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

Implications of an integrated curriculum in a polytechnic or competence based environment

This is a comparative case study of an innovative approach to teaching computer programming to novices. The focus of this study is to evaluate the integrated curriculum which blends face-to-face interaction with computing practice and online learning to first-year polytechnic students in an engineering informatics diploma course. To examine the efficacy of the blended learning approach, the integrated curriculum is compared to its predecessor which has applied the traditional structured curriculum. This thesis gains relevance from its study of different dimensions of the curriculum comprising the curriculum aims and objectives, the teaching-learning activities and the different forms of assessment. The research design is mainly qualitative employing analytic induction methods to arrive at its inferences and findings. Content analysis and observation have been performed to evaluate the curriculum of each of the cases. A quantitative analysis is performed on students' performance in the computer programming module to add validity to the qualitative findings. Data were collected for students taking the Principles of Computing module in the first semester of the first year in 2005 and 2006 respectively; a total of 232 students came from the 2005 cohort and 247 students came from the 2006 cohort. The dependent variables are the module score and its sub-components, the project score and the individual test score. The independent variable significant to this study is the student's entry level GCE 'O' levels aggregate; gender is not a significant variable unlike in other studies involving mathematics or science. The findings highlight the differences that exist between a traditional structured learning environment to the blended learning environment and how students perform under the different learning environments. A major contribution of this study is the constructive alignment framework incorporating the integrated curriculum characteristics to support the blended learning approach. By reviewing the curriculum, the teaching methods, the assessment procedures and the learning environment with regard to the integrated curriculum characteristics, this study has made significant discoveries on the strengths and limitations of the blended learning approach. The results of this study show how the roles of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are inter-related and have to be integrated into the curriculum to foster better learning for students. Finally, the findings reveal the importance of the influence of the tutor in the blended learning delivery and the students' preference for tutor interaction. Through these findings, the study is able to recommend future improvements to the Principles of Computing module

Construir el diálogo científico en la Matemática: la búsqueda del equilibrio entre símbolos y palabras en artículos de investigación sobre Teoría de Juegos

Maestría en Inglés con Orientación en Lingüística AplicadaMost scientific communication is conducted in English, which may be a difficult task and a source of obstacles for researchers whose primary language is not English (Bitchenera & Basturkmen, 2006; Borlogan, 2009; Duff, 2010; Matsuda & Matsuda, 2010). As a matter of concern for language scholars, this situation requires at least two actions: (1) the development of research focused on the problems faced by researchers when writing in a foreign language, and (2) the design and implementation of pedagogical and didactic programmes or services aimed at providing researchers with the tools to enhance their linguistic and rhetorical skills. In both cases, the ultimate objective of these lines of action is to help researchers integrate into and interact with their knowledge communities in an independent, active and successful way. Considering those needs and the emerging interest in English as a lingua franca or as an international language, many scholars have devoted to studying the features of writing and language use across the world and across disciplines (Hyland, 2004; Matsuda & Matsuda, 2010; Mercado, 2010). However, few have explored the case of Mathematics (Lemke, 2002; Morgan, 2008; O’Halloran, 2005; Schleppegrell, 2007), and even fewer have investigated the discourse of scientific research articles (SRA) in this discipline (Graves & Moghadassi, 2013, 2014). In view of this situation, investigation of the discourse of science in the field of Mathematics (Game Theory - GT) as used in the Institute of Applied Mathematics (IMASL), at the National University of San Luis (UNSL), becomes both an answer to local researchers’ needs and an attempt to contribute to current research in writing, evaluative discourse and use of English as an international language for the communication of science. Thus, the main objective of this work is to conduct a comparative description between unpublished GT SRAs written in English by IMASL researchers and published GT SRAs written in English by international authors, in terms of linguistic features used to build authorship and authorial stance. The exploration of the genre is made from the perspective of the system of Appraisal (Hood, 2010; Martin & White, 2005; White, 2000), with the aid of Corpus Linguistics (CL) tools (Cheng, 2012; Meyer, 2002; Tognini-Bonelli, 2001). The results of this research are expected to be useful for the enhancement of knowledge of language professionals devoted to the teaching of writing as well as translation, proofreading, editing and reviewing services. A further goal is to lay the foundations for the production of didactic material which can potentially be incorporated into writing courses or professional writing, translation, reviewing and proofreading training programmes.Fil: Lucero Arrua, Graciela Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Lenguas; Argentina

