The global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in education being shifted online, including in developing countries. Developing countries frequently have lower levels of Internet penetration than developed countries. Thus, one of the fears with the transition to online education was that students would be disenfranchised. At one university in a developing country the institution's learning management system (LMS) logs all user (students and faculty) activity. Using these logs we study how student activity in an undergraduate computer networking course has evolved in three offerings--two from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years before the pandemic and the other from the 2020/21 year during the pandemic. The data show that the average number of LMS transactions per student went up during the COVID pandemic compared to the number prior to the pandemic. While this finding is not unexpected, given that students were being instructed online, other data from the logs points to some interesting trends. For example, there is a statistically significant difference in the number of clicks on embedded URLs within the LMS across the years. Other data show that students did not attend lectures or tutorials (discussion sections) as much as expected, and that the number of students "attending'' online class sessions declined over the course of the semester. We provide reasons for these trends.
{"title":"The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Student Participation in an Undergraduate Networking Course","authors":"Daniel T. Fokum","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524792","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524792","url":null,"abstract":"The global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in education being shifted online, including in developing countries. Developing countries frequently have lower levels of Internet penetration than developed countries. Thus, one of the fears with the transition to online education was that students would be disenfranchised. At one university in a developing country the institution's learning management system (LMS) logs all user (students and faculty) activity. Using these logs we study how student activity in an undergraduate computer networking course has evolved in three offerings--two from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years before the pandemic and the other from the 2020/21 year during the pandemic. The data show that the average number of LMS transactions per student went up during the COVID pandemic compared to the number prior to the pandemic. While this finding is not unexpected, given that students were being instructed online, other data from the logs points to some interesting trends. For example, there is a statistically significant difference in the number of clicks on embedded URLs within the LMS across the years. Other data show that students did not attend lectures or tutorials (discussion sections) as much as expected, and that the number of students \"attending'' online class sessions declined over the course of the semester. We provide reasons for these trends.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132320427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We developed a suite of tutors called solvelets to help students learn the process of programming. They are based on the hypothesis that problem-solving is asking the right questions in the right sequence. The tutors use a series of questions to step the student through all three stages of program development: algorithm formulation, program design and writing code. So, the tutors help students start from a problem statement and end with a complete and correct program for the problem. At each intermediate step, the tutors provide immediate feedback at multiple progressively specific levels until they bottom out with the correct answer. So, the proficiency of a student is determined not by whether the student solves the problem correctly, but by the number of attempts the student takes to complete each step: the more the attempts, the less proficient the student. The tutors reify the steps for writing each control statement and scaffold the student through writing it one step at a time. We describe the tutors and the process of programming scaffolded by them. The tutors are currently available for C++ and Java and cover expressions, selection statements and logic-controlled loops. They are available for free for educational use at solvelets.org.
{"title":"Solvelets","authors":"Amruth N. Kumar","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524811","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524811","url":null,"abstract":"We developed a suite of tutors called solvelets to help students learn the process of programming. They are based on the hypothesis that problem-solving is asking the right questions in the right sequence. The tutors use a series of questions to step the student through all three stages of program development: algorithm formulation, program design and writing code. So, the tutors help students start from a problem statement and end with a complete and correct program for the problem. At each intermediate step, the tutors provide immediate feedback at multiple progressively specific levels until they bottom out with the correct answer. So, the proficiency of a student is determined not by whether the student solves the problem correctly, but by the number of attempts the student takes to complete each step: the more the attempts, the less proficient the student. The tutors reify the steps for writing each control statement and scaffold the student through writing it one step at a time. We describe the tutors and the process of programming scaffolded by them. The tutors are currently available for C++ and Java and cover expressions, selection statements and logic-controlled loops. They are available for free for educational use at solvelets.org.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"2 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113967453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Participation in co-curricular activities, such as hackathons, coding clubs, and undergraduate research has been shown to have a positive impact on the retention, persistence, and sense of belonging of students in the Computer Science (CS) field. In this paper, we will present the result of a study to assess the impact of integrating co-curricular activities and practical skills into the undergraduate CS curriculum. More than 500 senior CS students were surveyed over a span of four semesters about their comfort level, use of practical skills, and their experience in a sophomore-level required course which was redesigned a few years ago. The new course introduced practical skills such as version control, SQL, command line tools, and web development as a way to better engage the students and prepare them for co-curricular computing experiences. Our data analysis provides insight about when and where students use practical skills, how students feel about co-curricular activities, and the positive impact of the course redesign on the overall student experience.
