Computer Sciences Commons^™

Mapcores 2013-2014 Assessment Report, Kristen Nairn, Pamela L. Bacon, Jim Crumley, Yu Zhang

MapCores Faculty Publications

This is a report showing the assessment results for the MapCores (MAthematics, Physics, COmputer science REsearch Scholars) program at the College of Saint Benedict. Started in 2009, MapCores is a cohort-based program designed to increase women's interest and achievement in mathematics, physics, computer science and engineering. The report was submitted for the National Science Foundation grant number 0965705.

A Computer-Based Approach For Identifying Student Conceptual Change, Junchao Yan

Open Access Theses

Misconceptions are commonly encountered in many areas of science and engineering where a to-be-learned concept conflicts with prior knowledge. Conceptual change is an approach for identifying and repairing the misconceptions. One of the ways to promote student conceptual change is providing students with ontological schema training. However, assessment of conceptual change relies on qualitative analysis of student responses. With the exponential growth of qualitative data in the form of graphical representations or written responses, the process of data analysis relying on human experts has become time-consuming and costly. This study took the advantages of natural language processing and machine learning …

Usability Testing Of The M.A.E.G.U.S. Serious Game, James He

Open Access Theses

Interpreting raw data in serious games and simulations can be a time consuming and uninteresting task without visualizations. This study proposes one possible solution for an interface that incorporates data visualizations for Whittinghill and Nataraja's (2013) MAEGUS simulation, a serious game used to increase the retention of wind energy and solar energy concepts in students, while still being fun. After the interface was designed and developed, a think aloud usability test was conducted to answer the following research questions: how do students use a series of information visualizations to operate a multi-variate game-based simulation and what are some the usability …

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

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

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. …

Teaching Analysis Of Software Designs Using Dependency Graph, Kevin Steppe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present the use of a new type of dependency graph to aid students in analyzing the modifiability of software designs. Though a variety of software design concepts, such as information hiding, separation of concerns and patterns are taught to undergraduate students, they often have difficulty applying these concepts to the analysis of designs and particularly to comparing designs, perhaps due to the subjective nature of these concepts. Our new technique complements design structure matrix and ‘uses’ techniques to handle asymmetric dependency impacts and provide a deterministic approach to comparing alternative designs. A major goal of this technique was for …

Google Chrome: More Than A Browser, Daniel E. Rivera

Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019) (Archived)

Chrome is more than a browser. It’s an operating system in itself, and it’s transforming the educational computing experience. Come learn about Chrome’s features such as data syncing across computers (bookmarks, passwords, settings, etc), and most importantly, Chrome-specific apps. Learn about Chromebooks as well - those powerful, fast, and cheap laptops that are spreading like wildfire.

Spring 2014

In The Loop

Hour of code inspires next generation of computer scientists; CDM students, faculty and alumni demystify mental health disorders; Study abroad intersession enhances global perspective; Double Demon brings Disney mobile games to life; Around the college; Accolades

Teaching Tip: The Flipped Classroom, Heng Ngee Mok

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The flipped classroom has been gaining popularity in recent years. In theory, flipping the classroom appears sound: passive learning activities such as unidirectional lectures are pushed to outside class hours in the form of videos, and precious class time is spent on active learning activities. Yet the courses for information systems (IS) undergraduates at the university that the author is teaching at are still conducted in the traditional lecture-in-class, homework-after-class style. In order to increase students’ engagement with the course content and to improve their experience with the course, the author implemented a trial of the flipped classroom model for …

Session E-4: Teach Students Robotics!, Pat Patankar

Professional Learning Day

In this session, we will discuss how to introduce your students to Robotics. We will talk about the programing environment, the hardware that is required, and the resources you'll need to get your program up and running. We will discuss how to acquire them. A number of them are free - and others can be obtained by the students themselves (in fact they may already have what they'll need!).

Livelabs: Building An In-Situ Real-Time Mobile Experimentation Testbed, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Archan Misra, Youngki Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present LiveLabs, a mobile experimentation testbed that is currently deployed across our university campus with further deployments at a large shopping mall, a commercial airport, and a resort island soon to follow. The key goal of LiveLabs is to allow in-situ real-time experimentation of mobile applications and services that require context-specific triggers with real participants on their actual smart phones. We describe how LiveLabs works, and then explain the novel R&D required to realise it. We end with a descriptionof the current LiveLabs status (> 700 active participants to date) as well as present some key lessons learned.

Automated Learner Classification Through Interface Event Stream And Summary Statistics Analysis, Edgar E. Troudt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Reading comprehension is predominately measured through multiple choice examinations. Yet, as we will discuss in this thesis, such exams are often criticized for their inaccuracies. With the advent of "big data" and the rise of ITS (Intelligent Tutoring Systems), increasing focus will be placed on finding dynamic, automated ways of measuring students' aptitude and progress.

