Computer Courses Research Articles

Exploring an Engineer’s Role in Society: Service Learning in a First-Year Computing Course

Contribution: This article measures the impact of a service-learning project in a first-year introduction to computing course on students’ understanding of engineers’ roles and responsibilities and their attitudes toward plastic pollution. Background: Service learning has been integrated into classrooms for many years, but its utilization in engineering courses is lacking. Furthermore, plastic pollution is a complex and multidisciplinary problem that requires social, political, environmental, and engineering solutions. This work provides a quantitative assessment on whether service learning through a litter pickup project impacts students’ views of the role of engineers in solving complex sociotechnical problems. Research Questions: 1) How does service learning change students’ perception of an engineer’s role in solving sociotechnical problems? and 2) how can service learning be used to increase students’ environmental awareness and action? Methodology: Surveys were administered to students before and after their participation in a service-learning project. The study was conducted across five sections of an introduction to a computer programming course that is required of first-year civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering students. Findings: After the service-learning project, students were more likely to agree that engineers have the skills, knowledge, and responsibility to solve societal problems. Students also demonstrated a more holistic understanding of plastic pollution and reported changes in their waste reduction behaviors.

Influence of chemical kinetic exponent on transient mixed convective hydromagnetic flow in vertical channel with convective boundary condition

A flow that is subject to the influence of both thermal buoyancy and pressure gradient is called mixed convection. This kind of flow can be found in a wide variety of scientific and infrastructural functionalities, such as sunlight transceivers that are open to the airflow, digital devices that are kept cool by fans, nuclear reactors that are cooled during emergency shutdowns, and heat exchangers that are placed in low-velocity environments. This paper present MHD coupled convection flow of chemical reaction of an exothermic and chemical kinetic fluid with Newtonian heating in a vertical channel. chemical reaction (λ), magnetohydrodynamics ( Ha ), Navier slip (Γ), and Newtonian heating ( Br ) are all taken into consideration, in addition to the chemical kinetic exponent ( m ). Homotopy perturbation techniques and implicit finite difference scheme are used to find the steady-state solution and transient state solution for the set of dimensionless coupled governing equations. The rate of heat transfer and sheer stress were derived by differentiating the analytical solution obtained. Various pertinent parameters controlling the flow such as chemical reaction parameter (λ), MHD ( Ha ), Newtonian heating parameter ( Br ), chemical kinetic exponent ( m ) and Navier slip parameter (Γ) are illustrated graphically. Velocity and temperature fields are also demonstrated. The studies showed that a little rise in the Hartman number induces the Lorentz force, which streamlines the velocity boundary layer, decelerating the flow. A minor increase in the mixed convection parameter, on the other hand, resulted in significantly enhanced flow profiles, resulting in a greater flow rate during biomolecular kinds of chemical processes. Also during course of computation, the energy and velocity profiles improve with increase in (λ), ( Br ), ( m ),(γ) and ( Gre ). However, a graphical comparison of the transient solution and the steady state solution was also displayed, with an outstanding agreement.

Students’ Course Grades Analysis “Practical Case”

To maintain the benefits and improve the course procedure for the next year, this work is devoted to evaluating my course of computer at the faculty of tourism at the Lebanese University during the academic year 2021–2022. Additionally, we want to mention that this method can be used as a model for any similar course evaluation. According to the results, some variables of grades are normally distributed while others are not normally distributed. The final grade average and partial grade average for each student are different from one another. Final grades were statistically equal for both male and female students. The final grade average for this year and last year is the same. There is a correlation between participation and presence grades and the other grades, except the mid-exam grades. Also, the final grades and all other grades, except the mid-exam grades, are correlated. For the following year, we need to make sure that students attend more lectures to raise their grades. Also, to have an impact on final grades, we need to put more effort into mid-exam preparation.