{"title":"Integration of Practical Computing Skills and Co-curricular Activities in the Curriculum","authors":"Sara Hooshangi, Ryan Buxton, M. Ellis","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524802","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524802","url":null,"abstract":"Participation in co-curricular activities, such as hackathons, coding clubs, and undergraduate research has been shown to have a positive impact on the retention, persistence, and sense of belonging of students in the Computer Science (CS) field. In this paper, we will present the result of a study to assess the impact of integrating co-curricular activities and practical skills into the undergraduate CS curriculum. More than 500 senior CS students were surveyed over a span of four semesters about their comfort level, use of practical skills, and their experience in a sophomore-level required course which was redesigned a few years ago. The new course introduced practical skills such as version control, SQL, command line tools, and web development as a way to better engage the students and prepare them for co-curricular computing experiences. Our data analysis provides insight about when and where students use practical skills, how students feel about co-curricular activities, and the positive impact of the course redesign on the overall student experience.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116468246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Wong-Aitken, D. Cukierman, Parmit K. Chilana
University-level introductory programming courses (e.g., CS1) offer a structured and formal approach for learning programming where instructors design their own curriculum and materials to help students learn difficult concepts. But, there are a myriad of free resources increasingly available online for learning programming that university students can easily access at their fingertips. In this paper, we investigate to what extent students in CS1 make use of resources curated by their instructor vs. online resources that they locate on their own. We conducted surveys and interviews in two consecutive CS1-equivalent classes at a large North-American university and explored how students made selections and assessed the relevance and utility of web-based resources. We observed that students had a strong desire for quick answers and looked for 'exact' matches for their queries in forums rather than consulting videos or other resources that provide higher level explanations more suitable for novices. However, given that these students had a limited vocabulary related to CS1 topics, they struggled in locating the desired information and relied on shallow trial-and-error processes without a clear strategy or self-reflection. Interestingly, despite the lack of perceived success, students still considered their pursuit of online resources as more convenient and less costly than asking for help. Our main contribution is in presenting insights about CS1 students' motivations and behaviours in using web-based resources on their own. We reflect on these findings by drawing upon theories from learning sciences and information sciences.
{"title":"\"It Depends on Whether or Not I'm Lucky\" How Students in an Introductory Programming Course Discover, Select, and Assess the Utility of Web-Based Resources","authors":"David Wong-Aitken, D. Cukierman, Parmit K. Chilana","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524751","url":null,"abstract":"University-level introductory programming courses (e.g., CS1) offer a structured and formal approach for learning programming where instructors design their own curriculum and materials to help students learn difficult concepts. But, there are a myriad of free resources increasingly available online for learning programming that university students can easily access at their fingertips. In this paper, we investigate to what extent students in CS1 make use of resources curated by their instructor vs. online resources that they locate on their own. We conducted surveys and interviews in two consecutive CS1-equivalent classes at a large North-American university and explored how students made selections and assessed the relevance and utility of web-based resources. We observed that students had a strong desire for quick answers and looked for 'exact' matches for their queries in forums rather than consulting videos or other resources that provide higher level explanations more suitable for novices. However, given that these students had a limited vocabulary related to CS1 topics, they struggled in locating the desired information and relied on shallow trial-and-error processes without a clear strategy or self-reflection. Interestingly, despite the lack of perceived success, students still considered their pursuit of online resources as more convenient and less costly than asking for help. Our main contribution is in presenting insights about CS1 students' motivations and behaviours in using web-based resources on their own. We reflect on these findings by drawing upon theories from learning sciences and information sciences.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116513764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Industry practitioners and CS educators seem to operate in different worlds these days. My fellow industry leaders often have surprising ideas about what all can be covered in a 4 year degree program. We are seemingly unaware of the huge challenge in making novices into algorithmic thinkers and programmers, to say nothing of imparting mastery in the ever-expanding array of computing sub-disciplines. At the same time, the day-to-day operations in industry have a very different set of core skills and tools than what is traditionally presented in a CS curriculum. Communication skills, experimentation, reasoning, code comprehension, caching, threading, and concurrency models are a huge fraction of the toolkit for a software practitioner. Hashing is essential. Constants matter. Implementing data structures really doesn't. In practical terms, almost nobody should be using a linked list anymore. This talk will surface what I see as the disconnects on both sides, and suggestions for what we can do about it. (I will also probably be wrong, since I can only speak from my perspective and experience - but that's where important dialogues start.)
