Other Computer Sciences Commons^™

Using Magic To Teach Computer Programming, Dale F. Reed, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Magic can be used in project-based instruction to motivate students and provide a meaningful context for learning computer programming. This work describes several magic programs of the “Choose a Number” and “Pick a Card” varieties, making connections to underlying computing concepts.

Magic tricks presented as demonstrations and programming assignments elicit wonder and captivate students’ attention, so that students want to understand and replicate the work to show it to friends and family members. Capturing student interest and curiosity motivates them to learn the underlying programming concepts.

Two “Choose a Number” programs are shown where the computer is able to identify …

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

Advancing Towards A More Complete Sign Language Detection Application, Shane Angel

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The goal of this capstone is to improve the experiences of Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals who use teleconferencing tools through the use of sign language detection software. Popular teleconferencing applications such as Zoom and Google Meet contain features that can automatically spotlight users when they are speaking, but there is currently no equivalent feature for those who used signed languages to communicate on these platforms. Such a feature would need to utilize a sign language detection program to spotlight individuals, but this technology is early in development and is not currently available for large-scale implementation. This capstone strives …

The Effect Of Using The Gamification Strategy On Academic Achievement And Motivation Towards Learning Problem-Solving Skills In Computer And Information Technology Course Among Tenth Grade Female Students, Mazyunah Almutairi, Prof. Ahmad Almassaad

International Journal for Research in Education

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the effect of using the gamification strategy on academic achievement and motivation towards learning problem-solving skills in computer and information technology course. A quasi-experimental method was adopted. The study population included tenth-grade female students in Al-Badi’ah schools in Riyadh. The sample consisted of 54 students divided into two equal groups: control group and experimental group. The study tools comprised an achievement test and the motivation scale. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences between the two groups in the academic achievement test in favor of the experimental group, with a large effect …

A Virtual Physics Laboratory For Remote/Online Learning, Themistoklis Chronis

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

A Longitudinal Analysis Of Pathways To Computing Careers: Defining Broadening Participation In Computing (Bpc) Success With A Rearview Lens, Mercy Jaiyeola

Theses and Dissertations

Efforts to increase the participation of groups historically underrepresented in computing studies, and in the computing workforce, are well documented. It is a national effort with funding from a variety of sources being allocated to research in broadening participation in computing (BPC). Many of the BPC efforts are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) but as existing literature shows, the growth in representation of traditionally underrepresented minorities and women is not commensurate to the efforts and resources that have been directed toward this aim.

Instead of attempting to tackle the barriers to increasing representation, this dissertation research tackles the …

Video Games And Their Potential As Literacy Tools, Jessica Reich

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Video games are an essential part of emergent popular culture, with millions playing games every day. With how popular gaming has become, it is logical to research its full potential as a literacy tool both inside and outside the classroom. This thesis contributes to the discussion of the importance and potential of video games as a literacy tool that can be utilized educationally and through gaming at home. This thesis includes a section for gaming definitions, a literature review on research on video games and their impact on education and literacy skill development, a discussion of video game narratives, and …

Cybersecurity Education For Non-Technical Learners, Matthew Mcnulty

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Today’s world is increasingly reliant on technology for school, work, entertainment, and general home use. Many jobs today could not be performed without the use of computer systems or other technology. As lives become intertwined with technology, everyone will inevitably encounter malicious, vulnerable, or privacy-compromising devices or services. Unfortunately, knowledge of how to deal with these cybersecurity and privacy issues is not something that falls within the domain of common knowledge for the everyday person. Additionally, there is a lack of work being done to understand the educational needs of various groups within the general public and educate them. This …

The Design, Development, And Determination Of A Virtual Reality Classroom, Victoria Alexxis Reddington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the way students learn and engage with their peers and instructors. Likewise, instructors have had to quickly transform their course materials to suit the online classroom format. Results from a survey of students and instructors at the University of Denver revealed that perceived levels of learning and collaboration were lessened with the transition to online learning. Moreover, the sense of presence in an educational atmosphere with other individuals was reported to be significantly stronger in a real physical classroom, as compared to an online classroom. This thesis therefore seeks to provide a new, alternative …

Homo Ludens Moralis: Designing And Developing A Board Game To Teach Ethics For Ict Education, Damian Gordon, Dympna O'Sullivan, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Andrea Curley

Conference papers

The ICT ethical landscape is changing at an astonishing rate, as technologies become more complex, and people choose to interact with them in new and distinct ways, the resultant interactions are more novel and less easy to categorise using traditional ethical frameworks. It is vitally important that the developers of these technologies do not live in an ethical vacuum; that they think about the uses and abuses of their creations, and take some measures to prevent others being harmed by their work.

