Project-based courses have become increasingly popular in Information Technology (IT) curricula. We have found the design of such courses needs to take into account a variety of desired learning outcomes in order to maximise the effectiveness of such courses. This paper describes four quite different project-based courses we have developed and run over several years, and are continuing to develop. We compare and contrast the different course objectives, group management, project characteristics, course content and student assessment used in these courses. We also reflect on the evolution of these courses and how feedback from different kinds of course evaluation is used to continue their refinement. We have our experiences will be useful for others designing or refining their own project-
{"title":"A comparative analysis of design principles for project-based IT courses","authors":"J. Grundy","doi":"10.1145/299359.299384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299384","url":null,"abstract":"Project-based courses have become increasingly popular in Information Technology (IT) curricula. We have found the design of such courses needs to take into account a variety of desired learning outcomes in order to maximise the effectiveness of such courses. This paper describes four quite different project-based courses we have developed and run over several years, and are continuing to develop. We compare and contrast the different course objectives, group management, project characteristics, course content and student assessment used in these courses. We also reflect on the evolution of these courses and how feedback from different kinds of course evaluation is used to continue their refinement. We have our experiences will be useful for others designing or refining their own project-","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127494609","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}
University courses in Information Systems (I.!$) are often criticised by industry for concentrating on conceptual learning while failing to provide their students with experience and grounding in managerial skills. This paper describes and discusses an innovative course structure which has been developed in order to ground the teaching of I.S. management theory in its local context by interlinking practical projects and case studies in a local organisation. The student projects are used to generate a large ‘cross-sectional’ case study which describes several 13. management problems that are occurring simultaneously in tie same organisation. Students are required to integrate their analysis of the problems and to recommend an appropriate series of responses which will tackle all the situations. The paper describes the rationale and organisation of the course, the results of an evaluation of its effectiveness and discusses some of the problems that were encountered during its implementation.
{"title":"Integrating case studies and projects in IS management education","authors":"R. J. Whiddett, Jocelyn A. Handy, J. Pastor","doi":"10.1145/299359.299368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299368","url":null,"abstract":"University courses in Information Systems (I.!$) are often criticised by industry for concentrating on conceptual learning while failing to provide their students with experience and grounding in managerial skills. This paper describes and discusses an innovative course structure which has been developed in order to ground the teaching of I.S. management theory in its local context by interlinking practical projects and case studies in a local organisation. The student projects are used to generate a large ‘cross-sectional’ case study which describes several 13. management problems that are occurring simultaneously in tie same organisation. Students are required to integrate their analysis of the problems and to recommend an appropriate series of responses which will tackle all the situations. The paper describes the rationale and organisation of the course, the results of an evaluation of its effectiveness and discusses some of the problems that were encountered during its implementation.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115111943","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}
H. Purchase, A. Hussey, Wayne Brookes, D. Leadbetter
Fostering an interest in Information Technology (IT) in school students is important both for the IT industry and for universities: We therefore enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to hold an Information Technology vacation school for year 12 students in April 1996. Initiated and sponsored by the Australian Computer Society and Rotary International, the school enabled 60 secondary students who were in the process of making decisions about tertiary study to spend three days participating in a variety of computer-related activities at The University of Queensland Department of Computer Science, and experiencing life as a university student. The students developed skills in programming in Smalltalk, and using information systems and Internet resources. In addition, they visited other departments on campus and companies in the city to see a variety of uses of IT. We hoped to give the students the opportunity to make an informed decision about their future careers. A follow-up survey in early 1997 revealed that 80% of the students felt that attendance at the school helped them with their post-school career decisions. This paper describes our experiences with running the school: The program, components, feedback, and future plans. It was a very rewarding and worthwhile experience: We hope that this paper will encourage other universities to attempt similar programs.