{"title":"The Gap Between Industry and CS Education","authors":"Titus Winters","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3534205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3534205","url":null,"abstract":"Industry practitioners and CS educators seem to operate in different worlds these days. My fellow industry leaders often have surprising ideas about what all can be covered in a 4 year degree program. We are seemingly unaware of the huge challenge in making novices into algorithmic thinkers and programmers, to say nothing of imparting mastery in the ever-expanding array of computing sub-disciplines. At the same time, the day-to-day operations in industry have a very different set of core skills and tools than what is traditionally presented in a CS curriculum. Communication skills, experimentation, reasoning, code comprehension, caching, threading, and concurrency models are a huge fraction of the toolkit for a software practitioner. Hashing is essential. Constants matter. Implementing data structures really doesn't. In practical terms, almost nobody should be using a linked list anymore. This talk will surface what I see as the disconnects on both sides, and suggestions for what we can do about it. (I will also probably be wrong, since I can only speak from my perspective and experience - but that's where important dialogues start.)","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"239 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114667037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Today's cyberphysical systems are increasingly prone to misuse. To secure existing and future software systems, introducing concepts of IT-Security and Secure Software Engineering (SecSE) in Software Engineering (SE) courses is essential for academic education of future software engineers. This is not only important for computer science students, but also for engineering students studying topics of computing and SE. However, only little research exists on integrating these topics into traditional SE courses, especially for engineering students in non-computer science majors. To narrow this gap, this paper contributes with the design and evaluation of an exercise on modeling misuse cases alongside use cases, based on the inductive teaching method problem-based learning (PBL). The exercise is part of an educational design research investigating which learning content and teaching methods are suitable for integrating IT-Security and SecSE topics into traditional SE education of engineering students to convey factual knowledge as well as raise awareness and interest for both topics during software development. We present the integration of the exercise design into a traditional SE course for engineering students and its evaluation to examine its suitability. We evaluated the exercise design regarding the suitability of the design components, the learning content of misuse cases and the intended learning goals as well as its impact on students' motivation, and their interest in IT-security. The paper then presents indications on the feasibility and success of the exercise design for teaching misuse cases to engineering students and sparking their interest in IT-Security.
{"title":"Using or Misusing?: Introducing Misuse Cases in a Software Engineering Course for Undergraduate Engineering Students","authors":"Sabrina Jahn, Nicolas Kaul, J. Mottok","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524823","url":null,"abstract":"Today's cyberphysical systems are increasingly prone to misuse. To secure existing and future software systems, introducing concepts of IT-Security and Secure Software Engineering (SecSE) in Software Engineering (SE) courses is essential for academic education of future software engineers. This is not only important for computer science students, but also for engineering students studying topics of computing and SE. However, only little research exists on integrating these topics into traditional SE courses, especially for engineering students in non-computer science majors. To narrow this gap, this paper contributes with the design and evaluation of an exercise on modeling misuse cases alongside use cases, based on the inductive teaching method problem-based learning (PBL). The exercise is part of an educational design research investigating which learning content and teaching methods are suitable for integrating IT-Security and SecSE topics into traditional SE education of engineering students to convey factual knowledge as well as raise awareness and interest for both topics during software development. We present the integration of the exercise design into a traditional SE course for engineering students and its evaluation to examine its suitability. We evaluated the exercise design regarding the suitability of the design components, the learning content of misuse cases and the intended learning goals as well as its impact on students' motivation, and their interest in IT-security. The paper then presents indications on the feasibility and success of the exercise design for teaching misuse cases to engineering students and sparking their interest in IT-Security.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125484090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Computer Science educators benefit from knowing which of their students need help or feel the material is difficult. Collecting this information is, typically, done via surveys. However, surveying students is time-consuming and not every student answers. Additionally, with surveys, teachers identify struggling students only after-the-fact, when nothing can be done to help them. This paper proposes a machine learning approach to cluster students into groups with similar features; the weak-performing learners, who consider the material and/or programming difficult, the average-performing learners, who are learning the material normally, and the best-performing learners, who consider programming to be an easy task and do not need additional assistance. The clustering is data-driven as it is based on the collection of code snapshots (i.e., submissions). The clusters are then formed from a transition probability matrix, computed using the submission history of the student, and a state machine. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the clustering approach to create clusters with significant differences in perceived student difficulty by cross-validating the formed clusters with survey data collected from a CS1 course. The clusters also contain differences in programming behavior. The proposed method can be applied to the classroom setting to identify students benefitting from assistance during the course in real-time, without surveys.