Grade Inflation at Saudi Universities Before, During and After the Pandemic: A Comparative Study

This study investigates grade inflation in 127 language, linguistics, translation, education, and computer courses taught at some Saudi universities before, during and after the Pandemic. Grades obtained from some instructors for courses taught over 8 semesters were analyzed. It was found that between 20% 65% chose a pass/no-grade results, the rest of the students mostly earned A & B grades in Spring 2020 when instruction and assessment were held online compared to students’ grade in Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2019, and after the Pandemic (in Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022). Grade inflation was the highest in computer courses followed by education courses and was the least in language, linguistics, and translation courses. Grade inflation in Spring 2020 was due to the adjustments mandated by universities to alleviate students’ anxiety caused by the sudden shift to online teaching and assessment. Universities allocated 20% of the course marks to final exams, gave alternatives to a written final and to be lenient in grading. Students had the option to drop the course or have a pass with no-grade result. In Fall 2020, classes were still held online but exams were held on campus. Starting Fall 2021, both instruction and exams were held on campus. Mark distribution and exam requirements went back to normal as before the Pandemic. However, grade inflation continued in many courses even in Spring 2022. The study gives recommendations for maintaining exam reliability, validity, and fairness in emergency and normal situations to achieve the desired learning outcomes.

On the Intelligent Computing Model of Diagnosis Teaching in Preschool Education in Colleges and Universities under the Background of Big Data.

In order to infer the cognitive state of students and provide teachers with the potential learning state of students, a diagnostic teaching model for preschool education in colleges and universities under the background of big data is proposed. By increasing students' programming ability and modeling students' theoretical and practical abilities at the same time, the cognitive diagnosis is introduced into the field of computer teaching, so as to make it applicable to computer classrooms and provide students' cognitive information needed for teaching. The experimental results show that the advantages of the CDF-CSE approach gradually emerge as the training data become sparse (the proportion of training data decreases from 80% to 20%). In the combined questions of the three datasets, when the training set is 20% and MAE is used as the criterion, the CDF-CSE model improves by 47.8%, 65.8%, and 49.8%, respectively, compared with the other methods that perform best on the training set. When the number of questions is small, the CDF-CSE model improves by 37.8%, 42.5%, and 27.7% on RMSE on three datasets, respectively, compared with the best-performing other methods. When there are more questions, it has 32.3%, 36.5%, and 45.6% improvement, respectively. It is concluded that this model can accurately predict students' performance in computer courses and provide detailed and rich cognitive reports.

The Perception Scale for the 7E Model-Based Augmented Reality Enriched Computer Course (7EMAGBAÖ): Validity and Reliability Study

Education, teaching, and learning topics, known to have gained an international dimension with technological developments, are still seen as the most discussed themes and subject to change. It is clear that in the 21st century, the increasing information density, the means of transfer, and the technological adaptation skills of the teacher and the learner are at the forefront, and more efforts are required to develop them. The integration of technologies in education and training is related to the necessity of preparing learners in the most suitable way for future work and lifelong learning within the information society. For this reason, for the COVID-19 pandemic process and thereafter, starting with known education models makes it necessary to enable the development of education, teaching, and learning under better conditions and situations by blending them with technological developments. Everyone has understood the ever-changing and developing universal digital world much better during this pandemic. The 7E model of the Constructivist Learning Theory (CLT), known as the student-centered model based on distance education, has been mandatory for the entire education community during the first global pandemic of the digital age. Augmented Reality (AR) is another web-based technological development that can work in harmony with the 7E model. In the 7E model, the teaching of the lessons was at the forefront since the learners learn by doing, experiencing, and applying, directly participating in the lesson, and sharing opinions. For the present study, a scale was developed to determine the perceptions of the learners about the 7E model-based AR-enriched computer lesson. Validity and reliability studies were also conducted on the data obtained from the developed scale. The scale, which was prepared using a five-point Likert scale, was applied to 400 students who fit the profile of the sample group. A statistical analysis of the results concluded that 26 low-factor loading items should be removed from the questionnaire, and the final version of the 28-item scale was a six-factor structure. The statistical analysis concluded that the scale was suitable for all criteria in terms of validity and reliability. Considering the values revealed in the study, it was concluded that the overall scale (α = 0.932) was highly reliable.

