Characterizing Graduateness in Computing Education

In my research, I employ a highly qualitative, narrative methodology to explore the sense students make of their own educational experiences within their wider learning trajectories. By taking such a holistic perspective on a Computing Education, I hope to be able to identify and distil aspects of successful Computing programs, whose effects may only emerge over time

Computing education theories : what are they and how are they used?

In order to mature as a research field, computing education research (CER) seeks to build a better theoretical understanding of how students learn computing concepts and processes. Progress in this area depends on the development of computing-specific theories of learning to complement the general theoretical understanding of learning processes. In this paper we analyze the CER literature in three central publication venues -- ICER, ACM Transactions of Computing Education, and Computer Science Education -- over the period 2005--2015. Our findings identify new theoretical constructs of learning computing that have been published, and the research approaches that have been used in formulating these constructs. We identify 65 novel theoretical constructs in areas such as learning/understanding, learning behaviour/strategies, study choice/orientation, and performance/progression/retention. The most common research methods used to devise new constructs include grounded theory, phenomenography, and various statistical models. We further analyze how a number of these constructs, which arose in computing education, have been used in subsequent research, and present several examples to illustrate how theoretical constructs can guide and enrich further research. We discuss the implications for the whole field

Female Under-Representation in Computing Education and Industry - A Survey of Issues and Interventions

This survey paper examines the issue of female under-representation in computing education and industry, which has been shown from empirical studies to be a problem for over two decades. While various measures and intervention strategies have been implemented to increase the interest of girls in computing education and industry, the level of success has been discouraging. The primary contribution of this paper is to provide an analysis of the extensive research work in this area. It outlines the progressive decline in female representation in computing education. It also presents the key arguments that attempt to explain the decline and intervention strategies. We conclude that there is a need to further explore strategies that will encourage young female learners to interact more with computer educational games

Free and open source software in computing education

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) exemplifies the merit and successes of open content, understood broadly as creative work that explicitly allows sharing and further changes by anyone, whether an individual or organization. Although the benefits of improving computing education with open source practices are largely acknowledged, transforming teaching to create effective learning environments has many challenges. The panelists will bring different perspectives on teaching strategies and curricular content they have used in their classrooms. These perspectives will exemplify key issues with FOSS-based education and FOSS-based IT systems. The developer and user communities established around FOSS-based IT systems are of particular interest to the IT discipline because of its focus on user centeredness and advocacy for advancing professional practices in authentic environments

Development and Evaluation of the Nebraska Assessment of Computing Knowledge

One way to increase the quality of computing education research is to increase the quality of the measurement tools that are available to researchers, especially measures of students’ knowledge and skills. This paper represents a step toward increasing the number of available thoroughly-evaluated tests that can be used in computing education research by evaluating the psychometric properties of a multiple-choice test designed to differentiate undergraduate students in terms of their mastery of foundational computing concepts. Classical test theory and item response theory analyses are reported and indicate that the test is a reliable, psychometrically-sound instrument suitable for research with undergraduate students. Limitations and the importance of using standardized measures of learning in education research are discussed

Computing Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 is to promote decent work and economic growth. The goal puts at the forefront, workers well-being through employment and decent work that respect the dignity of workers. Countries work towards achieving employment and decent work for inclusive poverty-reducing growth target by 2030. Computing education plays a significant role in achieving the target. This study, therefore, examined the impact of computing education and decent work on economic growth in Nigeria, using Enugu state as a case study. 250 respondents were randomly selected using a structured questionnaire. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique was employed in analyzing the data. Computing education is measured by household investment (enrolment) in ICT/computing education courses. Employment opportunities – employed household members-to-household size, remunerative employment, conditions of work and social security are used to measure decent work. Economic growth, on the other hand, is measured by per capita household income. The results of the study showed that computing education had a significant impact on economic growth. Employment opportunities and social security were also found to had a significant impact on economic growth. Conditions of work had a positive and insignificant impact on economic growth, while remunerative employment had a negative and insignificant impact on economic growth. Computing education and employment opportunities were complementary. Also, there was a complementary effect of computing education and remunerative employment, computing education and decent work, and computing education and social security on economic growth. Among the measures of decent work, conditions of work and social security were complimentary, while employment opportunities and remunerative employment, remunerative employment and conditions of work, and remunerative employment and social security were substitutes. Other variables such as the stock of human and physical capital played some diverse roles in enhancing economic growth. We, therefore, recommend the adoption of supportive policies to encourage computing education and decent work as well as physical and human capital development. In particular, policies to encourage computing education should include the incorporation of compulsory ICT/computing education courses in the nations one-year National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) scheme

Computing as the 4th “R”: a general education approach to computing education

Computing and computation are increasingly pervading our lives, careers, and societies - a change driving interest in computing education at the secondary level. But what should define a "general education" computing course at this level? That is, what would you want every person to know, assuming they never take another computing course? We identify possible outcomes for such a course through the experience of designing and implementing a general education university course utilizing best-practice pedagogies. Though we nominally taught programming, the design of the course led students to report gaining core, transferable skills and the confidence to employ them in their future. We discuss how various aspects of the course likely contributed to these gains. Finally, we encourage the community to embrace the challenge of teaching general education computing in contrast to and in conjunction with existing curricula designed primarily to interest students in the field