Education Commons^™

The Seven Layers Of Complexity Of Recommender Systems For Children In Educational Contexts, Emiliana Murgia, Monica Landoni, Theo Huibers, Jerry Alan Fails, Maria Soledad Pera

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recommender systems (RS) in their majority focus on an average target user: adults. We argue that for non-traditional populations in specific contexts, the task is not as straightforward–we must look beyond existing recommendation algorithms, premises for interface design, and standard evaluation metrics and frameworks. We explore the complexity of RS in an educational context for which young children are the target audience. The aim of this position paper is to spell out, label, and organize the specific layers of complexity observed in this context.

The Role Of Data Analytics In Education: Possibilities & Limitations, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In the last decade, we have seen dramatic increases in the integration of technology within education. It has now become commonplace for K-5 educators to apply learning management systems (LMS) in ways that were previously only seen in higher education contexts. Similarly, on the higher education side, we are seeing a significant increase in online learning evidenced by the growing number of for-profit online colleges and universities (Picciano, 2012). This chapter utilizes Khan’s Learning Framework (Khan, 2001, 2005) to explore the role data analytics can play in education by looking at the possibilities and limitations of analytics.

Using Case Studies To Teach Cybersecurity Courses, Yu Cai

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

This paper introduces a holistic and case-analysis teaching model by integrating case studies into cybersecurity courses. The proposed model starts by analyzing real-world cyber breaches. Students look into the details of these attacks and learn how these attacks took place from the beginning to the end. During the process of case analysis, a list of security topics reflecting different aspects of these breaches is introduced. Through guided in-class discussion and hands-on lab assignments, student learning in lecture will be reinforced. Overall, the entire cybersecurity course is driven by case studies. The proposed model is great for teaching cybersecurity. First, the …

Code4her Spring 2018, Rebeccah Knoop

Honors Projects

CODE4her is a mentorship program with a goal of sparking interest in computer science organized by the BGSU Women in Computing (BGWIC) student organization. Participation is open to middle school girls (grades 5-8), and participants are paired with BGWIC members who serve as mentors.

Cybersecurity In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Computer Access And Online Safety, Andrew Malecki

Cyber Security Capstone Research Project Reports

According to ISACA, there will be a global shortage of 2 million cybersecurity professionals worldwide by 2019. Additionally, according to Experian Data Breach Resolution, as much as 80% of all network breaches can be traced to employee negligence. These problems will not solve themselves, and they likewise won’t improve without drastic action. An effort needs to be made to help direct interested and qualified individuals to the field of cybersecurity to move toward closing this gap. Moreover, steps need to be made to better inform the public of general safety measures while online, including the safeguarding of sensitive information.

A …

Model Ai Assignments 2018, Todd W. Neller, Zack Butler, Nate Derbinsky, Heidi Furey, Fred Martin, Michael Guerzhoy, Ariel Anders, Joshua Eckroth

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The Model AI Assignments session seeks to gather and disseminate the best assignment designs of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education community. Recognizing that assignments form the core of student learning experience, we here present abstracts of seven AI assignments from the 2018 session that are easily adoptable, playfully engaging, and flexible for a variety of instructor needs. Assignment specifications and supporting resources may be found at http://modelai.gettysburg.edu.

Game Design & Development Curriculum: History & Future Directions, Elizabeth L. Lawley, Roger Altizer, Tracy Fullerton, Andrew Phelps, Constance Steinkuehler

Presentations and other scholarship

It has been nearly twenty years since the first undergraduate degree program in computer game development was established in 1998. Since that time, the number and size of programs in game design and development have grown at a rapid pace. While there were early efforts to establish curricular guidelines for the field, these face a number of challenges given the diverse range of academic homes for game-related programs. This panel will address the history of curricular development in the field, both in individual programs and across institutions. It will also explore the potential risks and rewards of developing curricular and/or …

