Education Commons^™

Personalizing Software Development Practice Using Mastery-Based Coaching, Chris Boesch, Sandra Boesch

Chris BOESCH

The authors previously developed a system to facilitate the self-directed learning and practicing of software languages in Singapore. One of the goals of this self-directed learning was to enable the development of student mentors who would then be able to assist other students during classroom sessions. Building on this work, the authors extended the platform to support personalized coaching with the goals of further enabling and preparing students to mentor their peers. This paper covers the challenges, insights, and features that were developed in order to develop and deploy this mastery-based coaching feature.

Automated Mentor Assignment In Blended Learning Environments, Chris Boesch, Kevin Steppe

Chris BOESCH

In this paper we discuss the addition of automatic assignment of mentors during inclass lab work to an existing online platform for programing practice. SingPath is an web based tool for users to practice programming in several software languages. The platform started as a tool to provide students with online feedback on solutions to programming problems and expanded over time to support different of blended learning needs for a variety of classes and classroom settings. The SingPath platform supports traditional self-directed learning mechanisms such as badges and completion metrics as well as features for use in classrooms, such as tournaments. …

Creating Adaptive Quests To Support Personalized Learning Experiences When Learning Software Languages, Chris Boesch, Sandra Boesch

Chris BOESCH

Over the past three years the authors have been developing and refining an online practicing platform called SingPath, which enables users to practice writing code in various software languages. The most recent feature to be released is a Quest mode that encourages users by showing short video clips each time a user solves five problems. In addition, users are able to choose whether to play through these quests on easy, medium, or hard levels of difficulty. The ability for users to customize their game play enables them to modify the difficulty of the experience and ideally self-regulate how frustrating or …

Tournament-Based Teaching, Shannon Christopher Boesch, Sandra Boesch

Chris BOESCH

Over the past two years we have collaborated to develop a process and set of online games to enable additional feedback to both students and instructors in a classroom setting. We have named the resulting process Tournament-based Teaching due to the extensive use of tournament-based feedback for groups and individuals throughout course delivery. Tournament-based Teaching enables individualized and peer-based learning in a classroom setting and provides additional motivation for students to prepare for classroom sessions. It also provides feedback to instructors, which can be leveraged to provide better schedule classroom sessions.

Adaptive Gameplay For Programming Practice, Chris Boesch, Sandra Boesch

Chris BOESCH

Over the past four years, we have collaborated to develop a set of online games to enable users to practice software languages in a self-directed manner and as part of a class. Recently we introduced a new adaptive difficulty feature that enables players to self-regulate the difficulty of the games they are playing to practice. These new features also provide additional information to further adapt the problem content to better meet the needs of the users.

Evolving An Information Systems Capstone Course To Align With The Fast Changing Singapore Marketplace, Chris Boesch, Benjamin Kok Siew Gan

Chris BOESCH

Every year, around fifty-five undergraduate teams of four to six students are required to complete a capstone course for the School of Information Systems at Singapore Management University. Each team spends approximately five months working with an industry sponsor using the latest tools and techniques. Students actively learn by implementing the system to solve a real world problem. In addition to delivering value to the local sponsor, our students learn specialized skills currently needed in the marketplace, which might not yet be incorporated into electives and core courses. In this paper, we discuss the tradeoffs of providing students and project …

Case Study On Using A Programming Practice Tool For Evaluating University Applicants, Shannon Christopher Boesch, Kevin Steppe

Chris BOESCH

We used a programming practice tool to test basic programming skills of prospective students. A live competition was used to test those skills. Students who did well were asked for further interviews. Most students had no prior background and reported learning the basics of two programming languages within two weeks of self-study.

Reasoning & Proof In The Hs Common Core, Laurie O. Cavey

Laurie O. Cavey

No abstract provided.

Meta-Analysis Of Type I Error Rates For Detecting Differential Item Functioning With Logistic Regression And Mantel-Haenszel In Monte Carlo Studies, Eva Van De Water Ph. D.