OSSCAR, an open platform for collaborative development of computational tools for education in science

In this paper we present the Open Software Services for Classrooms and Research (OSSCAR) platform. OSSCAR provides an open collaborative environment to develop and access educational resources in the form of web applications, for which various deployment methods are discussed and compared. To minimize efforts in the creation and use of new educational material, OSSCAR combines software tools that have emerged as standards with custom domain-specific ones. The technical solutions adopted to create and distribute content are described and motivated on the basis of reliability, sustainability, ease of uptake and use. Examples from courses in the domains of physics, chemistry, and materials science are shown to demonstrate the style and level of interactivity of typical applications. The tools presented are easy to use, and create a uniform and open environment exploitable by a large community of teachers, students, and researchers with the goal of facilitating learning and avoiding, when possible, duplication of efforts in creating teaching material. Contributions to expand the educational content of the OSSCAR project are welcome. Program summaryProgram Title: OSSCAR Interactive Notebooks for Quantum Mechanics and Computational Materials ScienceCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/26py5zz9f8.1Developer's repository link:https://github.com/osscar-org/quantum-mechanicsLicensing provisions: MITProgramming language: PythonNature of problem: Among others, computational courses (e.g. on quantum mechanics) can benefit from advanced interactive visualizations of the content. However, on the one hand it might be complicated for teachers to develop such interactive content; on the other hand, students need to be able to access very quickly and efficiently the content, reducing the time needed to install libraries and dependencies that might differ between courses.Solution method: Here, we developed interactive web applications to complement teaching and encourage computational thinking for courses in computational physics, chemistry and materials science, using Jupyter notebooks and their rendering as interactive web applications. The latter is powered by a combination of Voila, to hide code and convert notebooks into live web applications, and (existing or custom) Jupyter widgets to enable interactiveness. The code is ready to be deployed via a number of open approaches.

“I Think I Am Getting There” Understanding the Computational Identity of Engineering Students Participating in a Computationally Intensive Thermodynamics Course

In response to the growing computational intensity of the healthcare industry, biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate education is placing increased emphasis on computation. The presence of substantial gender disparities in many computationally intensive disciplines suggests that the adoption of computational instruction approaches that lack intentionality may exacerbate gender disparities. Educational research suggests that the development of an engineering and computational identity is one factor that can support students’ decisions to enter and persist in an engineering major. Discipline-based identity research is used as a lens to understand retention and persistence of students in engineering. Our specific purpose is to apply discipline-based identity research to define and explore the computational identities of undergraduate engineering students who engage in computational environments. This work will inform future studies regarding retention and persistence of students who engage in computational courses. Twenty-eight undergraduate engineering students (20 women, 8 men) from three engineering majors (biomedical engineering, agricultural engineering, and biological engineering) participated in semi-structured interviews. The students discussed their experiences in a computationally-intensive thermodynamics course offered jointly by the Biomedical Engineering and Agricultural & Biological Engineering departments. The transcribed interviews were analyzed through thematic coding. The gender stereotypes associated with computer programming also come part and parcel with computer programming, possibly threatening a student's sense of belonging in engineering. The majority of the participants reported that their computational identity was “in the making.” Students’ responses also suggested that their engineering identity and their computational identity were in congruence, while some incongruence is found between their engineering identity and a creative identity as well as between computational identity and perceived feminine norms. Responses also indicate that students associate specific skills with having a computational identity. This study's findings present an emergent thematic definition of a computational person constructed from student perceptions and experiences. Instructors can support students’ nascent computational identities through intentional mitigation of the gender stereotypes and biases, and by framing assignments to focus on developing specific skills associated with the computational modeling processes.