Identification and Evaluation of Predictors for Learning Success and of Models for Teaching Computer Programming in Contemporary Contexts

Introductory undergraduate computer programming courses are renowned for higher than average failure and withdrawal rates when compared to other subject areas. The closer partnership between higher education and the rapidly expanding digital technology industry, as demonstrated by the establishment of new Degree Apprenticeships in computer science and digital technologies, requires efficient and effective means for teaching programming skills. This research, therefore, aimed to identify reliable predictors of success in learning programming or vulnerability to failure. The research also aimed to evaluate teaching methods and remedial interventions towards recommending a teaching model that supported and engaged learners in contemporary contexts that were relevant to the workplace. Investigation of qualifications designed to prepare students for undergraduate computer science courses revealed that A-level entrants achieved significantly higher programming grades than BTEC students. However, there was little difference between the grades of those with and those without previous qualifications in computing or ICT subjects. Analysis of engagement metrics revealed a strong correlation between extent of co-operation and programming grade, in contrast to a weak correlation between programming grade and code understanding. Further analysis of video recordings, interviews and observational records distinguished between the type of communication that helped peers comprehend tasks and concepts, and other forms of communication that were only concerned with completing tasks. Following the introduction of periodic assessment, essentially converting a single final assessment to three staged summative assessment points, it was found that failing students often pass only one of the three assignment parts. Furthermore, only 10% of those who failed overall had attempted all three assignments. Reasons for failure were attributed to ‘surface’ motivations (such as regulating efforts to achieve a minimum pass of 40%), ineffective working habits or stressful personal circumstances rather than any fundamental difficulty encountered with subject material. A key contribution to pedagogical practice made by this research is to propose an ‘incremental’ teaching model. This model is informed by educational theory and empirical evidence and comprises short cycles of three activities: presenting new topic information, tasking students with a relevant exercise and then demonstrating and discussing the exercise solution. The effectiveness of this model is evidenced by increased engagement, increased quiz scores at the end of each teaching session and increased retention of code knowledge at the end of the course

A matheuristic for customized multi-level multi-criteria university timetabling

Course timetables are the organizational foundation of a university’s educational program. While students and lecturers perceive timetable quality individually according to their preferences, there are also collective criteria derived normatively such as balanced workloads or idle time avoidance. A recent challenge and opportunity in curriculum-based timetabling consists of customizing timetables with respect to individual student preferences and with respect to integrating online courses as part of modern course programs or in reaction to flexibility requirements as posed in pandemic situations. Curricula consisting of (large) lectures and (small) tutorials further open the possibility for optimizing not only the lecture and tutorial plan for all students but also the assignments of individual students to tutorial slots. In this paper, we develop a multi-level planning process for university timetabling: On the tactical level, a lecture and tutorial plan is determined for a set of study programs; on the operational level, individual timetables are generated for each student interlacing the lecture plan through a selection of tutorials from the tutorial plan favoring individual preferences. We utilize this mathematical-programming-based planning process as part of a matheuristic which implements a genetic algorithm in order to improve lecture plans, tutorial plans, and individual timetables so as to find an overall university program with well-balanced timetable performance criteria. Since the evaluation of the fitness function amounts to invoking the entire planning process, we additionally provide a proxy in the form of an artificial neural network metamodel. Computational results exhibit the procedure’s capability of generating high quality schedules

Computer aided learning for entry level accountancy students

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN049783 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

A comparison of programming notations for a tertiary level introductory programming course