Eva Van De Water

Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when individuals from different groups who have equal levels of a latent trait fail to earn commensurate scores on a testing instrument. Type I error occurs when DIF-detection methods result in unbiased items being excluded from the test while a Type II error occurs when biased items remain on the test after DIF-detection methods have been employed. Both errors create potential issues of injustice amongst examinees and can result in costly and protracted legal action. The purpose of this research was to evaluate two methods for detecting DIF: logistic regression (LR) and Mantel-Haenszel (MH).

To …

Personality And Programming, Amy B. Woszczynski, Tracy C. Guthrie, Sherri Shade

Sherri Shade

Information systems students continue to struggle to successfully complete computer programming classes. Learning how to program is difficult, and failure and attrition rates in college level programming classes remain at an unacceptably high rate. Since many IS students take a programming course as part of their program of study, IS educators should better understand why IS students tend to achieve low success rates in programming courses and what can be done to improve success rates. Little research to date has addressed potential reasons for student failure in programming principles courses. Many educators simply assume that high failure rates are acceptable …

Session A-1: Problem Solving Through Graph Theory, Noah Prince

Noah Prince

Graph theory is an area of mathematics often not encountered before college, and not always even there. Nonetheless, it is full of problems that novices can quickly understand and begin to figure out. Often, sixty seconds of introduction to such a problem can lead to literally an hour of discussion as students engage in finding solutions. In this presentation, I will offer some sample problems and discuss how to use them with students in middle or high school.

Developing Transfer Skills In A Biochemistry Class, Jeong V. Choe

Jeong Choe

Students seem to struggle with transferring prior knowledge if the new problem they are given is in a different form from the way they learned the material. The process of transfer can be identified by four components: 1) recognizing the similarity between the old and new contexts; 2) identifying the potential of a certain skill or concept that has worked in the past, to give solutions to new problematic situations; 3) mental testing of the application of the potential solution; and 4) an attempt to apply the skill or concept to a new context (Georghiades 2000). These four components are …

Social Media As An Educational Tool In University Level Geography, Elizabeth Hundey

Beth J Hundey

Social media is not a passing fad—it is a new, versatile way of both information gathering and production. It is broadly defined as “networked tools that emphasize the social aspect of the Internet for communication, collaboration and creative expression” (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012). Although many courses have online components (e.g. WebCT or other learning management systems), it is arguable that we as educators are not taking advantage of mainstream (i.e. applications and sites that are not education specific) social media to its full potential in the classroom. This short paper offers an outline of a seminar discussing the uses of …

Classroom Polling Software For Use With Mobile And Web-Based Devices, Nick Renford, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The goal of this project is to create an interface for Android, iOS, and Win-dows Phone smartphones, as well as a web interface that will act as a “clicker”. The instructors will be able to send out questions, and the students will be able to answer the questions, and get feedback if the instructor wants them to have it. The teacher can decide whether the feedback is instant or manually initiated, and what format the response will be, whether it includes the correct answer, and what type of chart, if any, indicating the most com-monly selected answer(s). There will be …

Web-Based Student Peer Review: A Research Summary, Edward F. Gehringer

Edward F Gehringer

Interest in Web-based peer-review systems dates back nearly 20 years. Systems were built to let students give feedback to other students, mainly to help them improve their writing. But students are not necessarily effective peer reviewers. Left to their own devices, they will submit cursory reviews, which are not very helpful to their peers. Techniques have been developed to improve the quality of reviews. Calibration is one such technique. Students are asked to assess samples of writing that have previously been assessed by experts. Students must submit an evaluation “close enough” to the experts’ before they are allowed to review …

Phone And Web Based Clicker Project, Nick Renford, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The goal of this project is to create an interface for Android,

iOS, and Windows Phone smartphones, as well as a web

interface that will act as a “clicker”. The

instructors will be able to send out questions, and the

students will be able to answer the questions, and get

feedback if the instructor wants them to have it. The teacher

can decide whether the feedback is instant or manually

initiated, and what format the response will be, whether it

includes the correct answer, and what type of chart, if any,

indicating the most commonly selected answer(s). There

will be …

A Raspberry Pi-Based 3d Scanner, Cam Peterson, Pann Ajjimaporn, Jiaoni Wang, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents work on building a 3d scanner. A 3d scanner is a device that analyzes a real-world object to collect data on its shape and or appearance. The collected data can then be used to construct digital 3d models. The scanner is made up of 50 Raspberry Pi computer boards and cameras. We will construct 12 arms each holding four cameras per arm. The purpose of this is to be able to scan anything and produce a 3d model that we then would be able to send to the 3d printer or use in a video game or …