Aspects Influencing Computer-technology Adoption in Secondary- school Physics Instruction in Jordan

Abstract: This survey researched the aspects that inspire secondary-school physics teachers to utilize computer technology in instruction and learning in four areas of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. To assess the research question, the survey used a quantitative review research strategy utilizing a survey questionnaire comprising of 25 Likert-type scale inquiries to determine physics teachers' perspectives toward utilizing computer technology in physics lesson preparation and delivery techniques. In opposition to what might be anticipated, the results encountered several factors that were not indicators of statistical significance of physics teachers' employment of computer technology in instructing physics: gender; academic degree; school location; normal class size; ways of acquiring technology skills, for example, self-taught and computer courses; instructional style; perceived barriers; and availability of technology resources. The findings verify the expectation that the lack of ICT tools in the Jordanian high-school physics curriculum has an impact on teachers’ job satisfaction, physics lesson preparation and delivery techniques and Tawjihi students' individual learning styles. Keywords: ICT, ICT-driven classroom, Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory.

PKM Pendampingan dan Pelatihan Microsoft Office untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Santri Pesantren Nurul Hidayah

The development of technology has helped a lot of human work. One of the things that we can enjoy from these technological developments include Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and power points. Microsoft Word, functions as a word processing software includes creating, editing, and formatting documents. The students have not been able to operate Microsoft word, Excel and Power Point because they are not taught at school, the high cost of computer courses among students. One of them is to train the ability to use a word processing application, namely Microsoft Word. Community service activities are emphasized in the form of training on how to apply Microsoft Office for students of the Nurul Hidayah Islamic Boarding School. It is hoped that with this training, students can know more about the basic techniques of using Microsoft Office by utilizing Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point. The results of the service activities carried out provide experience and skills for students in using Microsoft Office. Thus, the implementation of community service activities at the Nurul Hidayah Islamic Boarding School Foundation Using Microsoft Office provides significant benefits for improving the skills of students in utilizing information technology and computers. The students were very enthusiastic about participating in further training activities. The students already understand and can run Microsoft Office applications.

Curriculum Reform and Adaptive Teaching of Computer Education Based on Online Education and B5G Model

At present, my country’s information and computer technology is developing rapidly, and the world has been widely integrated into the Internet age. Under the Internet teaching mode, the reform of computer courses is imminent. Teachers must reverse the traditional backward and lecture-style teaching methods, effectively integrate with information technology, and continue to expand. In this context, this paper briefly analyzes the reform and adjustment of computer education courses based on the B5G model and network education model and proposes specific reform strategies. Undoubtedly, its impact on education will be more direct, and the combination of B5G and artificial intelligence as representatives of emerging technologies will certainly pose new challenges to the educational thinking mode and will also lead to profound changes in the educational ecological model.

Open Educational Resource for Studying Algorithms and Programming Logic: An Approach to the Technical Level Integrated with Secondary School

The teaching and learning of programming has proven to be a challenge for students of computer courses, since it presents challenges and requires complex skills for the good development of students. The traditional teaching model is not able to motivate students and arouse their interest in the topic. The tool proposed herein, the REA-LP, aims to facilitate the study and retention of content related to the discipline of programming logic at the technical level by presenting its content through various types of media, in addition to allowing students to actively participate in the construction of their knowledge, favoring engagement and motivation. From the results of an empirical study with 39 students, it can be concluded that the tool was very well accepted, being effective in facilitating and assisting participants in their learning, motivation, and interest in classes, mainly due to the way in which the content is presented by REA-LP.