Mining Capstone Project Wikis For Knowledge Discovery, Swapna Gottipati, Venky Shankararaman, Melvrivk Goh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Wikis are widely used collaborative environments as sources of information and knowledge. The facilitate students to engage in collaboration and share information among members and enable collaborative learning. In particular, Wikis play an important role in capstone projects. Wikis aid in various project related tasks and aid to organize information and share. Mining project Wikis is critical to understand the students learning and latest trends in industry. Mining Wikis is useful to educationists and academicians for decision-making about how to modify the educational environment to improve student's learning. The main challenge is that the content or data in project Wikis …

Music Times: A Music Learning Game, Emily Woo

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Music Times is a two dimensional educational video game with the purpose of gamifying learning of musical concepts. It has elements of adventure and visual novel games, and incentivizes the player to learn music to explore new levels. It is developed in the Unity game engine, scripted in C#, and targeted for mobile devices. It has six working levels: three lesson levels and three corresponding challenge levels. Each level contains slight differences in visual and aural feel.

Playful Ai Education, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this talk, Neller shared how games can serve as a fun means of teaching not only game-tree search in Artificial Intelligence (AI), but also such diverse topics as constraint satisfaction, logical reasoning, planning, uncertain reasoning, machine learning, and robotics. He observed that teachers teach best when they enjoy what they share and encouraged AI educators present to teach to their unique strengths and enthusiasms.

Guest Editors' Introduction: Research On Equity And Sustained Participation In Engineering, Computing, And Technology, Tiffany Barnes, Jamie Payton, George K. Thiruvathukal, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Jeff Forbes

George K. Thiruvathukal

The guest editors introduce best papers on broadening participation in computing from the RESPECT'15 conference. The five articles presented here are part one of a two-part series representing research on broadening participation in computing at all levels of education: from K-12 schools through graduate school, with a focus on diversity with regard to gender, race, and ethnicity.

The Need For Research In Broadening Participation, Tiffany Barnes, George K. Thiruvathukal

George K. Thiruvathukal

Underrepresentation in computing is a global problem, marked by a disturbing lack of access to computing resources and education among people underrepresented by race, ethnicity, gender, income, disability, and sexual-orientation status. It is urgent that we address this divide between those with and without the knowledge to create computational artifacts or even basic functional literacy. Important alliances for broadening participation (BP) are catalyzing efforts to engage more people in computing, but they are not enough. We need solid research as well.

Ai Education: Open-Access Educational Resources On Ai, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Open-access AI educational resources are vital to the quality of the AI education we offer. Avoiding the reinvention of wheels is especially important to us because of the special challenges of AI Education. AI could be said to be “the really interesting miscellaneous pile of Computer Science”. While “artificial” is well-understood to encompass engineered artifacts, “intelligence” could be said to encompass any sufficiently difficult problem as would require an intelligent approach and yet does not fall neatly into established Computer Science subdisciplines. Thus AI consists of so many diverse topics that we would be hard-pressed to individually create quality learning …

Planning And Implementing A Successful Nsa-Nsf Gencyber Summer Cyber Academy, Bryson R. Payne, Tamirat Abegaz, Keith Antonia

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The GenCyber program is jointly sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help faculty and cybersecurity experts provide summer cybersecurity camp experiences for K-12 students and teachers. The main objective of the program is to attract, educate, and motivate a new generation of young men and women to help address the nationwide shortage of trained cybersecurity professionals. The curriculum is flexible and centers on ten cybersecurity first principles. Currently, GenCyber provides cyber camp options for three types of audiences: students, teachers, and a combination of both teachers and students. In 2016, over 120 …

Bgsu Minecraft Initiative Website, Jacob Gusching

Honors Projects

A website for the BGSU Minecraft Initiative, a program that uses Minecraft as an educational tool to engage younger students to learn. This website is a communication tool to showcase the work of BGSU students and to spread the knowledge and lesson to plans to interested parties.

Lightcraft Previzion In Distance Education, Perry L. Cox

Open Access Theses

Visual Effects has continued to progress at an astonishing rate and green screen technology can be seen in all aspects of the video industry from Hollywood blockbusters down to training videos and distance education.