The Use Of The Roofsat For Computer Science And Engineering Education, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents an overview of a tool that has been created to provide students with real-world experience in the design, development and operation of control and scientific mission software for a cyber-physical system. The ROOFSAT, developed at UND, is a low-cost analog for a small spacecraft (though in many ways these capabilities also enable similar UAV work). The ROOFSAT was constructed with approximately $1,500 generously provided by the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences out of commercially-available parts. It includes multiple cameras, a pan-tilt mount and the same space-qualified computer hardware which has been used on both spacecraft …

Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps Resource Education Curriculum, Kristen Schulte, Ana Houseal

Kristen A Schulte

Our country’s first National Park is home to the Yellowstone’s Youth Conservation Corps (YELL-YCC), a residential youth employment program founded on service learning concepts implemented through stewardship projects. Education is an integrated into all projects, through the Resource Education Curriculum (REC). This curriculum consists of 17 one-hour lessons developed to enhance the YELL-YCC experience.

The REC was developed for 8th-12th grade students in outdoor settings, divided into groups of 4-6 students each, highlighting specific concepts related to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but is adaptable in group size, level, and content. The REC is divided into five themes: leadership, cultural heritage, …

Revisiting Fibonacci And Related Sequences, Arthur Benjamin, Jennifer Quinn

Jennifer J. Quinn

This issue focuses on proving several interesting facts about the Fibonacci Sequence using a combinatorial proof. The aim of Delving Deeper is for teachers to pose and solve novel math problems, expand on mathematical connections, or offer new insights into familiar math concepts. Delving Deeper focuses on mathematics content appealing to secondary school teachers. It provides a forum that allows classroom teachers to share their mathematics from their work with students, their classroom investigations and products, and their other experiences. Delving Deeper is a regular department of Mathematics Teacher.

The Impact Of Teachers’ Knowledge Of Group Theory On Early Algebra Teaching Practices, Nick Wasserman, Julianna Connelly Stockton

Julianna Connelly Stockton

No abstract provided.

Problem Based Learning In Engineering Education: Meeting The Needs Of Industry, Katarina Grolinger

Katarina Grolinger

Industry hires engineers primarily for solving workplace problems; consequently problem solving skills are an essential part of an engineering education. However, industry problems, as well as the environment engineers work in, are often quite different than what students experience at universities. This workshop explores problem based learning, the differences between problems students typically solve in the classroom and the workplace, as well as the strategies for making classroom problems emulate real-world workplace problems. As the main goal of engineering education is to prepare students for work in industry, closing the gap between classroom and workplace problems will result in better …

Compound Interest And The Power Of Saving, Richard H. Serlin

Richard H. Serlin

This is an article with an included assignment that I give to my personal finance 1 students. The first part talks about the power of compound interest. I go into depth about the intuition why it's so powerful, why it takes off, and has been called the eighth wonder of the world. I've haven't seen anywhere else an extensive explanation of the intuition like I have here.

In the second part I give the students a nice assignment to see how much their savings can grow if they invest even a modest amount consistently, month in and month out, in …

Learning Parametric Dictionaries For Signals On Graphs, D. Thanou, David Shuman, P. Frossard

David I Shuman

No abstract provided.

Tsu Faculty Research Interest Database, David Owerbach

David Owerbach

The TSU faculty research interest database was constructed by the Office of Research and was last updated on November 20, 2014.

Tsu Faculty Publication Database, David Owerbach

David Owerbach

THE TSU faculty publication database is for the years 2012-2014. The database was constructed by the Office of Research and was last updated on November 20, 2014.

Boundaries Of A Complex World, Isbn 978-3-662-49078-5 (2016), Andrei Ludu

Andrei Ludu