{"title":"A Clustering Method to Detect Disengaged Students from Their Code Submission History","authors":"Erno Lokkila, Athanasios Christopoulos, M. Laakso","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524754","url":null,"abstract":"Computer Science educators benefit from knowing which of their students need help or feel the material is difficult. Collecting this information is, typically, done via surveys. However, surveying students is time-consuming and not every student answers. Additionally, with surveys, teachers identify struggling students only after-the-fact, when nothing can be done to help them. This paper proposes a machine learning approach to cluster students into groups with similar features; the weak-performing learners, who consider the material and/or programming difficult, the average-performing learners, who are learning the material normally, and the best-performing learners, who consider programming to be an easy task and do not need additional assistance. The clustering is data-driven as it is based on the collection of code snapshots (i.e., submissions). The clusters are then formed from a transition probability matrix, computed using the submission history of the student, and a state machine. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the clustering approach to create clusters with significant differences in perceived student difficulty by cross-validating the formed clusters with survey data collected from a CS1 course. The clusters also contain differences in programming behavior. The proposed method can be applied to the classroom setting to identify students benefitting from assistance during the course in real-time, without surveys.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121215105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Technical progress and social transformation processes require lifelong learning in different spaces and formats. This leads to new developments and challenges in education with regard to competency-based learning and recognition practices, especially as educational biographies become increasingly diverse and extensive repetitions of qualifications should be avoided. Until recently, a common assessment strategy for previously developed competencies has not been established in higher education. In this study, competencies expected in German vocational and higher educational programming training were identified, compared and evaluated with regard to equivalence. The methodological approach started with an extensive review of general frameworks and curricula, before competency descriptions and analyses of reference documents of German vocational and university programming education were gathered and systematically compared. As part of the iterative design process, a comparison matrix was developed, and common features along with gaps and overlaps of competencies were identified. Even though both educational tracks pursue different goals, they share a great number of expected programming competencies. In the context of lifelong learning, the proposed process can be utilized for improving the permeability and recognition practises in both vocational training and higher education.
{"title":"A Comparative Study of Programming Competencies in Vocational Training and Higher Education","authors":"Natalie Kiesler, Carsten Thorbrügge","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524818","url":null,"abstract":"Technical progress and social transformation processes require lifelong learning in different spaces and formats. This leads to new developments and challenges in education with regard to competency-based learning and recognition practices, especially as educational biographies become increasingly diverse and extensive repetitions of qualifications should be avoided. Until recently, a common assessment strategy for previously developed competencies has not been established in higher education. In this study, competencies expected in German vocational and higher educational programming training were identified, compared and evaluated with regard to equivalence. The methodological approach started with an extensive review of general frameworks and curricula, before competency descriptions and analyses of reference documents of German vocational and university programming education were gathered and systematically compared. As part of the iterative design process, a comparison matrix was developed, and common features along with gaps and overlaps of competencies were identified. Even though both educational tracks pursue different goals, they share a great number of expected programming competencies. In the context of lifelong learning, the proposed process can be utilized for improving the permeability and recognition practises in both vocational training and higher education.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126468138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper presents the findings from a research project exploring the impact of learner resilience as part of the shift to online delivery of learning, teaching and assessment amidst national "lockdown" measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This exploration of resilience was undertaken as part of the delivery of a first-year undergraduate computer science degree programme in a UK higher education institution over two academic years. Resilience was measured by the Nicholson McBride Resilience Questionnaire (NMRQ). The responses from the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 student cohorts (N=214) illustrate that overall learner resilience as measured by NMRQ does not appear to have had a significant impact upon learner success as measured by the mean overall first-year performance. This is an outcome that differs from previous work and may be a consequence of the disruptive (and ongoing) circumstances arising from the pandemic. However, this work identifies that the factor "I try to control events rather than being a victim of my circumstances" appears to promote success and the factor "I trust my intuition" may have been slightly detrimental to overall success. As we start to consider the post-pandemic new (ab)normal, learners will continue to face significant personal challenges that will impact upon their engagement with their studies and their performance and progression; thus the insights offered from this UK university study can help to inform emerging academic and pastoral practice for undergraduate computer science education.
