Creative Assessment in Programming: Diversity and Divergence

Negative stereotypes persist in computing, and align poorly with research into the motivations of female students. In particular, female students are more inclined to want to work creatively and have a positive impact through their work. However programming assignments are often tightly constrained and rather pointless in themselves so are doubly unattractive. Alongside this, concerns are often raised about plagiarism in programming assignments, particularly when the assessment process is automated. We attempt to address both of these issues by designing more creative programming assignments, allowing students to engage in work aligned with whatever their interests are. By providing a more divergent assessment, automated plagiarism detectors are much more effective because the likelihood of false positives is much lower than in more constrained, convergent assessments. We also show how to combine this with partial automation of assessment. To examine this approach we compare the results of two subsequent years of delivery of the same second-year undergraduate programming module, and find that, using more creative assessments, female students average scores were substantially increased so that they outperform male students. While the results are not quite statistically significant (according to 2-way ANOVA), they demonstrate potential that could be verified with a larger sample

Preface: CrossMMLA in practice: Collecting, annotating and analyzing multimodal data across spaces

Learning is a complex processthat is associated with many aspects of interaction and cognition (e.g., hard mental operations, cognitive friction etc.) and that can take across diverse contexts (online, classrooms, labs, maker spaces, etc.). The complexity of this process and its environments means that it is likely that no single data modality can paint a complete picture of the learning experience, requiring multiple data streams from different sources and times to complement each other. The need to understand and improve learning that occurs in ever increasingly open, distributed, subject-specific and ubiquitous scenarios, require the development of multimodal and multisystem learning analytics. Following the tradition of CrossMMLA workshop series, the proposed workshop aims to serve as a place to learn about the latest advances in the design, implementation and adoption of systems that take into account the different modalities of human learning and the diverse settings in which it takes place. Apart from the necessary interchange of ideas, it is also the objective of this workshop to develop critical discussion, debate and co-development of ideas for advancing the state-of-the-art in CrossMMLA

Designing Playful Games and Applications to Support Science Centers Learning Activities

In recent years there has been a renewed interest on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Following this interest, science centers\u27 staff started providing technology enhanced informal STEM education experiences. The use of well-designed mobile and ubiquitous forms of technology to enrich informal STEM education activities is an essential success factor. The goal of our research is to investigate how technology applications can be better used and developed for taking full advantage of the opportunities and challenges they provide for students learning about STEM concepts. In our approach, we have conducted a series of interviews with experts from science center curating and outdoor learning activities development, with the final goal of exploring and improving current learning environments and practices. This paper presents the development of set of design considerations for the development of STEM games and applications of young students. An initial set of best practices was first developed through semi-structures interviews with experts; and afterwards, by employing content analysis, a revised set of considerations was obtained. These results are useful for STEM education teachers, curriculum designers, curators and developers for K-12 education environments

A bibliometric study of human–computer interaction research activity in the Nordic-Baltic Eight countries

Human–computer interaction (HCI) has become an important area for designers and developers worldwide, and research activities set in national cultural contexts addressing local challenges are often needed in industry and academia. This study explored HCI research in the Nordic-Baltic countries using bibliometric methods. The results show that the activity varies greatly across the region with activities dominated by Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, even when adjusting for differences in population size and GDP. Research output variations were larger for the top-tier conferences compared to entry-tier conferences and journals. Locally hosted conferences were associated with local increases in research activity. HCI research longevity appears to be an indicator of research maturity and quantity. HCI researchers typically collaborated either with colleagues within the same institution or with researchers from countries outside the Nordic-Baltic region such as US and the UK. There was less collaboration between national and Nordic-Baltic partners. Collaboration appeared especially prevalent for top-tier conference papers. Top-tier conference papers were also more frequently cited than regional-tier and entry-tier conferences, yet journal articles were cited the most. One implication of this study is that the HCI research activity gaps across the Nordic-Baltic countries should be narrowed by increasing the activity in countries with low research outputs. To achieve this, first-time authors could receive guidance through collaborations with experienced authors in the same institution or other labs around the world. More conferences could also be hosted locally. Furthermore, journals may be more effective than conferences if the goal is to accumulate citations.publishedVersio

Science teachers’ experiences of inquiry-based learning through a serious game:a phenomenographic perspective

