308 research outputs found
Usability and Usage of Interactive Features in an Online Ebook for CS Teachers
There are too few secondary school computing teachers to meet international needs for growing secondary school computing education. Our group has created an ebook to help prepare secondary teachers to teach the programming and big data concepts in the new AP Computer Science Principles course. The ebook was designed using principles from educational psychology, specifically worked examples and cognitive load. The ebook interleaves worked examples and interactive practice activities, which we believe will lead to more efficient and effective learning than more typical approaches to learning programming. This paper reports the results from initial studies of our ebook. First, we conducted a usability study comparing three different ebook platforms. Next, we conducted a study of teacher use of the ebook. Ten teachers worked through the first eight chapters of the ebook at their own pace. Five of the ten teachers completed the first eight chapters which is a 50% completion rate. Significantly, teachers who used more of the interactive features in the ebook did better on the post-tests and reported higher confidence in their ability to teach the material than teachers who used few of the interactive features
CONSTRUCTING A CONNECTED PROGRAM IN IT/IS: A NON-R1 UNIVERSITY CASE
A connected program model is developed in a non-R1 university to address the skill gap in the current Information Technology (IT)/Information Systems (IS) workforce. The program aims to enhance undergraduate IT/IS education and research to equip graduates with employability and soft skills to enable them to meet emerging challenges in an ever-changing global environment. The model integrates six dimensions of connectivity including 1) academia to industry, 2) curriculum over time, 3) students to research projects and researchers, 4) across disciplines and the world, 5) students with students and alumni, and 6) students with faculty. The paper starts with examining what skill gaps are in the current IT/IS workforce, followed by an outline of the primary framework –the connected curriculum. The third section presents a case study illustrating how the authors developed and implemented the program in their university. The discussions and future research directions are included in the last section
Defining and evaluating conflictive animations for programming education : the case of Jeliot ConAn
A review of the practical uses of errors in education reveals three contexts where errors have been shown to help: teaching conceptual knowledge, changing students’ attitudes and promoting learning skills. Conflictive animations form a novel approach to teaching programming that follows a long tradition on research and development on program animation tools. Conflictive animations link the benefits of errors with program animation tools and programming education. This approach involves presenting to the students conflictive animations that do not animate faithfully the programs or concepts taught. Conflictive animations are versatile enough to cover the fundamental building blocks of programs such as operators, expressions and statements. With conflictive animations a novel set of learning activities can be introduced to computer science classes. This conflictive dimension of activities augments an engagement taxonomy for animation tools at all levels. They are an example of activities that promote critical thinking. A particular implementation of conflictive animations has been empirically evaluated aiming for ecological validity rather than statistical significance. Results indicate that students using conflictive animations improve their metacognitive skills, and, when compared to a control group, their conceptual knowledge improves at a better rate
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
The Importance of Computing Education Research
Interest in computer science is growing. As a result, computer science (CS)
and related departments are experiencing an explosive increase in undergraduate
enrollments and unprecedented demand from other disciplines for learning
computing. According to the 2014 CRA Taulbee Survey, the number of
undergraduates declaring a computing major at Ph.D. granting departments in the
US has increased 60% from 2011-2014 and the number of degrees granted has
increased by 34% from 2008-2013. However, this growth is not limited to higher
education. New York City, San Francisco and Oakland public schools will soon be
offering computer science to all students at all schools from preschool to 12th
grade, although it will be an elective for high school students. This
unprecedented demand means that CS departments are likely to teach not only
more students in the coming decades, but more diverse students, with more
varied backgrounds, motivations, preparations, and abilities.
