Resilience and Effective Learning in First-Year Undergraduate Computer Science

Many factors have been shown to be important for supporting effective learning and teaching — and thus progression and success — in higher education. While factors such as key introductory-level (CS1) knowledge and skills, as well as pre-university learning and qualifications, have been extensively explored, the impact of measures of positive psychology are less well understood for the discipline of computer science. University study can be a period of significant transition for many students; therefore an individual’s positive psychology may have considerable impact upon their response to these challenges. This work investigates the relationships between effective learning and success (first-year performance and attendance) and two measures of positive psychology: Grit and the Nicolson McBride Resilience Quotient (NMRQ).Data was captured by integrating Grit (N=58) and Resilience (N=50) questionnaires and related coaching into the first-year of the undergraduate computer science programme at a single UK university. Analyses demonstrate that NMRQ is significantly linked to attendance and performance for individual subjects and year average marks; however, this was not the case for Grit. This suggests that development of targeted interventions to support students in further developing their resilience could support their learning, as well as progression and retention. Resilience could be used, in concert with other factors such as learning analytics, to augment a range of existing models to predict future student success, allowing targeted academic and pastoral support

Resilience and Effective Learning in First-Year Undergraduate Computer Science

Many factors have been shown to be important for supporting effective learning and teaching — and thus progression and success — in higher education. While factors such as key introductory-level (CS1) knowledge and skills, as well as pre-university learning and qualifications, have been extensively explored, the impact of measures of positive psychology are less well understood for the discipline of computer science. University study can be a period of significant transition for many students; therefore an individual’s positive psychology may have considerable impact upon their response to these challenges. This work investigates the relationships between effective learning and success (first-year performance and attendance) and two measures of positive psychology: Grit and the Nicolson McBride Resilience Quotient (NMRQ).Data was captured by integrating Grit (N=58) and Resilience (N=50) questionnaires and related coaching into the first-year of the undergraduate computer science programme at a single UK university. Analyses demonstrate that NMRQ is significantly linked to attendance and performance for individual subjects and year average marks; however, this was not the case for Grit. This suggests that development of targeted interventions to support students in further developing their resilience could support their learning, as well as progression and retention. Resilience could be used, in concert with other factors such as learning analytics, to augment a range of existing models to predict future student success, allowing targeted academic and pastoral support

Academic resilience for preservice teachers among field of sciences: A measurement scale in education

The scale of measuring academic resilience in a decade has experienced rapid development. Numerous instruments have been formulated by previous researchers, but it has not explicitly measured the academic resilience for preservice teachers. The purpose is to construct a new measure of academic resilience for preservice teachers, which consists of two stages: the validity and reliability of the instrument; and continued with differences in academic resilience for preservice teachers among the fields of social, science, and language. Measurement instruments were given to lectures (eight experts) and students (n=236) from various universities in Medan, Indonesia. The content validity used V-Aiken, and construct validity used confirmatory factor analysis; reliability using the interclass correlation coefficient and internal consistency reliability. The results show that the constructs of composure, commitment, control, coordination, empathy, perseverance, and adaptive have excellent and accurate validity and reliability to measure academic resilience. The findings are specific that there are significant differences in the academic resilience for preservice teachers among field of sciences. Researchers imply that they can use these instruments appropriate and responsive to academic resilience for preservice teachers highlighting among the sciences' domain so that future research can be carried out to explore these differences

Passive or active learning: the challenges of teaching distributed computing using Raspberry Pi clusters to open distance university students

Parallel and distributed computing (PDC) is now considered a threshold concept for computing, and is embedded in computing curricula across the globe. While the costs of traditional computing clusters have made developing practical activities challenging, the rise of low-cost computers, particularly the Raspberry Pi, has led to an exploration of how PDC can be taught to students using Raspberry Pi clusters. Building on this work, we report our experiences from developing a series of low-cost Raspberry Pi clusters for use with open distance university students. Based on survey results from 484 students, we argue that our work demonstrates the benefits that remote practical activities can have for teaching PDC concepts, as well as engaging students. We conclude with a discussion of two key challenges: supporting active learning through student-led programming on the clusters, and supporting lower-performing students at a distance

Towards a 21st Century Personalised Learning Skills Taxonomy

There exists a significant gap between the requirements specified within higher education qualifications and the requirements sought by employers. The former, commonly expressed in terms of learning outcomes, provide a measure of capability, of what skills have been learnt (an input measure); the latter, commonly expressed in terms of role descriptions, provide a measure of competency, of what a learner has become skilful in (an output measure). Accreditation traditionally provides a way of translating and embedding industry-relevant content into education programmes but current approaches make fully addressing this requirements gap, referred to here as the Capability-Competency Chasm, very difficult. This paper explores current efforts to address this global challenge, primarily through STEM examples that apply within the United Kingdom and European Union, before proposing a way of bridging this chasm through the use of a 21st Century (C21) skills taxonomy. The concept of C21 Skills Hours as a new input measurement for learning within qualifications is introduced, and an illustrative example is presented to show the C21 skills taxonomy in action. The paper concludes with a discussion of how such a taxonomy can also be used to support a microcredentialing framework that aligns to existing competency frameworks, enabling formal, non-formal and informal learning to all be recognized. A C21 Skills taxonomy can therefore be used to bridge the gap between capability (input) and competency (output), providing a common language both for learning and demonstrating a skill. This approach has profound implications for addressing current and future skills gaps as well as for supporting a transition to more personalised learning within schools, colleges and universities and more lifelong learning both during and outside of employment

Digital and life sciences skills in D2N2: labour market intelligence report for Nottingham College

This report assesses the national, regional and local labour market in the digital and life sciences sectors in support of a proposal to deliver a Skills Accelerator Programme as part of the Strategic Development Fund (SDF). To do so, the report includes an extensive review of the relevant research and policy literature and a detailed analysis of regional and local data. We examine demand from the perspective of the employer and not the potential student. That is, the report is concerned with the demand for labour and not the demand for courses