Research on the Civic Policy Model and Reform Innovation of Intelligent Sensor Technology Course

Intelligent sensor technology is a professional course of communication, electronics, information, computer, and other related majors and is a course of expansion and extension of computer network (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2001). It is connected with the Internet by using information sensing device to realize the intercommunication of time and space, people, machines, and things. Intelligent sensor technology is an advanced subject; it contains a lot of ideological elements; in teaching, it should be according to the characteristics of the subject, set the goal of ideological education, to design the content of the ideological education, improve the ideological education, to carry on the course of the construction of the ideological practice and exploration, and guide students to set up the correct world outlook, the outlook on life, and values (The State Council of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 2010). Integrating the elements of thinking and politics into the teaching of intelligent sensor technology and organically combining thinking and politics teaching with professional teaching is conducive to realizing the nurturing function of professional teaching and establishing an all-round curriculum system, so that professional and thinking and politics courses can go hand in hand and produce synergy. With the concept of “civic education as the soul, general education as the root, professional education as the foundation,” the strategy of integrating civic education from “point to surface (Wei, 2015), from history to the present, from inside to outside” is summarized, and a system of assessment, evaluation, and continuous improvement is established. It also establishes a system of assessment, evaluation, and continuous improvement. The strategy has proved to be effective in combining ideological and political education with moral education, enabling students to develop theoretical, institutional, and cultural confidence on the road to socialism with Chinese characteristics (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2004).

Analysis on the Development Strategy of Computer Education Microcourse Resources Based on a Cognitive Diagnosis Method

With the continuous deepening of the new curriculum reform, in order to meet the needs of high-efficiency and high-quality teaching, colleges and universities have carried out continuous reforms and innovations in teaching forms and methods. Microcourse is one of the main innovative forms of curriculum development in colleges at this stage, and it has a great role in promoting the quality of courses and the realization of teaching goals. At the same time, as a new discipline, computer science has its own unique properties. In addition, the traditional cognitive diagnosis model ignores the connection between knowledge points in most cases, and the use of this information is insufficient, resulting in that the traditional model cannot be reasonably applied in some practical teaching scenarios. Under the background of the continuous development of modern curriculum and the continuous innovation of educational methods, cognitive diagnosis, as an important research in educational data mining, plays a pivotal role in student evaluation. Based on this, this paper mainly takes the teaching of computer courses as an example. While introducing the current situation of teaching activities, it studies the specific strategies of microlectures in computer courses, so as to better utilize the advantages of microlectures.

Application of information technologies in distance learning in the field of higher education

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the world, education has switched to distance education. Education has transformed from face-to-face education to distance education. This situation caused educators and administrators who were unprepared to panic. Researchers need to increase research on distance education. In the distance education system, it is the most basic task of the teachers to increase the participation of students in the lessons, to teach the students with different techniques as in face-to-face education and to increase their motivation. It is very important to research and develop the techniques and systems used in distance education. In this context, the aim of this study is to determine the views of university students about the distance education process and to get their suggestions. In this study, the qualitative research method for the research data was used for the views and needs of the students studying at the university about the distance education system. The study group included 102 education faculty students studying at 3 different universities. The application was carried out within the scope of the 2020–2021 fall semester computer courses. The interview form developed by the researchers was used as a data collection tool within the scope of the research. While the interview questions were being prepared, the opinions of three experts were taken and the questions were finalised. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings obtained as a result of the research are given in detail in the findings and results sections.
 
 Keywords: Distance education, university student, opinion, computer lesson, higher education, information technologies;

The Impact of Designing an Electronic Course of Computer Uses on Developing Academic Achievement and Creative Thinking in a Saudi University

This research aims to measure the impact on academic achievement and developing creative thinking skills by designing an electronic course (e-course hereafter) for computer uses in teaching at a Saudi university. Following a quasi-experimental methodology, forty students (female) were selected and segregated into control and experimental groups for this study. The latter was taught using the designed e-course for ‘Computer Uses in Teaching’ and the former was taught in a normal class. To achieve research objectives, research tools consisted of an e-course (a cognitive test to measure academic achievement), and Torrance test to measure creative thinking skills. The results demonstrated a significant difference (α ≥ 0.05) between the experimental and the control groups in the average score of achievement test. The post-test synthesis, analysis, and evaluation levels were found in accordance with the experimental group. The average score of post-test creative thinking test results evaluated at the levels of flexibility, fluency, and originality were also found to be significantly different (α ≥ 0.05) with respect to the two groups. It is recommended to develop the digital content in accordance with the measures taken during the Corona pandemic and e-learning standards.