{"title":"Fostering interest in information technology: running a vacation school for pre-University students","authors":"H. Purchase, A. Hussey, Wayne Brookes, D. Leadbetter","doi":"10.1145/299359.299378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299378","url":null,"abstract":"Fostering an interest in Information Technology (IT) in school students is important both for the IT industry and for universities: We therefore enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to hold an Information Technology vacation school for year 12 students in April 1996. Initiated and sponsored by the Australian Computer Society and Rotary International, the school enabled 60 secondary students who were in the process of making decisions about tertiary study to spend three days participating in a variety of computer-related activities at The University of Queensland Department of Computer Science, and experiencing life as a university student. The students developed skills in programming in Smalltalk, and using information systems and Internet resources. In addition, they visited other departments on campus and companies in the city to see a variety of uses of IT. We hoped to give the students the opportunity to make an informed decision about their future careers. A follow-up survey in early 1997 revealed that 80% of the students felt that attendance at the school helped them with their post-school career decisions. This paper describes our experiences with running the school: The program, components, feedback, and future plans. It was a very rewarding and worthwhile experience: We hope that this paper will encourage other universities to attempt similar programs.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129798620","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 describes our experience using laboratories in the teaching of an undergraduate subject in artificial intelligence (AI). The presentation of key AI algorithms in lectures was replaced by a highly structured set of exercises undertaken by students in supervised laboratory sessions. The exercises, which were the students’ first contact with the algorithms, used a graphic animation of the algorithm, followed by active problem solving using a computer implementation of the same algorithm. As an environment for introducing students to new material, this laboratorybased approach encouraged the students to engage deeply with the material from the start. The sessions were very popular as evidenced by responses from student surveys, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the material was learned better. We suggest that a similar approach may be effective in other areas of computer science and in other disciplines.
{"title":"Teaching AI algorithms using animations reinforced by interactive exercises","authors":"Linda Stern, L. Sterling","doi":"10.1145/299359.299372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299372","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes our experience using laboratories in the teaching of an undergraduate subject in artificial intelligence (AI). The presentation of key AI algorithms in lectures was replaced by a highly structured set of exercises undertaken by students in supervised laboratory sessions. The exercises, which were the students’ first contact with the algorithms, used a graphic animation of the algorithm, followed by active problem solving using a computer implementation of the same algorithm. As an environment for introducing students to new material, this laboratorybased approach encouraged the students to engage deeply with the material from the start. The sessions were very popular as evidenced by responses from student surveys, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the material was learned better. We suggest that a similar approach may be effective in other areas of computer science and in other disciplines.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128829958","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}
Very large and diverse audiences pose a variety of problems for lecturers and students alike [l]. This paper presents an approach used in the School of Information Technology at The University of Queensland to teach an Internet literacy course to a diverse student audience. The course provides an introduction to computer networks and teaches students from various university faculties how to effectively use a variety of Internet services. The subject integrates efforts on teaching Internet literacy at the university in order to minimise teaching effort and to maximise quality of teaching. The paper discusses the variety of means deployed in order to provide a flexible, self-directed learning environment for the course. This led to: The inclusion of QUIKF'ro!, a specially developed Computer Based Training package on Internet services and resources; providing easy access to learning materials from campus or from home; and using innovative assessment methods which aim at improving the process and quality of assessment. Assessment was carried out online and used anonymous assessment, peer assessment and criterion-referenced marking.
{"title":"Teaching internet literacy to a large and diverse audience","authors":"Wayne Brookes, J. Indulska","doi":"10.1145/299359.299363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299363","url":null,"abstract":"Very large and diverse audiences pose a variety of problems for lecturers and students alike [l]. This paper presents an approach used in the School of Information Technology at The University of Queensland to teach an Internet literacy course to a diverse student audience. The course provides an introduction to computer networks and teaches students from various university faculties how to effectively use a variety of Internet services. The subject integrates efforts on teaching Internet literacy at the university in order to minimise teaching effort and to maximise quality of teaching. The paper discusses the variety of means deployed in order to provide a flexible, self-directed learning environment for the course. This led to: The inclusion of QUIKF'ro!, a specially developed Computer Based Training package on Internet services and resources; providing easy access to learning materials from campus or from home; and using innovative assessment methods which aim at improving the process and quality of assessment. Assessment was carried out online and used anonymous assessment, peer assessment and criterion-referenced marking.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131067330","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 a novel way to introduce and explain several key software design concepts: using an analogy between software systems and audio systems. We stress issues involving software reusability, and we find that the combination of such a practical focus, and an analogy based on such a familiar domain, work together well. Our research work involves a conceptual model for better understanding support for reusability, and we also find the audio analogy works well with our model. The paper explains the elements of the analogy in terms of both our model and standard concepts in software design, and shows how the analogy supports reasonable and motivating explanations of these important issues.
