A review into the factors affecting declines in undergraduate Computer Science enrolments and approaches for solving this problem

There has been a noticeable drop in enrolments in Computer Science (CS) courses and interest in CS careers in recent years while demand for CS skills is increasing dramatically. Not only are such skills useful for CS jobs but for all forms of business and to some extent personal lives as Information Technology (IT) is becoming ubiquitous and essential for most aspects of modern life. Therefore it is essential to address this lack of interest and skills to not only fill the demand for CS employees but to provide students with the CS skills they need for modern life especially for improving their employability and skills for further study. This report looks at possible reasons for the lack of interest in CS and different approaches used to enhance CS education and improve the appeal of CS

Computing in Education: A study of computing in education and ways to enhance students’ perceptions and understanding of computing

There is a huge demand for computing skills in industry due to computing becoming ubiquitous and essential for modern life. Yet despite this, industry struggles to find employees with suitable computing skills and similarly Further and Higher Education institutions have observed a lack of interest in their computing courses in recent years. This study looks at possible reasons for this lack of interest in computing, how computing is taught in education and ways to improve students’ perceptions and understanding of computing. It focuses around a case study of a university outreach event for secondary schools which investigated how interactive teaching methods can be used to enhance students’ perceptions and understanding of computing and to increase their computing knowledge. It includes the use of physical computing and was designed to make computing fun, motivational and relevant, and to provide examples of real-world applications. Surveys were used before and after the event to understand what students’ impressions and knowledge of computing is and to see if the event improved these. Observations were also used to see how well the students handled the event’s content and whether they appeared to enjoy and understand it. Results from the case study indicate that interactive teaching methods enhance computing education, and physical computing with electronics can enhance lessons and show the relevance of computing with examples of real-world applications, and can be fun and motivational. The case study provides teachers with example tasks and challenges they can use with their students and/or ideas around other interactive teaching methods including practical computing

Enhancing Programming Lectures Using Interactive Web-Based Lecture Slides

Programming is often seen as a difficult subject to teach and keep students engaged and motivated about. Also programming results are frequently found to be lower than for other subjects (Jenkins 2002; Robins et al. 2003; Bennedsen and Caspersen 2007). Therefore, the challenge is to find a way of improving programming education to address these problems. This paper considers the use of innovative pedagogy approaches to do this due to their ability to enhance learning experiences. An innovative pedagogy case study is presented that was designed to test whether interactive web-based lecture slides can enhance programming lectures to make them more engaging and enjoyable and make programming easier to understand. The lecture was an introduction to the jQuery JavaScript library/framework for first year undergraduates. Results were overall positive and show value for approaches like this and that they can enhance lectures to make them more engaging and enjoyable and can be used to make programming easier to understand

Exploring Student Engagement and Disengagement in University Education, Can Vocational Activities/Practice-Based Learning Help?

Student engagement is a commonly discussed term within education especially within Higher Education where academics regularly engage in research around the topic with the aim of improving engagement and the student experience. However, despite the focus on and recognised importance of engagement it has been observed, particularly by academic staff, that disengagement amongst students is increasing. This paper explores the possible reasons for reduced engagement in universities and contemplates whether the teaching approaches used in higher education are to blame. It looks at approaches that are better suited to adult learners to meet the way they approach education, their needs, complex lifestyles and so forth. A case study is presented, influenced by this literature, designed to improve engagement via a lab session which is vocationally relevant with examples that are more realistic to a work environment. This is done to help meet the growing trend of students wishing to see the vocational relevance of their studies. Results showed activities like this can increase engagement and enhance the student experience and student learning

Using Technology to Enhance Assessment and Feedback: A Framework for Evaluating Tools and Applications

Although assessment and feedback are very important aspects of teaching and learning it has been regularly reported that there are issues with their practice. While research has shown ways to enhance assessment and feedback, and best practices have been established, various challenges, such as limitations on time and resources, make implementing such improvements difficult. Consequently, this paper considers the use of technology for supporting teaching, assessment and feedback to improve working practices and the student experience in a time and resource efficient manner. Using a feature analysis evaluation technique, this paper proposes a comparison framework for reviewing technological tools/applications that can be used to assist teaching, assessment and feedback. By providing solid rationale, this framework has the potential to enhance decision making when choosing suitable technological solutions to improve teaching and assessment, and to enhance the learning experience