Data structure simulation for the reform of the teaching process of university computer courses

Abstract Initially we applied the same data structure to grid generation, with further research, we found that the overall calculation efficiency of such a design is not high, and it is difficult to maintain. Finally, we designed different data structures based on the different characteristics of the two parts, in the grid generation, more consideration is given to flexibility and maintainability, a method to determine the flux function through the boundary of a triangular mesh is given. This method first obtains the two-dimensional Euler equations in the normal direction of the boundary of the control volume element, in the system of projection equations, the flux along the tangent to the boundary can be regarded as passive convection, therefore, the one-dimensional Riemann problem solver can be directly used to calculate the flux function passing through the boundary of the triangular control unit. This method under various flow conditions, including supersonic pipe flow and subsonic isentropic flow with strong shock waves, all have high precision and good stability.

Intervention Strategies through Interactive Gamification E-Learning Web-Based Application to Increase Computing Course Achievement

This study aims to help students improve their knowledge capability based on their active participation through gamification. Gamification is one of the newer methods of education that has the potential to improve student learning. This research looked into gamification's efficacy in student engagement and learning retention during teaching and learning sessions for computer science or information technology courses. The assessment involved in this study is through Pre-Test and Post-Test through instructional intervention by adapting interactive Quizizz gamification e-learning web-based application. The flow of research works begins with a survey of the problem, pre-intervention analysis, and action was taken during the intervention, ending with the implementation and observation phase. The pre and post-analysis of test results and questionnaires were accomplished and discussed. Fifty-six respondents participate in this study. Results show that 87% of the respondents have increased their percentage of marks. In the pre-test result, 56% of the respondents achieved below the 55 marks, while in the post-test, it reduced to 14%. Adoption of other gamification applications, a larger target demographic, and the addition of computer science or information technology courses will help improve the study in the future.

Blended Learning and Creativity-Based Learning for Promoting Mathematics Achievement and Information Technology Performance

This study aimed to develop blended learning activities and creativity-based learning in the Mathematics for Computer Course (MCC), compare mathematics achievement in the MCC at a 70% threshold score, compare students’ information technology usage performance, and investigate students’ learning satisfaction. The participants were freshmen who enrolled in MCC at Kalasin University, academic year 2021. Purposive sampling was employed in the recruitment of 25 students. The research tools included: six activities in the MCC, multiple-choice achievement test with 30 items, the information technology competency assessment form, and a 15-item activity satisfaction scale. The statistics used in the data analysis are descriptive for calculating mean, standard deviation, and percentage, as well as one sample t-test for hypothesis testing. The findings indicated that the academic achievement of students representing 76.67% higher than the specified threshold of 70% with statistical significance at the 0.05 level. Students’ competency in using information technology is 81.67 percent, which is higher than the threshold and they were satisfied with learning approach.

Curriculum and Fundamental Computer Course at Bangladesh Islami University

In pedagogy, there are different methods of instruction, and each is often designed to suit a unique classroom instruction. Teaching methods are described as techniques and means through which teachers deliver the curriculum content. These include lectures, demonstrations, discussions, problem-solving, excursions, projects, and play-way methods. Consequently, this course (Computer Fundamentals) is also designed to train students about these techniques and their applicability in appropriate and unique contexts. Computer fundamentals is a mandatory course involving three credits for the second semester in first-year students in all departments at Bangladesh Islami University (BIU). This course vastly helps the students to extend their knowledge of basic computer or digital devise use in daily life for everyoccupation. This article concerns the pedagogy I follow to instruct and teach undergrad students at BIU.