This work takes the first step towards automated learner classification based on the application of graphic organizers. We address the following specific problem experimentally: How effectively can we measure task comprehension via human translation of written text into a visual representation on a computer? Can …

Cleaning Data Helps Clean The Air, Kelley Donalds, Xiangrong Liu

Management Faculty Publications

In this project, students use a real-world, complex database and experience firsthand the consequences of inadequate data modeling. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the database as part of a multimillion dollar data collection effort undertaken in order to set limits on air pollutants from electric power plants. First, students explore the database to identify design limitations from the perspective of a data analyst with a specific goal. Second, students create a new database design which overcomes identified problems. Through this case study, students develop the skill to infer usage implications by studying the design of an existing database. This …

Networks Of Users And Powers: Blackboard Software Roadmap As Cultural Practice, Diana Gellci

Wayne State University Dissertations

With the rapid growth of eLearning applications - the software providing for learning through the Internet - it has become commonplace to describe those technologies as both simple tools and user-friendly. These two vague yet suggestive terms make the operating of the technology appear as social value and any related issues as a user's problem. Interested neo-liberal groups take a step further when considering eLearning technologies as the solution for the problems faced in the field. STS studies recognize that technology fetishism is strategically employed to justify the latest developments of capitalism as technological and logical.

This doctoral study examines …

Introduction To Parallel Computation, Clinton Mckay

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Introduction to Parallel Computing is a course designed to educate students on how to use the parallel libraries and tools provided by modern operating systems and massively parallel computer graphics hardware.

Using a series of lectures and hands-on exercises. Students will learn about parallel algorithms and concepts that will aid them in analyzing a problem and constructing a parallel solution, if possible, using the tools available to their disposal.

The course consists of lectures, projects, quizzes, and homework. The combination of these components will deliver the necessary domain knowledge to students, test them, and in the process train them to …

A Study Of The 8th Grade Technology Literacy Of A Michigan Charter School, James Edward Spruill

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

As states adopt the common core state standards and next generation assessments for the 2014 - 2015 school year, the importance of students' technology literacy will increase Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The next generation assessments will require students to complete technology performance tasks. For the first time in mandatory testing, students' technology literacy will directly impact a school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rating. Technology literacy is defined as the ability to operate hardware and software (computer literacy), conduct effective research for and then evaluate digital content for accuracy and merit (internet and information literacy), and digitally communicate effectively(digital media literacy). …

Exploratory Study Of Student Instructional Choice In Online Learning, Andrew Hurd

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This exploratory study considers choice theory, decision theory, and the constructivist theory of education to explore college-level computer science learners' behavior when presented with multiple instructional modes (instructional methods for the presentation of course content, such as video, text, audio, animation, etc.) in an online learning environment.

Prelude - An Augmented Reality Ios Application For Music Education, Kristen Brown

Honors Projects

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology which serves to enhance the real world environment through the addition of relevant digital content, and has many potential applications within a variety of different fields, including, but not limited to, fields such as marketing, entertainment, medicine, and education. The purpose of this project is to develop an iOS augmented reality application for music educators that will serve as a tool in teaching students to recognize specific music notes and symbols.

Proceedings Of The 1st Annual Cuny Games Festival, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Francesco Crocco, Carlos Hernandez, Kathleen Offenholley, Leah Potter, Maura A. Smale, Cuny Games Network

Publications and Research

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 17-18, 2014, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Topics in Game Design - Teaching with Virtual and Augmented Realities - Writing with Games - Breaking the Magic Circle: Games & Real Life - Interactive Game Design (What's Your Game Plan? - Designing Ethical Games - Games and Gender - Gaming English Language and Literature - Game, Narrative, Literacy - Teaching with Games - Games, Storytelling, and Narrative - Games and STEM - Learning by Design - Students as Game Designers - Experiencing Reality in Popular Games …

Nursing Pain Assessment & Management: A 3d Interactive Simulation, Enilda Romero-Hall, Ginger S. Watson, Yiannis Papelis, Hector Garcia

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In this design case, a team developed a 3D interactive simulation for nursing students and professional nurses to train and practice pain assessment and management procedures. In the simulation environment, the trainees interact with three emotionally expressive animated patients. The three patients vary in their ethnicity, age, and emotion intensity. Successful completion of the scenario requires that the trainee perform of a series of pain assessment and management tasks. The trainee is evaluated on the efficiency and appropriate sequencing of the tasks.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the decisions made regarding the type of virtual patients used, …

Peering Into The Discourse Of Industrial Design Training Through A Sustainability Lens, Norman M. Su, Haodan Tan, Eli Blevis

