Reinforcing Students’ Research Abilities via Digital Repositories

Computer science graduates are requested to possess complex professional abilities including research skills. In this paper we justify the development of a departmental repository to assist all non-auditorium activities and summarize its benefits. We are convinced that this is the way students and teachers to form interim learning societies

Exposing the Intellectual Assets of a University Department

Works for designing and deploying a university department repository are presented. General considerations about policies and functional requirements are outlined with respect to the institution context. Technical and system issues are briefly discussed. Finally the benefits and usability of the repository are summarized

Are the Learning Management Systems Converging? One view on Blackboard Learn and Moodle

When choosing a learning management system, most institutions limit their considerations to a few options. Among popular in Bulgaria systems, two solutions gain predominance, Moodle and Blackboard Learn. In this paper instructor’s point of view is applied attempting to analyze the usability and the underlying pedagogy of these strongly competing LMS. The comparison is based on the author's experience using both systems as a university lecturer

The content of software production course

Software production is an integral activity that encompasses the majority of computer science and information technologies knowledge and skills such as algorithms, programming, databases, networking etc. Referring to this, an introductory course on software production summarizes and upgrades the learning achievements of students in bachelor programs of computing. This paper focuses on some curriculum issues in software engineering course. The main discussion concerns the choice of the topics and learning activities. The course should expose fundamental concepts and principles that underlie current and emerging methods, tools, and techniques for cost-effective production of high-quality software systems

Information Systems for Sustainable Organizations

Nowadays sustainability is a broad and complex concept, which should be applied to any significant economic activity. Sustainable development involves environmental, economic and social aspects of long-term local and global processes implying an overall progress. Various contradicting requests arise which organizations should resolve in their projects and the proper information support becomes a key factor for this. In the context of the above, the goal of this paper is to examine how information systems within the organization contribute for sustainable development by providing appropriate information services. The monitoring and reporting of the organisational impact on sustainability is constantly required both by members and business partners. Thus, sustainability can be viewed as a new dimension of information system assessment

Beyond the Regular University Education in Computing: the Move towards Blended Learning

Nowadays enlarging competences in computer science and improving their conformance with the needs of software industry is an activity of great importance. The university education needs to diversify and intensify its forms in order to achieve this goal. This paper focuses on some didactic issues that relate the development and delivery of courses in the area of computer science so that they can be used in different forms

Teacher’s presence and immediacy in e-learning classes

The final output from e-learning classes is relatively lower than in face-to-face learning. Only highly motivated and well oriented e-learners are successful ones. The instructor’s role in this case is obvious, mainly with the features of its personal presence. Based on the author’s own experience and literature review, this paper discusses the teacher’s presence and immediacy as activities aiming to avoid the risks of learnеr’s disorientation and demotivation

Teaching Information Systems for Bachelor Programs in Computer Science

Today the information systems are common basis to achieve operational excellence, managerial diversity and improved decision making. The study of information systems involves sources from technical and behavioral disciplines. The technical approach includes computer science, management science, and operations research. The behavioral approach concerns psychology, sociology, and economics. This paper focuses on some didactical issues when implementing the technical approach to the study of information systems. The main discussion concerns the choice of the topics and learning activities for a course in information systems delivered to students majoring computer science or information technologies. We assert that students have to achieve information’s systems literacy which encompasses how and why the technology is applied in organizations. We adhere to ACM and AIS IS 2010 Curriculum Guidelines

Academic Use of Open Digital Archives

Open access academic archives are the proper instrument to make visible the majority of the coursework done during the years and to propagate the results of already paid research activities, thus raising their value. By offering proper services, archives become the media which facilitates the forming of interim research and learning societies among students and teachers. This is the way to achieve an improved management of intellectual assets of the whole university community. In this paper the authors try to summarize the advantages of open access university archives and to discuss some issues arising from rules for deploying and accessing course materials and research papers. ACM Classification Keywords. H3.5 On-line information services– Data sharing; H3.7 Digital libraries-Collection

Comparison of online and traditional in class exams in computer science courses

With the development of ICT and the use of Internet, more and more traditional learning tasks are moved to Web. Although there are some well-distinguished benefits to using online testing compared to traditional proctored paper and pen exams mixed indication concerning the effectiveness of online exams exists. In this paper we investigate both types of exams. The purpose of our study is twofold. First we investigate the students’ preferences to the way of taking their exams. Second we compare course learning outcomes via students’ grades to further analyze students’ performance. Data were collected over 11 semesters from students enrolled in an information technology course in bachelor (N=767) and masters programs (N=471) at New Bulgarian University. In each semester the courses were taught by the same instructor. All students were asked to complete both types of exams. We found that students in bachelor programs prefer to do online testing while students in master programs show no preference to the way of examination. Our results suggest that online assessment in compared to pen and pencil exams does not damage students learning and may contribute to positive individual outcomes