Deepening computer programming skills by using web-based peer assessment

Peer assessment is a method of motivating students, involving students marking and providing feedback on other students' work. This paper reports on the design and implementation of a novel web-based peer assessment system for computer programming courses, and discusses its deployment on a large programming module. The results indicate that this peer assessment system has successfully helped students to develop their understanding of computer programming

Developing an ontology of mathematical logic

An ontology provides a mechanism to formally represent a body of knowledge. Ontologies are one of the key technologies supporting the Semantic Web and the desire to add meaning to the information available on the World Wide Web. They provide the mechanism to describe a set of concepts, their properties and their relations to give a shared representation of knowledge. The MALog project are developing an ontology to support the development of high-quality learning materials in the general area of mathematical logic. This ontology of mathematical logic will form the basis of the semantic architecture allowing us to relate different learning objects and recommend appropriate learning paths. This paper reviews the technologies used to construct the ontology, the use of the ontology to support learning object development and explores the potential future use of the ontology

Using web-based peer assessment in fostering deep learning in computer programming

Active learning is considered by many academics as an important and effective learning strategy. Students can improve the quality of their work by developing their higher cognitive skills through reflection on their own ideas and practice of analytic and evaluative skills. Peer assessment is one of the successful approaches which can be used to enhance this deep learning. In this paper we discuss a novel web-based peer assessment system to support computer programming courses. We discuss the educational rational for the system, and the deep learning theory, report on its deployment on large programming modules. The preliminary results indicate that the system has successfully helped students to develop their higher cognitive skills in learning computer programming

The interaction between humans and knowledge management systems : rethinking the future

In this workshop position paper, we propose a study to understand the importance of knowledge management systems among academics in Saudi higher education institutions, admitting that knowledge workers and Knowledge Management Systems are valuable organizational assets whose interaction should be improved. We intend to understand Saudi academics’ perception toward using the knowledge management system to share their teaching experiences. Based on the findings, we investigate the major research trends in knowledge management systems and give some recommendations for future research

An integrated approach to courseware

Software engineering is becoming increasingly important as an engineering discipline, and its teaching in universities and other higher education institutions should be of high quality. In this paper we describe a tool (BOSS — the Boss Online Submission System) which aids the education of software engineers. BOSS allows students to submit programming assignments online, and to run black-box tests on their programs prior to submission. Instructors can use BOSS to assist in marking such assignments by allowing submitted programs to be tested against multiple data sets. We describe how BOSS helps in the teaching of specific conceptual aspects of software engineering, and how it addresses some of the practical issues involved in teaching large student numbers in a pedagogically neutral manner

Source-code plagiarism : an academic perspective

In computing courses, students are often required to complete tutorial and laboratory exercises asking them to produce source-code. Academics may require students to submit source-code produced as part of such exercises in order to monitor their students’ understanding of the material taught on that module, and submitted source-code may be checked for similarities in order to identify instances of plagiarism. In exercises that require students to work individually, source-code plagiarism can occur between students or students may plagiarise by copying material from a book or from other sources. We have conducted a survey of UK academics who teach programming on computing courses, in order to establish what is understood to constitute source-code plagiarism in an undergraduate context. In this report, we analyse the responses received from 59 academics. This report presents a detailed description of what can constitute source-code plagiarism from the perspective of academics who teach programming on computing courses, based on the responses to the survey

A standard for a graph representation for functional programs

The data structures used in the authors' functional language graph reduction implementations are described, together with a standard notation for representing the graphs in a textual format. The graphs employed are compatible with FLIC and with the functional languages in use at Birmingham and Warwick. The textual format is designed to be transmittable easily across networks

Source-code plagiarism : a UK academic perspective

In computing courses, students are often required to complete tutorial and laboratory exercises asking them to produce source-code. Academics may require students to submit source-code produced as part of such exercises in order to monitor their students' understanding of the material taught on that module, and submitted source-code may be checked for similarities in order to identify instances of plagiarism. In exercises that require students to work individually, source-code plagiarism can occur between students or students may plagiarise by copying material from a book or from other sources. We have conducted a survey of UK academics who teach programming on computing courses, in order to establish what is understood to constitute source-code plagiarism in an undergraduate context. In this report, we analyse the responses received from 59 academics. This report presents a detailed description of what can constitute source-code plagiarism from the perspective of academics who teach programming on computing courses, based on the responses to the survey

The BOSS system for on-line submission and assessment of computing assignments

Practical computing courses which involve significant amounts of programming continue to suffer from increasing student numbers. This makes their delivery and management more difficult to achieve effectively with the available resources. One solution to this problem is to develop methods for automating the submission and testing of student programs to support the marking effort and to enable the division of marking tasks among several individuals while ensuring consistency and rigour throughout. We have developed such methods in our system, called BOSS, and have successfully deployed different versions of it on several courses over a number of years. Here, we describe the original system and its recent enhancements, and discuss the benefits it has provided us with, both in terms of administration and in improving the learning process

Proposal of a mobile learning preferences model

A model consisting of five dimensions of mobile learning preferences – location, level of distractions, time of day, level of motivation and available time – is proposed in this paper. The aim of the model is to potentially increase the learning effectiveness of individuals or groups by appropriately matching and allocating mobile learning materials/applications according to each learner’s type. Examples are given. Our current research investigations relating to this model are described