This growth is an unparalleled opportunity to expand the reach of computing
education. However, this growth is also a unique research challenge, as we know
very little about how best to teach our current students, let alone the
students soon to arrive. The burgeoning field of Computing Education Research
(CER) is positioned to address this challenge by answering research questions
such as, how should we teach computer science, from programming to advanced
principles, to a broader and more diverse audience? We argue that computer
science departments should lead the way in establishing CER as a foundational
research area of computer science, discovering the best ways to teach CS, and
inventing the best technologies with which to teach it. This white paper
provides a snapshot of the current state of CER and makes actionable
recommendations for academic leaders to grow CER as a successful research area
in their departments.Comment: A Computing Community Consortium (CCC) white paper, 12 page
Programming fundamentals and human factors: an empirical study of three variables
In the present study we identify and experimentally investigate variations in the values of three important variables that are present in learning environments for programming fundamentals: the type of the source of problems (concrete vs. abstract); the type of the programming language grammar (context-free vs. natural language like); and the distance between the concepts in the source of problems and the programming language primitives (close vs. distant). We understand that the results of our research can be used to design better courses and learning material, to improve students' performance in the learning of introductory programming
The Importance of Computing Education Research
Interest in computer science is growing. As a result, computer science (CS) and related departments are experiencing an explosive increase in undergraduate enrollments and unprecedented demand from other disciplines for learning computing. According to the 2014 CRA Taulbee Survey, the number of undergraduates declaring a computing major at Ph.D. granting departments in the US has increased 60% from 2011-2014 and the number of degrees granted has increased by 34% from 2008-2013
The Importance of Computing Education Research
Interest in computer science is growing. As a result, computer science (CS) and related departments are experiencing an explosive increase in undergraduate enrollments and unprecedented demand from other disciplines for learning computing. According to the 2014 CRA Taulbee Survey, the number of undergraduates declaring a computing major at Ph.D. granting departments in the US has increased 60% from 2011-2014 and the number of degrees granted has increased by 34% from 2008-2013
Toward Predicting Success and Failure in CS2: A Mixed-Method Analysis
Factors driving success and failure in CS1 are the subject of much study but
less so for CS2. This paper investigates the transition from CS1 to CS2 in
search of leading indicators of success in CS2. Both CS1 and CS2 at the
University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) are taught in Python with annual
enrollments of 300 and 150 respectively. In this paper, we report on the
following research questions: 1) Are CS1 grades indicators of CS2 grades? 2)
Does a quantitative relationship exist between CS2 course grade and a modified
version of the SCS1 concept inventory? 3) What are the most challenging aspects
of CS2, and how well does CS1 prepare students for CS2 from the student's
perspective? We provide a quantitative analysis of 2300 CS1 and CS2 course
grades from 2013--2019. In Spring 2019, we administered a modified version of
the SCS1 concept inventory to 44 students in the first week of CS2. Further, 69
students completed an exit questionnaire at the conclusion of CS2 to gain
qualitative student feedback on their challenges in CS2 and on how well CS1
prepared them for CS2. We find that 56% of students' grades were lower in CS2
than CS1, 18% improved their grades, and 26% earned the same grade. Of the
changes, 62% were within one grade point. We find a statistically significant
correlation between the modified SCS1 score and CS2 grade points. Students
identify linked lists and class/object concepts among the most challenging.
Student feedback on CS2 challenges and the adequacy of their CS1 preparations
identify possible avenues for improving the CS1-CS2 transition.Comment: The definitive Version of Record was published in 2020 ACM Southeast
Conference (ACMSE 2020), April 2-4, 2020, Tampa, FL, USA. 8 page
KYPO4INDUSTRY: A Testbed for Teaching Cybersecurity of Industrial Control Systems
There are different requirements on cybersecurity of industrial control systems and information technology systems. This fact exacerbates the global issue of hiring cybersecurity employees with relevant skills. In this paper, we present KYPO4INDUSTRY training facility and a course syllabus for beginner and intermediate computer science students to learn cybersecurity in a simulated industrial environment. The training facility is built using open-source hardware and software and provides reconfigurable modules of industrial control systems. The course uses a flipped classroom format with hands-on projects: the students create educational games that replicate real cyber attacks. Throughout the semester, they learn to understand the risks and gain capabilities to respond to cyber attacks that target industrial control systems. Our described experience from the design of the testbed and its usage can help any educator interested in teaching cybersecurity of cyber-physical systems
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