Design Thinking Research Symposium

Now well established in HCI, the lens of sustainability may be applied to educational practices in industrial design and interaction design. By sustainability, we mean to include notions of mitigation of the environmental effects of climate change. In this paper, we present an analysis of student projects in a junior and senior industrial design class dataset. Drawing from discourse analysis, we examine how the industrial design classroom serves as a space to socially construct the philosophies and goals inherent in “good” design. We then examine how the lens of sustainability is implicated into the industrial design “way” as espoused by …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2013, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Exploring The Implications Of Tutor Negativity Towards A Synthetic Agent In A Learning-By-Teaching Environment, Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

We examine the implications of negativity in free-form dialogue between student tutors and a synthetic agent in APLUS, a learning-by-teaching online learning environment for Algebra. We attempt to determine whether the negativity of a student tutor's discourse with the agent indicates that the student is learning more or less of the material and whether the feedback they give the synthetic agent is more or less accurate. We found a weak negative correlation between tutor negativity and learning gains and a strong negative correlation between tutor negativity and accuracy of feedback. Negativity might indeed indicate that student tutors lack mastery of …

A Local Social Network Approach For Research Management, Xiaoyan Liu, Zhiling Guo, Zhenjiang Lin, Jian Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditional methods to evaluate research performance focus on citation count, quality and quantity of research output by individual researchers. These measures overlook the roles an individual plays in research collaboration, which is critical in an institutional research management environment due to the inherent interdependency among research entities. In order to address the organizational research management needs, we propose a research social network approach to better analyze local collaboration networks. For this purpose, we develop a new “collaboration supportiveness” measure to quantify an individual researcher's collaboration ability. Insights derived from this research are very helpful for managers to effectively allocate resources, …

Singapore Management University Wins Inaugural Teradata University Network Teaching Innovation Award, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Teradata Corporation, a leading global provider of analytic data platforms, marketing applications and analytics related consulting services, announced today the winner of the 2013 Teradata University Network (TUN) Teaching Innovation Award. Associate Professor Michelle Cheong and Mr Murphy Choy from the School of Information Systems at Singapore Management University (SMU) received the Award for their teaching case on "Effective Use of Data & Decision Analytics to Improve Order Distribution in a Supply Chain".

Workforce Preparedness Of Information Systems Students: Perceptions Of Students, Alumni, And Employers, Susan Bristow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employers of newly hired higher education graduates report their new workforce is not prepared. Further research was required to discover insights to the workforce readiness gap. This concurrent mixed methods study explored what competencies influenced employer's perceptions of the work-readiness of Information Systems (ISYS) undergraduate students and discovered ISYS graduates' and current ISYS students' perceptions of their work-readiness. Participants consisted of a convenience sample including 69 ISYS program upperclassmen, 20 ISYS program alumni, and 8 employers of the ISYS program graduates. ISYS program alumni completed an online Qualtrics survey to measure the participants' perception of their workforce preparedness. ISYS program …

The Effects Of Self-Explanation And Reading Questions And Answers On Learning Computer Programming Language, Nancy Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study explored the differential effects of two learning strategies, self-explanation and reading questions and answers, on students' test performance in the computer programming language JavaScript. Students' perceptions toward the two strategies as to their effectiveness in learning JavaScript was also explored by examining students' preferred strategy and the reasons for their choice. An online interactive tutorial instruction that implemented worked-examples and multimedia learning principles was developed for this study. A total of 147 high school students (ages ranging from 14 to 17) who were taking a Computer Introduction course participated in this study. The course was offered in …

Meeting Minutes, Wku University Senate

Faculty Senate

Meeting regarding meeting procedures, budget, faculty vacancies, accreditation, Information Technology policies, electronic mail, Colonnade plan, SITE evaluations, and faculty governance.

Adaptive Gameplay For Programming Practice, Chris Boesch, Sandra Boesch

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

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.

Fall 2013

In The Loop

Q&A with Dean Miller; College snapshot; Fear and loathing at the Premiere Film Festival 2013; The elephant in the virtual reality room; Cinespace collaboration yields 20,000-square-foot classroom; CDM launches alumna into the world of software and beyond; Many Dreams, One mission campaign for DePaul University; Around the college; Accolades

Development Of A Jobs Database For Tracking Knowledge And Skills Expectations In The Workplace, Esa M. Rantanen, Christopher Claeys, Daniel Roder

Articles

The primary objective of college education in applied disciplines is that it is relevant to the expectations for new professionals entering the labor market. Academic institutions should therefore pay close attention to the ever-changing skills and knowledge expectations in the labor market. These trends are not easy to track, however. Surveys of new professionals about their experiences in their first jobs or surveys of employers about their experiences with new hires suffer from low response rates, nonresponse bias, and the one-time nature of survey research. A better way to track labor market trends is to continually analyze human factors job …