Introductory courses in computing: Aims and languages

There is a discrepancy between common introductory computing courses and the stated or implied aims of such courses. We suggest more precise aims, and courses to meet these, and claim that no such course should consist of programming alone. If, however, an introductory course contains a segment on programming, a language must be selected. Criteria for language selection are therefore suggested, and a number of languages compared according to these criteria. We conclude that:(i) an introductory course in computing should be aimed at problem solving and “mastery of society”;(ii) to achieve this, programming should be taught in a wider context;(iii) the programming language used should satisfy a number of well-defined criteria.     

Learner outcomes and satisfaction: A comparison of live video-streamed instruction,satellite broadcast instruction,and face-to-face instruction

This study examined the final grade and satisfaction level differences among students taking specific courses using three different methods: face-to-face in class, via satellite broadcasting at remote sites, and via live video-streaming at home or at work. In each case, the same course was taught by the same instructor in all three delivery methods, and an attempt was made to survey students taking the course via the three different delivery methods. MANOVA results indicated no grade or satisfaction level differences among the three populations. Self-reported computer literacy skills revealed a slight fit between the chosen delivery mode and the reported computer literacy skills. These results provide additional evidence to support both the “no significant difference” phenomenon and the use of distance education as a viable, convenient and flexible alternative delivery mode capable of extending learning opportunities to non-traditional students.     

Back to school [security education]

As summer draws to an end, faculty and students turn their attention to academic planning. This used to be a very tough task - faculty developed most of their materials from scratch. Now, rather than a handful of items to draw on when planning a security and privacy course, there is a plethora of sample syllabi, textbooks, and other supportive materials. The question is: where are they? For all the busy academics out there readying their courses, and the students who are about to join you, we have written the article, with help from the Centers of Excellence in Information Assurance Education, in the hope that it will make your preparations a trifle less hectic.     

The threats on the web

This is not about hackers who might steal your credit card number as it passes over the overcrowded connections on the Web, nor about your stumbling over a false virus alert on your favorite newsgroup, or even about a wily hacker penetrating your system and reading the E-mail you've saved. Instead it's about cookies, electronic product registration privacy invasion, the new push technology that will clog your electronic mailbox, user-friendly updates of programs and drivers and denial-of-service, and other technological goodies.     

Risk management is project management for adults

Too often in the software industry, organizations approach project management in the same way a desperate gambler approaches the tables at Las Vegas or Monaco-with only one thought in mind: roll the dice. In a dice-tossing project, there is nothing you can do to improve your odds. Of course, that is not true for your software projects, but nothing you can do will make your risks go away completely. You can ignore them or you can deal with them explicitly. If you ignore your project's risks, all your other efforts will be for naught. Your project's success is based on opportunity and benefit, on cost and risk. Opportunity and benefit address the value of the delivered software. Cost and risk address the minimum and variable costs-in units of money, time and effort-that are necessary to deliver that product. Any form of risk management is better than none. If you have project management responsibilities, who should be dealing with the inherent risks of your project if not you?     

An integrated web computing application for tasks related to course selection and registration

We have developed an integrated Internet application system including an OODB, which provides instant lottery selection of applicants for courses with capacity limitations, and which allows students to create their own weekly timetables and at the same time to complete their course registration to be verified/analyzed and confirmed instantly, reducing the time needed for course registration-related work before the beginning of each semester from several days to less than one hour. Information on courses held at each time period and taught by each instructor as well as the syllabus of each course can be viewed using multiple hypertext links, and no keyboard operations are needed for these.     

Teaching PROLOG programming in the secondary school

Abstract A PROLOG programming course was trialed on a class of twelve 16–17 year-old pupils who had varied previous experience of computing. The pupils were studying a variety of other subjects but would normally be considered to be of a high level of ability. The course was taught over a period of 15 weeks and lasted approximately 60 hours. Concepts covered included recursion and list processing. Most pupils were able to become reasonably competent over this period and one or two excelled. Previous experience of programming appeared to be an advantage if it had involved formal instruction in structured programming but indications were that self-taught BASIC proved to be an obstacle. It was concluded that further investigation of PROLOG as a school programming language would be worthwhile.     

The WebQuest model effects on mathematics curriculum learning in elementary school students

Since its inception in 1995, the WebQuest instructional model has received substantial attention from educators who have applied it to teaching activities. However, WebQuest has seldom been applied to mathematical teaching. Therefore, exploring curriculum development and learning achievement in mathematical teaching that integrates the WebQuest model is necessary. The objective of this study is to explore using the WebQuest model for teaching the concepts of proportion in elementary school mathematics, and the subsequent effects on student learning achievements. Furthermore, this study endeavors to understand student learning attitudes and learning satisfaction regarding the WebQuest model. This study employed the quasi-experimental research method, and the participants were two sixth-grade classes with 52 students at a Taiwanese elementary school. The experimental group was taught using WebQuest, while the control group was taught by employing the traditional IT-integrated curriculum. The two groups completed a 5-week course on proportion concepts. The study results indicate the following: (a) Regarding learning achievements, students who learned with the WebQuest model demonstrated superior learning performance than students who were taught using the traditional IT-integrated curriculum; (b) no significant difference existed between the learning attitudes of students who were taught using the WebQuest model and those who learned with the traditional IT-integrated curriculum; (c) on the learning-satisfaction survey, the students who learned with the WebQuest model showed high learning satisfaction, selecting between agree and strongly agree for the 6 dimensions, including WebQuest teaching, IT capability, the assistance of mathematics curriculum, collaborative learning, learning reflection, and learning feedback. This indicates that the students were largely satisfied and identified with the task-oriented WebQuest learning curriculum that was designed in this study. Finally, specific recommendations are made based on the results, providing teachers and future researchers with a reference for integrating the WebQuest model in the mathematics field.     