As video technology has increased, so has the quality and capability of distance education. Purdue University has set itself to be at the forefront of distance education. This study looked to evaluate Purdue's investment in the Lightcraft Technology's Previzion system and its impact on distance education at Purdue. There were 65 initial participants and this study compared the impact of two separate videos on their learning. …

Students' Explanations In Complex Learning Of Disciplinary Programming, Camilo Vieira

Open Access Dissertations

Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) has been denominated as the third pillar of science and as a set of important skills to solve the problems of a global society. Along with the theoretical and the experimental approaches, computation offers a third alternative to solve complex problems that require processing large amounts of data, or representing complex phenomena that are not easy to experiment with. Despite the relevance of CSE, current professionals and scientists are not well prepared to take advantage of this set of tools and methods. Computation is usually taught in an isolated way from engineering disciplines, and therefore, …

A Usability Assessment For A Career Planning Educational Video Game, Jiaqi Wang

Open Access Theses

This study focused on the design, implementation and usability assessment of an educational 2D iPad job matching game The Place You’ll Go (TPYG), which meant for matching student skill sets with career profiles. The development of the game is conducted in collaboration with Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management and Polytech Institute. A total of 7 subjects, as high school teachers, participated in the usability study. TPYG as one possible solution for job matching data visualization, did not provide players with a good experience. However, conclusions and findings can be used in similar education game development. Based on survey and …

Practice And Refactoring Log: A Reflection Based Learning Strategy To Improve The Fluency Of Computing Students In Writing Computer Programs, Elizabeth Dancy, El Sayed Mahmoud

Faculty Publications and Scholarship

The relationship between reflection and learning is evident. Reflection plays a significant role in learning by encouraging insight and complex learning. However, most students consider their work experiences at school as isolated and unrelated events. This work aims to investigate how to improve the students’ fluency in writing computer programs through reflection. A new deliverable, the Practice and Refactoring Log (“PAR Log”), is requested for each assignment in order to engage students in the process of making meaning from their experiences when completing their assignments. The PAR Log shows and justifies all changes through the assignment development cycle. Two student …

Examining Bridges Between Informal And Formal Learning Environments: A Sequential Mixed Method Design, Dagen L. Valentine

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Scholarship

The purpose of this sequential mixed method study was to identify schools implementing a technology-based engineering design intervention in a way that connects or bridges formal learning environments of the school-day to informal learning environments such as afterschool programs. Further, this study investigated educators’ decisions that enabled or facilitated bridging between formal and informal learning environments. This cooperation and/or linking between informal and formal learning time is bridging. Participants included public schools (n=16) in Eastern Nebraska that incorporated the Nebraska Wearables Technology (WearTec) program at their school, club or Out-of-School-Time program during the 2015-2016 school year. Three of the schools …

Enhancing The Campus Experience: Helping International Students To Adapt To North American Campus Life, Qiaoying Wang

Open Access Theses

This thesis investigates how culture adaption topic can be applied to a design solution by enhancing international students experience on North American campus. Each year more than half a million international students enroll in American colleges and universities. Many will spend several years on a campus working toward their degree. Most of them arrive with clear academic goals, but they may have no clue what their social lives will be like. In that case, a common phenomenon that most of the international students need to get along with is called “Culture Shock”, which involves culture and academic adapting difficulties, limited …

Guest Editors' Introduction: Research On Equity And Sustained Participation In Engineering, Computing, And Technology, Tiffany Barnes, Jamie Payton, George K. Thiruvathukal, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, Jeff Forbes

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The guest editors introduce best papers on broadening participation in computing from the RESPECT'15 conference. The five articles presented here are part one of a two-part series representing research on broadening participation in computing at all levels of education: from K-12 schools through graduate school, with a focus on diversity with regard to gender, race, and ethnicity.