This study employed a phenomenographic approach to investigate science teachers’ conceptions of inquiry-based learning through a serious game. Simaula is a prototype game designed and used as a virtual practicum for eliciting understandings on how in-game inquiry was appeared to, or experienced by, the participating teachers. Group interviews with 20 secondary education science teachers revealed four qualitatively different ways of experiencing inquiry-based learning through Simaula: (a) as uncovering insights about student’s learning needs, interests and emotions; (b) as generating ideas and concepts for meaningful inquiry; (c) as a set of operations for designing and carrying out scientific research; and (d) as authentic inquiry for enabling knowledge building processes. Seven dimensions of variation have been identified viewed as contextual influences on conceptions of in-game inquiry constituting discernment of: epistemic inquiry-based learning modes; role of teacher; role of student; game-play focus; core mechanics focus; feedback and progress mechanics and game uncertainty. The results illuminated a partial in-game inquiry approach with distinct epistemic modes from developing empathy and meaning making to knowledge construction and knowledge building. The findings also indicated that game design elements played central role in shaping conceptions of in-game inquiry from focusing on rules and logic as means to completing the game’s level to understanding the complexity of core mechanics for developing and transferring in-game inquiry to the real classroom. This insinuates that distinct game design properties may be considered in terms of extending intrinsic in-game inquiry experiences to actual in-class inquiry practice

Theoretical calculation of the track mass in the motion of unsprung masses in relation to track dynamic stiffness and damping

In order to calculate the load on the track in the position of a sleeper at the time when an isolated axle of the vehicle passes, it is necessary to determine the mass of the railway track that participates in the movement of the unsprung masses of the vehicle. In this paper, the track is modelled as a vibrating string. Its movement is analysed theoretically, and the length that participates and influences the movement of the unsprung masses is calculated. The result of the theoretical calculation is compared to the results of the measurements that have been carried out in a number of countries. The influence of the dynamic stiffness and damping of the track is also investigated

Influence of the track's stiffness coefficient on the acting loads, deflection and dimensioning of slab track

Slab Track, as all railway structures, should provide secure train running and smooth passenger ride. Moreover, it should present sufficient vertical elasticity to distribute the loads to the adjacent fixing points of the rail. At the same time the deflection of the slab track should be comparable to that of the ballasted track which implies a decrease of the value of the acting forces during its Life-Cycle. In this paper the influence of the vertical stiffness of the track on the dimensioning of the slab track as a rigid pavement is presented. © (2011) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

Reduced service life of concrete sleepers due to inadequate design

During the 1980's, the twin-block concrete sleepers/ties -designed and laid in railway lines with maximum operational speed of 200 km/h in France- which were laid on a track with maximum operational speed of 140 km/h in Greece, presented serious cracks in a percentage of more than 60% of the total number of this type of sleepers on track. This fact implies either inadequate design and/or insufficient strength of the concrete sleepers. The materials: concrete and reinforcement as well as the concrete sleepers met the strength specifications for design. The existing theories for the calculation of the design loads could not justify the appearance of these cracks since the calculated actions on sleepers were much lower than the limit values. In this paper an investigation is presented for the causes of this phenomenon that implies an inadequate design of the sleepers. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London

The use of strain attenuating tie pads and its influence on the rail seat load in heavy-haul railroads

In Greece, during the 1980's, 60% of the twin-block concrete ties designed for 200 km/h, which were laid on a track with maximum operational speed of 140 km/h, presented serious cracks. The existing theories, in the French, German and American bibliographies, could not justify the appearance of these cracks since the calculated actions on the rail seat of the ties were much lower than the limit values of the regulations. This paper presents a model for the determination of the load acting on the rail seat of the ties in relation to the fluctuation of the substructure stiffness coefficient. The basic parameters influencing the estimation of the rail seat load -considering the most adverse conditions of a railway network-are investigated, and a methodology for calculating the load undertaken by each rail seat is presented. Numerical applications on twin-block and monoblock ties are presented, including the use of strain attenuating tie pads with high resilient fastenings. Finally, an application for the heavy-haul rail transport is presented, for the case of a track equipped with W24 fastening, Zw700WIC pad, rail 140RE type and concrete sleepers. © 2010 by ASME