{"title":"Explaining issues in software reusability via an audio system analogy","authors":"R. Biddle, E. Tempero","doi":"10.1145/299359.299371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299371","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a novel way to introduce and explain several key software design concepts: using an analogy between software systems and audio systems. We stress issues involving software reusability, and we find that the combination of such a practical focus, and an analogy based on such a familiar domain, work together well. Our research work involves a conceptual model for better understanding support for reusability, and we also find the audio analogy works well with our model. The paper explains the elements of the analogy in terms of both our model and standard concepts in software design, and shows how the analogy supports reasonable and motivating explanations of these important issues.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"415 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131927240","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}
A number of recent survey results indicate that students in the humanities enjoy their subjects more than students in mathematics and sciences. Current educational theory, and common sense, suggests that the degree to which a student enjoys a subject affects their motivation to learn, and that students who are motivated to learn because they like their subject are more likely to achieve positive learning outcomes. Why then are humanities students happier with their subjects? Is it the students? The teaching? Or is it due to fundamental differences in the nature of the knowledge in the subjects? In this paper I consider the second factor: differences in teaching methods. I compare the manner in which one humanities subject, english, is taught with the way that science and mathematics are generally taught. I then report on the results of a teaching experiment where english-based teaching methods were used in a large first year computer science subject. The experiment seemed quite successful which suggests that some of the teaching techniques used in disciplines such as the humanities might be of general usefulness to other computer science teachers.
{"title":"Can we improve teaching in computer science by looking at how English Is Taugh?","authors":"R. Buckland","doi":"10.1145/299359.299382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299382","url":null,"abstract":"A number of recent survey results indicate that students in the humanities enjoy their subjects more than students in mathematics and sciences. Current educational theory, and common sense, suggests that the degree to which a student enjoys a subject affects their motivation to learn, and that students who are motivated to learn because they like their subject are more likely to achieve positive learning outcomes. Why then are humanities students happier with their subjects? Is it the students? The teaching? Or is it due to fundamental differences in the nature of the knowledge in the subjects? In this paper I consider the second factor: differences in teaching methods. I compare the manner in which one humanities subject, english, is taught with the way that science and mathematics are generally taught. I then report on the results of a teaching experiment where english-based teaching methods were used in a large first year computer science subject. The experiment seemed quite successful which suggests that some of the teaching techniques used in disciplines such as the humanities might be of general usefulness to other computer science teachers.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129989206","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}
In 1996 the Department of Computer Science, Monash University, implemented a First Year Advanced Students’ Project Scheme aimed at extending and stimulating its best first year students. This paper describes the goals of the scheme, the nature of the projects, how the projects challenged the students and extended their skills into other areas of Computer Science. A perspective of the Scheme is given by the supervisors along with how the Scheme might be integrated into the jirst year curn’culum.
{"title":"A first year advanced students' project scheme","authors":"A. Carbone","doi":"10.1145/299359.299380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299380","url":null,"abstract":"In 1996 the Department of Computer Science, Monash University, implemented a First Year Advanced Students’ Project Scheme aimed at extending and stimulating its best first year students. This paper describes the goals of the scheme, the nature of the projects, how the projects challenged the students and extended their skills into other areas of Computer Science. A perspective of the Scheme is given by the supervisors along with how the Scheme might be integrated into the jirst year curn’culum.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126701865","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}
P. Summons, Jo Coldwell-Neilson, C. Bruff, F. Henskens
An academic goal of a university is to ensure that student learning outcomes are achieved to their maximum potential. Attainment of academic goals however, can often be in conflict with attempts to realise administrative or business goals, as these may be perceived as being easily achieved through rationalisation of academic costs. The modern university must find a balance in the optimisation of these goals. This was recognised by (Cranitch 1991) “...with large numbers of students with different learning styles, there is a need to develop instructional arrangements that maximise student learning, while trying to minimise the cost in terms of time, effort and money”. Practically this may mean trying to maximise individual learning outcomes within very large classes, while trying to cope with the problems associated with large classes. One method of doing this is to reduce the logistic load or the management complexity of large classes, eg the PACE system (Oliver & Mitchell, 1996) for assessment management. Another is by automating some of the tasks related to student learning outcomes, eg the provision of consistent, adequate and timely feedback.