The Need For Research In Broadening Participation, Tiffany Barnes, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Underrepresentation in computing is a global problem, marked by a disturbing lack of access to computing resources and education among people underrepresented by race, ethnicity, gender, income, disability, and sexual-orientation status. It is urgent that we address this divide between those with and without the knowledge to create computational artifacts or even basic functional literacy. Important alliances for broadening participation (BP) are catalyzing efforts to engage more people in computing, but they are not enough. We need solid research as well.

Teaching Presence And Intellectual Climate In A Structured Online Learning Environment, Janice Marie Orcutt

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Teaching presence and its implications for the intellectual climate of an online classroom cannot be fully understood unless explored from the perspective of the instructors who experience it. Framed in the theoretical perspective of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, this collective case study investigated the actions, intentions and perceptions of instructors with the intent of developing an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of teaching presence as it was established in a structured online learning environment.

The experiences of selected successful instructors in this specific online context were explored to gain insight on how pedagogical choices influenced the establishment of …

Blended Learning For Faculty Professional Development Incorporating Knowledge Management Principles, Julie E. Hewitt

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Adjunct faculty comprise a large percentage of part-time faculty for many colleges and universities today. Adjunct faculty are hired because they are experts in their content areas; however, this does not guarantee that they are skilled in effective classroom management. These instructors can become bewildered and frustrated because they lack the knowledge and skills that are needed to run an effective classroom.

While educational organizations have adopted blended learning environments as an effective delivery method for their students, this method has not gained much traction as a way to deliver instruction to their own employees. Thus, there are opportunities to …

Use Of Student Created Video Podcasts To Promote Foreign Language Grammar Acquisition In Middle School, Sergio Parra

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The use of video podcasts in education has emerged as a phenomenon that has gained a considerable amount of attention over the last few years. Although video podcasting is becoming a well-established technology in higher education, new multimedia instructional strategies such as student-created video podcasts in grades K-12 are under-researched.

The study investigated the effects of video podcasts created by students to promote foreign language grammar acquisition at the middle school level and find how students described such experience. The current investigation was conducted by using the explanatory sequential design, which is a mixed methods research design that occurs in …

Design And Evaluation Of The Impact Of A Multi-Agent Control System (Framework) Applied To A Social Setting, Perez Antonio Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this research is to design and analyze the performance of a new mechanism to improve the advising of students in a nontraditional environment. This nontraditional environment includes: a minority serving, commuter campus with a high percentage of transfer students. Specifically, these demographics are unable to keep a tightly controlled cohort of students flowing through to the completion of the curriculum. Students in these circumstances usually have varied course loads and competing priorities due to family and financial needs or other societal responsibilities. Therefore, there is a need for an individualized approach to advising.

University administrations face challenges …

To The Memory Of R. Freivalds, Efim Kinber

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

The paper contains author’s memories of his mentor and teacher R. M. Freivalds.

Computing Language And Thinking: Analysis, Design, And Assessment Of Introductory Computer Science Workshops In The Liberal Arts Experience, Kathleen Teresa Burke

Senior Projects Spring 2016

This project seeks to assess and improve upon a new required introductory computer science workshop for first year students at Bard College. It addresses the design and implementation of the course itself, along with the improvements needed in order to continue the program. Many students are not offered computer science courses prior to college; this program has been designed to remedy that by requiring all students to learn key concepts in computer science as a part of their orientation. The program consists of a 90 minute lesson taught by professors with expertise in fields outside of computer science, in addition …

Effects Of Visualization On Algorithm Comprehension, Matthew Mulvey

Theses and Dissertations

Computer science students are expected to learn and apply a variety of core algorithms which are an essential part of the field. Any one of these algorithms by itself is not necessarily extremely complex, but remembering the large variety of algorithms and the differences between them is challenging. To address this challenge, we present a novel algorithm visualization tool designed to enhance students understanding of Dijkstra’s algorithm by allowing them to discover the rules of the algorithm for themselves. It is hoped that a deeper understanding of the algorithm will help students correctly select, adapt and apply the appropriate algorithm …