Students In Computer Science Courses Research Articles

Computer Science Trends and Trade-offs in California High Schools

Purpose: We aim to better understand the curricular, staffing, and achievement trade-offs entailed by expansions of high-school computer science (CS) for students, schools, and school leaders. Methods: We use descriptive, correlational, and quasi-experimental methods to analyze statewide longitudinal course-, school-, and staff-level data from California, where CS course taking has expanded rapidly. Findings: We find that these rapid CS course expansions have not come at the expense of CS teachers’ observable qualifications (namely certification, education, or experience). Within-school course taking patterns over time suggest that CS enrollment growth has come at the expense of social studies, English/language arts (ELA), and arts courses, as well as from other miscellaneous electives. However, we find no evidence that increased enrollment of students in CS courses at a school has a significant effect on students’ math or ELA test scores. Implications: Flexible authorization requirements for CS teachers appear to have allowed school leaders to staff new CS courses with teachers whose observable qualifications are strong, though we do not observe teachers’ CS teaching skill. Increasing CS participation is unlikely to noticeably improve school-level student test scores, but administrators also do not need to be overly concerned that test scores will suffer. However, school leaders and policymakers should think carefully about what courses new CS courses will replace and whether such replacements are worthwhile.

Bloom's Taxonomy to Improve Teaching-Learning in Introduction to Programming

Students in computer science courses entering higher education begin with computer thinking and programming languages in a curricular unit (CU) that can be referred to in various ways, like CS1 or programming fundamentals. This CU is very important for the academic and professional path of those students. Teachers and those responsible for those courses must carefully define the learning objectives, the learning strategies and the assessment of this teaching-learning. Bloom's taxonomy, in its different variations, is a powerful tool that helps in these tasks and that gives clear indications on the language that is to be used - which is useful for perceiving both the level of colleagues and the level of accreditations and assessments of courses. This article provides a detailed description of Bloom's taxonomy and its changes over the years. Studies carried out in the context of teaching fundamentals of programming and using Bloom's taxonomy are listed and analyzed. In the end, the conclusions and the definition of future works are made.

The Student/Library Computer Science Collaborative

With funding from an Institute of Museum and Library Services demonstration grant, librarians of the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign partnered with students in computer science courses to design and build student-centered mobile apps. The grant work called for demonstration of student collaboration strategies and computing workflows that would enable greater access to collections and awareness of library services, while investigating aspects of location-specific mobile digital services. This case study reports grant strategies and goals, app design choices, and student and librarian outputs at the end of the grant.

Scientific Workflows with XMDD: A Way to Use Process Modeling in Computational Science Education

Abstract Process models are well suited to describe in a formal but still intuitive fashion what a system should do. They can thus play a central role in problem-based computational science education with regard to qualifying students for the design and implementation of software applications for their specific needs without putting the focus on the technical part of coding. eXtreme Model Driven Design (XMDD) is a software development paradigm that explicitly focuses on the What (solving problems) rather than on the How (the technical skills of writing code). In this paper we describe how we apply an XMDD-based process modeling and execution framework for scientific workflow projects in the scope of a computer science course for students with a background in natural sciences.

Motivating students' participation in a computer networks course by means of magic, drama and games.

The recent economic crisis has forced many universities to cut down expenses by packing students into large lecture groups. The problem with large auditoria is that they discourage dialogue between students and faculty and they burden participation. Adding to this, students in computer science courses usually find the field to be full of theoretical and technical concepts. Lack of understanding leads them to lose interest and / or motivation. Classroom experience shows that the lecturer could employ alternative teaching methods, especially for early-year undergraduate students, in order to grasp their interest and introduce basic concepts. This paper describes some of the approaches that may be used to keep students interested and make them feel comfortable as they comprehend basic concepts in computer networks. The lecturing procedure was enriched with games, magic tricks and dramatic representations. This approach was used experimentally for two semesters and the results were more than encouraging.

Retention in Computer Science Course

Throughout its history, careers in fields related to Computer Science (CS) have expanded. However, there have been periods, like the year 2000 following the ’dot-com bust’ when skilled people had to change employers, invoking negative publicity. The effect of this on enrollment in CS education was dramatic and lasted until 2007. According to Computing Research Association (CRA), there was an amazing increase in CS enrollment in 2008. Total enrollment per department by majors and pre-majors in U.S. CS programs is up 6.2% in 2008, and if only majors are considered, the increase is 8.1% [1]. CS student data are similar in Canadian schools [1]. There is a significant increase in number of enrollments in Computer Science education since 2008 [1]. The vital next step is to retain the enrolled students in Computer Science courses. Keeping that in mind, our research has combined the understanding of retention issues with some action strategies. This paper describes a first year CS course with this objective, initial finding and recommends some strategies to help students to successfully complete the course. In this research, we seek the clear indicators of withdrawal from or unsuccessful completion of a first year CS course. We suggest strategies to reduce the withdrawal rate and provide students with greater confidence in their ability to succeed. Our recommendations are for example, adapting the curriculum to the learners expectations i.e., making early assignments easier and less intimidating. Overall, the number of female students in computer science is low [2] and becomes diminished when they withdraw from the courses. Our suggestion is designating support for female students through the course.

An infrastructure for teaching skills for group decision making and problem solving in programming projects

In industry, programmers work in groups to design and implement substantial pieces of software. In contrast, most programs that students write in classes are toy programs involving little or no group work. To address this discrepancy, we have developed a software infrastructure that aims to teach group work skills to students in computer science courses and also enables students to tackle larger and more significant projects. We are in the process of deploying this infrastructure in a three course sequence at the University of Colorado: Data Structures---Programming Languages---Compiler Construction.

A plagiarism detection system

The problem of plagiarism in programming assignments by students in computer science courses has caused considerable concern among both faculty and students. There are a number of methods which instructors use in an effort to control the plagiarism problem. In this paper we describe a plagiarism detection system which was recently implemented in our department. This system is being used to detect similarities in student programs.