{"title":"Automated assessment and marking of spreadsheet concepts","authors":"P. Summons, Jo Coldwell-Neilson, C. Bruff, F. Henskens","doi":"10.1145/299359.299385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299385","url":null,"abstract":"An academic goal of a university is to ensure that student learning outcomes are achieved to their maximum potential. Attainment of academic goals however, can often be in conflict with attempts to realise administrative or business goals, as these may be perceived as being easily achieved through rationalisation of academic costs. The modern university must find a balance in the optimisation of these goals. This was recognised by (Cranitch 1991) “...with large numbers of students with different learning styles, there is a need to develop instructional arrangements that maximise student learning, while trying to minimise the cost in terms of time, effort and money”. Practically this may mean trying to maximise individual learning outcomes within very large classes, while trying to cope with the problems associated with large classes. One method of doing this is to reduce the logistic load or the management complexity of large classes, eg the PACE system (Oliver & Mitchell, 1996) for assessment management. Another is by automating some of the tasks related to student learning outcomes, eg the provision of consistent, adequate and timely feedback.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131892246","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}
The diversity of students’ backgrounds has caused a number of problems with an introductory Artificial Intelligence subject. In this paper we describe our experiences using a problem-based learning approach to teaching this material. This involved the students forming themselves into groups in order to tackle a series of related problems, each of which dealt with a specific area of the course. An integral part of this project is the technological support, which was used not only to monitor the progress of students through the course, but also to provide the necessary contextualisation of course PermIssion to make digital/hard copy of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that apies are not made or diibuted for prom or commercial advantage, the copynght notice, the tile of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior spa&c permission and/or a fee ACSE’S7. Melbourne, Australia@ lSS7ACM &E9791-95&O/97/0007 . . ..$3.50 material. We describe our methodology, as well as the two WWW-based support tools, the CourseWeb, which functions (roughly speaking) as an automated textbook, and the ProblemWeb, which specifies the problems to be solved and keeps track of the group’s progress in solving them. We report on our experiences in teaching a summer version of this subject and on our evaluations of the process.
{"title":"Problem based learning with technological support in an AI subject: description and evaluation","authors":"L. Cavedon, James Harland, L. Padgham","doi":"10.1145/299359.299387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/299359.299387","url":null,"abstract":"The diversity of students’ backgrounds has caused a number of problems with an introductory Artificial Intelligence subject. In this paper we describe our experiences using a problem-based learning approach to teaching this material. This involved the students forming themselves into groups in order to tackle a series of related problems, each of which dealt with a specific area of the course. An integral part of this project is the technological support, which was used not only to monitor the progress of students through the course, but also to provide the necessary contextualisation of course PermIssion to make digital/hard copy of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that apies are not made or diibuted for prom or commercial advantage, the copynght notice, the tile of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior spa&c permission and/or a fee ACSE’S7. Melbourne, Australia@ lSS7ACM &E9791-95&O/97/0007 . . ..$3.50 material. We describe our methodology, as well as the two WWW-based support tools, the CourseWeb, which functions (roughly speaking) as an automated textbook, and the ProblemWeb, which specifies the problems to be solved and keeps track of the group’s progress in solving them. We report on our experiences in teaching a summer version of this subject and on our evaluations of the process.","PeriodicalId":435916,"journal":{"name":"African Conference on Software Engineering","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133340752","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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