Education Commons^™

Information Technology And Computer Science Programs: How Do We Relate?, Bonnie K. Mackellar, Gregory Hislop, Mihaela C. Sabin, Amber Settle

Amber Settle

Cognitive Activity Support Tools: Design Of The Visual Interface, Paul Parsons

Paul Parsons

This dissertation is broadly concerned with interactive computational tools that support the performance of complex cognitive activities, examples of which are analytical reasoning, decision making, problem solving, sense making, forecasting, and learning. Examples of tools that support such activities are visualization-based tools in the areas of: education, information visualization, personal information management, statistics, and health informatics. Such tools enable access to information and data and, through interaction, enable a human-information discourse. In a more specific sense, this dissertation is concerned with the design of the visual interface of these tools. This dissertation presents a large and comprehensive theoretical framework to …

Preparing Computer Science Graduates For The 21st Century, Paul Parsons

Paul Parsons

The nature of computer use has changed remarkably in the past fifty years. However, most undergraduate computer science courses are still often taught through an old paradigm that is not adequate to address modern concerns. This 90 minute seminar will address some issues relevant to preparing computer scientists for the 21st century. These include issues central to human-computer interaction (HCI) such as cognitive and perceptual aspects of computer users, ergonomics, and human factors. Although there has been literature on this topic for at least the past 15 years, it is still not widely recognized nor understood by the majority of …

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Dr Daniel Edwards

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Dr Jacob Pearce

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Design And Implementation Of Satellite Software To Facilitate Future Cubesat Development, Timothy Whitney, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter project is a campus-wide effort at the University of North Dakota to design and build a low-cost CubeSat-class satellite. The intent is to create a publically- available framework that allows a spacecraft to be built with a parts cost of less than USD $5,000 (excluding mission payload-specific costs). This paper focuses on OpenOrbiter’s software system methodology and implementation.

Current work seeks to create a generalized framework that other CubeSat developers can use directly or alter to suit their mission needs. It discusses OpenOrbiter’s overall design goals with an emphasis on software design. The software architecture is divided into …

At Shu, Having Fun Learning Is Part Of The Game, Robert Mccloud

Robert McCloud

A collaborative team of faculty and students from across Sacred Heart University is developing a new recruiting and information tool aimed at introducing prospective and new students and their families to the University using media that today’s students are comfortable with—gaming technology. The project team, led by Robert McCloud, associate professor of computer sciences and information technology, includes several other faculty members with complementary skills such as 3D animation and digital motion, music composition and script writing.

Managing Multidisciplinary Student Design Teams, Martin Masek, Joo Jung, Barnard Clarkson

Martin Masek

The management of multidisciplinary student teams is a challenge. In this paper we describe our experience in running a shared assessment across several units. Four multidisciplinary teams were formed, and success was mixed, with one team splitting into two along discipline lines and all experiencing communication issues. The main management challenges that arose were based around difficulty in communication and the understanding of the other disciplines requirements. We outline the process we used to construct the shared assessment, and provide some insight in how the student groups dealt with issues that arose.

Technology Professional Development: Long-Term Effects On Teacher Self-Efficacy, George Watson

George R Watson

The West Virginia K-12 RuralNet Project was an NSF funded program to train inservice teachers on integrating the Internet into science and mathematics curriculum. The program involved training inservice teachers through an intensive summer workshop and supplemental online courses. This study examines the effects of the project on the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers and their use of the Internet in the classroom. The specific research questions addressed are: Do professional development programs affect the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers? Did the addition of online courses and follow-up to the program affect self-efficacy levels? Finally, do certain external factors, specifically …

Simulations In Prisons, Kim Read

Kim Read

A Computer Science Linked-Courses Learning Community, Amber Settle, John Lalor, Theresa Steinbach

Amber Settle

Course Outcome Prediction Using An Expert System, Michael Kuehn, Jared Estad, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

Determining how well a student will perform in a course based on their prior knowledge of the course material and other factors may help determine student placement and the need for remedial instruction. This poster presents work on the creation of an expert system that attempts to predict a student’s performance based on a pre-evaluation test and responses to background preparation questions. This work utilizes data from prior students to train and test the system.

Microblogging For Engaged Teaching And Learning, Thomas Menkhoff, Kok Siew Benjamin Gan, Charles Jason Woodard, Yue Wah Chay

C. Jason Woodard

In this paper, we report how we put a newly developed Twitter application to work in the context of a Knowledge Management course taught at the Singapore Management University (SMU) allowing students to post and view relevant tweets in an organized manner for the benefit of collaborative class discussions and learning. Innovative elements of the ongoing project include the explorative usage of social media such as Twitter in the higher education context, student participation in providing initial evidence and qualitative feedback that tweeting is pedagogically meaningful and a newly built-in feature which can resolve tweeting challenges which occurred in class …

Reconsidering The Impact Of Cs1 On Novice Attitudes, Amber Settle, John Lalor, Theresa Steinbach

Amber Settle

Cloud Computing Technology For Education Applications, Zhi-Xue Xu

Zhi-Xue Xu

Cloud Computing Technology and Big Data Applications have been connected strongly to our daily work and life. Some peoples think that Cloud Computing is fourth revolution in Information Technology. Cloud Computing Applications that like Utility Computing also have been applied, used and developed for education and Smart Virtual Cloud Campus creations. Cloud computing technology is changing IT application development method and format on campus, and challenge and reform to the current IT computer infrastructures and applications. The cloud computing technology for application development in education can build robust applications in a short time and lower cost. The Cloud Computing Technology …

Using Cognitive Load Theory To Select An Environment For Teaching Mobile Apps Development, Raina Mason, Graham Cooper, Simon, Barry Wilks

Raina Mason

After considering a number of environments for the development of apps for mobile devices, we have evaluated five in terms of their suitability for students early in their programming study. For some of the evaluation we devised an evaluation scheme based on the principles of cognitive load theory to assess the relative ease or difficulty of learning and using each environment. After briefly presenting the scheme, we discuss our results, including our findings about which mobile apps development environments appear to show most promise for early-level programming students.