making the application is the conception of conservation and science mobile learning is expected to help the students in particular and scientific community in general to get the ease of learning the concept of solar and lunar eclipses using a smartphone device without having to print using paper (paperless). The application also comes with interactive features of images, videos and quizzes. The conclusion is that mobile learning science applications of eclipse phenomenon in conception of conservation is developed and feasible to be used to study the concept of eclipse and support theefforts to reduce the use of paper (paperless)