Computer applications in mechanics

This paper reviews the various ways in which the computer can be used within the mechanics section of a typical beginning physics course. While the authors are concerned primarily with the introductory college level course, many of the details would also be applicable to high school physics courses.     

Teaching Computational Abstract Algebra

We report on the contents and pedagogy of a course in abstract algebra that was taught with the aid of educational software developed within the Mathematica system. We describe the topics covered and the didactical use of the corresponding Mathematica packages, as well as draw conclusions for future such courses from the students' comments and our own experience.     

Characterizations of computing careers: Students and professionals disagree

Girls are generally under-represented in secondary and tertiary level computing courses. Seeking reasons for these gender differences in enrollments, data were collected from open-ended interviews with three different samples of participants: (1) 34 male and 34 female students enrolled in the second or third year of a university computer science course; (2) 33 secondary school girls aged 13–17 years, drawn from four different schools; and (3) 19 women working professionally in a computer-based career. Both the secondary and tertiary students held stereotyped views of computing and computer-related careers which differed markedly from the perceptions of the professional women. Important aspects of these careers were identified by the professional women. The question remains as to the numbers of students who make a poor career choice based on inaccurate perceptions of both computing and non-computing careers.     

Do students need teacher’s initiation in online collaborative learning?

As more and more people use computers to complete their work and solve problems in the workplace, computing education is emphasized for students of all levels and disciplines in Taiwan. However, the computing education in Taiwan can hardly be recognized as effective and satisfactory. Many inappropriate examples that lack context are used in teaching and textbooks that may result in employees with low competence and insufficient ability for collaborative working. Students who grow up in this learning context usually lack the ability to seek information and solve problems by themselves. In this regard, the author redesigned a course and adopted online collaborative learning with initiation to establish the essential knowledge for students’ collaboration in the initial stage of a course. This study conducted an experiment that included 169 undergraduates from three class sections – the first two from an academic university (Case 1, n = 68; Case 2, n = 68) and the last one from a university of science and technology (Case 3, n = 33) – taught by the same teacher under the same course name and the same course website. The results show that students who received online collaborative learning with initiation had higher grades than those without. The author further discusses the implications for teachers, schools, and scholars who plan to provide online courses for their students, particularly computing courses.     

A successful interdisciplinary course on coputational intelligence

This article presents experiences from the introduction of a new three hour interdisciplinary course on computational intelligence (CI) taught at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This course is unique in the sense that it covers five main paradigms of CI and their integration to develop hybrid intelligent systems. The paradigms covered are artificial immune systems (AISs), evolutionary computing (EC), fuzzy systems (FSs), neural networks (NNs) and swarm intelligence (SI). While individual CI paradigms have been applied successfully to solve real-world problems, the current trend is to develop hybrids of these paradigms since no one paradigm is superior to any other for solving all types of problems. In doing so, respective strengths of individual components in a hybrid CI system are capitalized while their weaknesses are eliminated. This CI course is at the introductory level and the objective is to lead students to in-depth courses and specialization in a particular paradigm (AISs, EC, FSs, NNs, SI). The idea of an integrated and interdisciplinary course like this, especially at the undergraduate level, is to expose students to different CI paradigms at an early stage in their degree program and career. The curriculum, assessment, implementation, and impacts of an interdisciplinary CI course are described.     

《计算机操作系统》教学的改革

计算机操作系统是一门综合性课程,内容庞杂,涉及面广,使得该课程比其他专业课更加难教,学生也觉得更加难学.通过对《计算机操作系统》课程的特点、教学的现状进行详细的分析,提出了操作系统教学改革的思路.     

Managing programmed instruction and collaborative peer tutoring in the classroom: Applications in teaching Java™

To fulfill part of the course requirements, 34 undergraduate students in two courses completed an online programmed instruction tutor as the first technical training exercise in a Java™ programming course designed for information systems majors. The tutor taught a simple JApplet program to display a text string within a browser window on the Web. Students in the first course next participated in a collaborative peer tutoring session, based on the JApplet program, followed by a lecture on the program and by successfully running the program on the Web. For the second course, the peer tutoring session was scheduled after the lecture and after successfully running the program. Students in both courses completed tests of far transfer (“meaningful learning”) and software self-efficacy before using the tutor and on several subsequent occasions following that initial learning. Students in the second course also completed a 4-item scale to assess the development of classification and functionality knowledge regarding elements of the program. Students in both courses showed progressive improvement in all performance measures across the several assessment occasions. Students’ positive ratings of the effectiveness of both the tutor and the collaborative peer tutoring supported the value of these learning experiences in a technical knowledge domain. The results of this study, based on student performance observed within the context of the classroom, show the importance of providing a range of synergistic learning experiences that culminate in a level of skill and confidence that prepares and motivates all students for advanced instruction in Java. They also show how to manage the instructional techniques in the classroom to accomplish that educational outcome.