Assessing the quality of a student-generated question repository

We present results from a study that categorizes and assesses the quality of questions and explanations authored by students, in question repositories produced as part of the summative assessment in introductory physics courses over the past two years. Mapping question quality onto the levels in the cognitive domain of Bloom's taxonomy, we find that students produce questions of high quality. More than three-quarters of questions fall into categories beyond simple recall, in contrast to similar studies of student-authored content in different subject domains. Similarly, the quality of student-authored explanations for questions was also high, with approximately 60% of all explanations classified as being of high or outstanding quality. Overall, 75% of questions met combined quality criteria, which we hypothesize is due in part to the in-class scaffolding activities that we provided for students ahead of requiring them to author questions.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Games, Robots, and Robot Games: Complementary Contexts for Introductory Computing Education

Using games to teach introductory computing courses provides another context with which to exploring the possible attraction, retention, and education of a new generation of computer science (CS) students. At Bryn Mawr College, we have been actively exploring these contexts and have identified four that have great promise for use in teaching introductory computing courses: visualization, multimedia, robotics, and, most recently, games. We are currently using and analysing robots and have some preliminary results. We believe that much of what we have learned in using robots in the classroom can be applied to the other contexts, especially gaming. In addition, many aspects of gaming can also be used in an introductory course using robots. This paper will explore robotics, gaming, their interactions, and provide suggestions on how best to proceed in making the most out of games in the classroom

Annual Report 2020-2021

LETTER FROM THE DEAN As I write this letter during the beginning of the 2021–22 academic year, we have started to welcome the majority of our students to campus— many for the very first time, and some for the first time in a year and a half. It has been wonderful to be together, in-person, again. Four quarters of learning and working remotely was challenging, to be sure, but I have been consistently amazed by the resilience, innovation, and hard work of our students, faculty, and staff, even in the most difficult of circumstances. This annual report, covering the 2020–21 academic year—one that was entirely virtual—highlights many of those examples: from a second place national ranking by our Security Daemons team to hosting a blockbuster virtual screenwriting conference with top talent; from gaming grants helping us reach historically excluded youth to alumni successes across our three schools. Recently, I announced that, after 40 years at DePaul and 15 years as the Dean of CDM, I will be stepping down from the deanship at the end of the 2021–22 academic year. I began my tenure at DePaul in 1981 as an assistant professor, with the founding of the Department of Computer Science, joining seven faculty members who were leaving the mathematics department for this new venture. It has been amazing to watch our college grow during that time. We now have more than 40 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, over 22,000 college alumni, and a catalog of nationally ranked programs. And we plan to keep going. If there is anything I’ve learned at CDM, it’s that a lot can be accomplished in a year (as this report shows), and I’m committed to working hard and continuing the progress we’ve made together in 2021–22. David MillerDeanhttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1004/thumbnail.jp

STEM Community Chairs Progress Updates Spring 2016

The following is a brief update of the activities and efforts being undertaken by UNO’s Dr. George and Sally Haddix Community Chair of STEM Education as being held by Dr. Neal Grandgenett. The goal of this position is: Position Goal: To organize, lead and inspire collaborative STEM initiatives at UNO, that cross colleges and disciplines, and that aggressively position UNO to be a true national leader in interdisciplinary STEM programs. (Curriculum, Capacity, Collaboration

The Design of an Emerging/Multi-Paradigm Programming Languages Course

We present the design of a new special topics course, Emerging/Multi-paradigm Languages, on the recent trend toward more dynamic, multi-paradigm languages. To foster course adoption, we discuss the design of the course, which includes language presentations/papers and culminating, inal projects/papers. The goal of this article is to inspire and facilitate course adoption

Intervention programmes to recruit female computing students : why do the programme champions do it?

This paper looks at intervention programmes to improve the representation of female students in computing education and the computer industry, A multiple case study methodology was used to look at major intervention programmes conducted in Australia. One aspect of the research focused on the programme champions; those women from the computing industry, those working within government organisations and those in academia who instigated the programmes. The success of these intervention programmes appears to have been highly dependent upon not only the design of the programme but on the involvement of these strong individuals who were passionate and worked tirelessly to ensure the programme\u27s success. This paper provides an opportunity for the voices of these women to be heard. It describes the champions\u27 own initial involvement with computing which frequently motivated and inspired them to conduct such programmes. The research found that when these types of intervention programmes were conducted by academic staff the work was undervalued compared to when the activities were conducted by staff in industry or in government. The academic environment was often not supportive of academics who conducted intervention programmes for female students.<br /

Annual Report 2018-2019

LETTER FROM THE DEAN I am pleased to share with you the 2018-19 College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) annual report, highlighting the important work done by our faculty, students, and staff. We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: it was a big year. In 2018-19, programs across all three of our schools (Computing, Cinematic Arts, and Design) were ranked nationally. Our faculty were published in dozens of scholarly journals, screened their films over 100 times, and had their work exhibited globally. Student and alumni accomplishments included an Emmy nomination, a first place win in a Department of Energy competition, and features in trade publications--to name just a few. We worked to create new programs (including undergraduate and graduate comedy filmmaking programs in collaboration with The Second City) and continued our work in others (our NSF- funded Medical Informatics Experiences program celebrated its fifteenth year). Our makerspace, the Idea Realization Lab, clocked its 10,000th visit as we made plans to open a new IRL in Lincoln Park. And, we will continue to create the innovative programs and facilities that make us CDM. You can look forward to new programs like industrial design, and new labs that focus on everything from Internet of Things to design industry collaborations. I am proud of our CDM community, and I hope you feel that same sense of pride as you read through this report. David MillerDeanhttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1002/thumbnail.jp