Increasing pressure from national government to improve throughput at South African tertiary education institutions presents challenges to educators of introductory programming courses. In response, educators must adopt effective methods and strategies that encourage novice programmers to be successful in such courses. An approach that seeks to increase and maintain satisfactory throughput is the modification of the teaching model in these courses by adjusting presentation techniques. This thesis investigates the effect of integrating an experimental iconic programming notation and associated development environment with existing conventional textual technological support in the teaching model of a tertiary level introductory programming course. The investigation compares the performance achievement of novice programmers using only conventional textual technological support with that of novice programmers using the integrated iconic and conventional textual technological support. In preparation for the investigation, interpretation of existing knowledge on the behaviour of novice programmers while learning to program results in a novel framework of eight novice programmer requirements for technological support in an introductory programming course. This framework is applied in the examination of existing categories of technological support as well as in the design of new technological support for novice programmers learning to program. It thus provides information for the selection of existing and the design of new introductory programming technological support. The findings of the investigation suggest strong evidence that performance achievement of novice programmers in a tertiary level introductory programming course improves significantly with the inclusion of iconic technological support in the teaching model. The benefits are particularly evident in the portion of the novice programmer population who have been identified as being at risk of being successful in the course. Novice programmers identified as being at risk perform substantially better when using iconic technological support concurrently with conventional textual technological support than their equals who use only the latter form. Considerably more at risk novice programmers using the integrated form of technological support are in fact successful in the introductory programming course when compared with their counterparts who use conventional textual technological support only. The contributions of this thesis address deficiencies existing in current documented research. These contributions are primarily apparent in a number of distinct areas, namely: • formalisation of a novel framework of novice programmer requirements for technological support in an introductory programming course; • application of the framework as a formal evaluation technique; • application of the framework in the design of a visual iconic programming notation and development environment; • enhancement of existing empirical evidence and experimental research methodology typically applied to studies in programming; as well as • a proposal for a modified introductory programming course teaching model. The thesis has effectively applied substantial existing research on the cognitive model of the novice programmer as well as that on experimental technological support. The increase of throughput to a recommended rate of 75 percent in the tertiary level introductory programming course at the University of Port Elizabeth is attributed solely to the incorporation of iconic technological support in the teaching model of the course

Task-based Example Miner for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) aim to provide customized resources or feedback on a subject (commonly known as domain in ITS) to students in real-time, emulating the behavior of an actual teacher in a classroom. This thesis designs an ITS based on an instructional strategy called example-based learning (EBL), that focuses primarily on students devoting their time and cognitive capacity to studying worked-out examples so that they can enhance their learning and apply it to similar graded problems or tasks. A task is a graded problem or question that an ITS assigns to students (e.g. task T1 in C programming domain defined as “Write an assignment instruction in C that adds 2 integers”). A worked-out example refers to a complete solution of a problem or question in the domain. Existing ITS systems such as NavEx and PADS, that use EBL to teach their domain suffer from several limitations such as (1) methods used to extract knowledge from given tasks and worked-out examples require highly trained experts and are not easily applicable or extendable to other problem domains (e.g. Math), either due to use of manual knowledge extraction methods (such as Item Objective Consistency (IOC)) or highly complex automated methods (such as syntax tree generation) (2) recommended worked-out examples are not customized for assigned tasks and therefore are ineffective in improving student success rate

A misleading answer generation system for exam questions

University professors are responsible for teaching and grading their students in each semester. Normally, in order to evaluate the students progress, professors create exams that are composed of questions regarding the subjects taught in the teaching period. Each year, professors need to develop new questions for their exams since students are free to discuss and register the correct answers to the various questions on prior exams. Professors want to be able to grade students based on their knowledge and not on their memorization skills. Each year, as discovered by our research, professors spend over roughtly 2:30 hours each year for a single course only on multiple answer questions sections. This solution will have at its core a misleading answer generator that would reduce the time and effort when creating a Fill Gap Type Questions through the merger of highly biased lexical model towards a specific subject with a generalist model. To help the most amount of professors with this task a web-server was implemented that served as an access to a exam creator interface with the misleading answer generator feature. To implement the misleading answer generator feature, several accessory programs had to be created as well as manually edditing textbooks pertaining to the question base topic. To evaluate the effectiveness of our implementation, several evaluation methods were proposed composed of objective measurements of the misleading answers generator, as well as subjective methods of evaluation by expert input. The development of the misleading answer suggestion function required us to build a lexical model composed from a highly biased corpus in a specific curricular subject. A highly biased model is probable to give good in-context misleading answers but their variance would most likely be limited. To counteract this the model was merged with a generalist model, in hopes of improving its overall performance. With the development of the custom lexical model and the server the professor can receive misleading answers suggestions to a newly formed question reducing the time spent on creating new exams questions each year to assess students’ knowledge