{"title":"Exploring Learner Resilience and Performance of First-Year Computer Science Undergraduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"T. Crick, T. Prickett, Jill Bradnum","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524764","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents the findings from a research project exploring the impact of learner resilience as part of the shift to online delivery of learning, teaching and assessment amidst national \"lockdown\" measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This exploration of resilience was undertaken as part of the delivery of a first-year undergraduate computer science degree programme in a UK higher education institution over two academic years. Resilience was measured by the Nicholson McBride Resilience Questionnaire (NMRQ). The responses from the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 student cohorts (N=214) illustrate that overall learner resilience as measured by NMRQ does not appear to have had a significant impact upon learner success as measured by the mean overall first-year performance. This is an outcome that differs from previous work and may be a consequence of the disruptive (and ongoing) circumstances arising from the pandemic. However, this work identifies that the factor \"I try to control events rather than being a victim of my circumstances\" appears to promote success and the factor \"I trust my intuition\" may have been slightly detrimental to overall success. As we start to consider the post-pandemic new (ab)normal, learners will continue to face significant personal challenges that will impact upon their engagement with their studies and their performance and progression; thus the insights offered from this UK university study can help to inform emerging academic and pastoral practice for undergraduate computer science education.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"68 12","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114115241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jennifer L. Tsan, Donna Eatinger, Alex Pugnali, David Gonzalez-Maldonado, Diana Franklin, David Weintrop
Given the increasing interest and need to teach students computer science in formal education settings, it is imperative to understand how to do so effectively and equitably. An important step of learning to program is being able to define the objective of a program and then plan out how to implement a program to produce the desired outcome. This step is particularly important in younger learners who may have little experience with programming or trying to create their own technological artifacts. In this paper, we explore how to scaffold young programmers in planning their open-ended programs as part of an intermediate Scratch curriculum for middle grade students. We analyze 203 paper and virtual planning documents from 103 5th-8th grade students. Our results reveal that the students often completed a majority of the document, which was consistent across grade levels. However, we found differences in student completion based on teacher and between physical and virtual documents. This work advances our understanding of how to support novice, young programmers in planning programs.
{"title":"Scaffolding Young Learners' Open-Ended Programming Projects with Planning Sheets","authors":"Jennifer L. Tsan, Donna Eatinger, Alex Pugnali, David Gonzalez-Maldonado, Diana Franklin, David Weintrop","doi":"10.1145/3502718.3524769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524769","url":null,"abstract":"Given the increasing interest and need to teach students computer science in formal education settings, it is imperative to understand how to do so effectively and equitably. An important step of learning to program is being able to define the objective of a program and then plan out how to implement a program to produce the desired outcome. This step is particularly important in younger learners who may have little experience with programming or trying to create their own technological artifacts. In this paper, we explore how to scaffold young programmers in planning their open-ended programs as part of an intermediate Scratch curriculum for middle grade students. We analyze 203 paper and virtual planning documents from 103 5th-8th grade students. Our results reveal that the students often completed a majority of the document, which was consistent across grade levels. However, we found differences in student completion based on teacher and between physical and virtual documents. This work advances our understanding of how to support novice, young programmers in planning programs.","PeriodicalId":424418,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 1","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115199747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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