To equip these developers to rise to this challenge and to create a positive future for the use …

Evolution Of Computational Thinking Contextualized In A Teacher-Student Collaborative Learning Environment., John Arthur Underwood

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The discussion of Computational Thinking as a pedagogical concept is now essential as it has found itself integrated into the core science disciplines with its inclusion in all of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2018). The need for a practical and functional definition for teacher practitioners is a driving point for many recent research endeavors. Across the United States school systems are currently seeking new methods for expanding their students’ ability to analytically think and to employee real-world problem-solving strategies (Hopson, Simms, and Knezek, 2001). The need for STEM trained individuals crosses both the vocational certified and college degreed …

A Pilot Study On The Impact Of Teaching Assistant Led Cs1 Study Sessions Using Peer Instruction, Megan E. Gilbert

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

James Madison University’s Computer Science program strives to be a student-centered learning environment with a focus on creating a community for undergraduate success. National data reveals computer science has the lowest student retention rate compared to other STEM majors. The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) has compiled a list of ways to retain students in Computer Science. In particular, NCWIT calls for collaboration indicate that “a sense of belonging, or a feeling of fit, is important for supporting student interest and persistence.” One aspect of creating community is the department’s longstanding commitment to provide undergraduate teaching assistants …

Faculty Perceptions Of Open Educational Resources In Cyber Curriculum: A Pilot Study, Alan Stines

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

The cyber landscape is growing and evolving at a fast pace. Public and private industries need qualified applicants to protect and defend information systems that drive the digital economy. Currently, there are not enough candidates in the pipeline to fill this need in the workforce. The digital economy is still growing, thus presenting an even greater need for skilled workers in the future. The lack of a strong workforce in cybersecurity presents many challenges to safeguarding U.S. national security and citizens across the world. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines Open Educational Resources (OER) as teaching, learning, and research …

The Stained Glass Of Knowledge: On Understanding Novice Mental Models Of Computing, Briana Christina Bettin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Learning to program can be a novel experience. The rigidity of programming can be at odds with beginning programmer's existing perceptions, and the concepts can feel entirely unfamiliar. These observations motivated this research, which explores two major questions: What factors influence how novices learn programming? and How can analogy by more appropriately leveraged in programming education?

This dissertation investigates the factors influencing novice programming through multiple methods. The CS1 classroom is observed as a "whole system", with consideration to the factors present in it that can influence the learning process. Learning's cognitive processes are elaborated to ground exploration into specifically …

Read And Publish: What Can Libraries Expect?, Josh Horowitz

Charleston Library Conference

The author provides a publisher's perspective on the challenges and opportunities faced by a mid-sized society in navigating the current transition to open access licensing models.

Teaching Young Learners Computational Thinking, Tingxuan Li, Shengwei An, Xuan Wang, Hengrong Du, Guanhong Tao

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

Nbgrader: A Tool For Creating And Grading Assignments In The Jupyter Notebook, Douglas S. Blank, Project Jupyter, David Bourgin, Alexander Brown, Matthias Bussonnier, Jonathan Frederic, Brian Granger, Thomas L. Griffiths, Jessica Hamrick, Kyle Kelley, M Pacer, Logan Page, Fernando Pérez, Benjamin Ragan-Kelley, Jordan W. Suchow, Carol Willing

Computer Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Agent-Based Modeling And Simulation Approaches In Stem Education Research, Shanna R. Simpson-Singleton, Xiangdong Che

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The development of best practices that deliver quality STEM education to all students, while minimizing achievement gaps, have been solicited by several national agencies. ABMS is a feasible approach to provide insight into global behavior based upon the interactions amongst agents and environments. In this review, we systematically surveyed several modeling and simulation approaches and discussed their applications to the evaluation of relevant theories in STEM education. It was found that ABMS is optimal to simulate STEM education hypotheses, as ABMS will sensibly present emergent theories and causation in STEM education phenomena if the model is properly validated and calibrated.

Girls Who Code 3rd-5th, Khristina Polivanov

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

The goal of the club is to encourage girls to be confident in themselves and their abilities while teaching them basic concepts used in computer science.

An Examination Of Factors Correlating With Course Failure In A High School Computer Science Course, Steven Mcgee, Ronald I. Greenberg, Lucia Dettori, Andrew M. Rasmussen, Randi Mcgee-Tekula, Jennifer Duck, Erica Wheeler

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Across the United States, enrollment in high school computer science (CS) courses is increasing. These increases, however, are not spread evenly across race and gender. CS remains largely an elective class, and fewer than three-fourths of the states allow it to count towards graduation. The Chicago Public Schools has sought to ensure access for all students by recently enacting computer science as a high school graduation requirement. The primary class that fulfills the graduation requirement is Exploring Computer Science (ECS), a high school introductory course and professional development program designed to foster deep engagement through equitable inquiry around CS …

Glocalizing The Composition Classroom With Google Apps For Education, Daniel L. Hocutt, Maury Elizabeth Brown

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Composing practices in a digitally networked world are inherently intercultural, and situate local needs and constraints within global opportunities and concerns. Global technologies like Google Apps for Education (GAFE) allow students to compose collaboratively across place and time; to do so, students and teachers must navigate a complex local network of institutional policy, learning outcomes, situational needs, and composing practices while also being aware of the global implications of using the interface to compose, review, edit, and share with others. The chapter describes using GAFE in locally situated composition classes. Using such technologies requires a focus on glocalization and an …

Introducing Hpc To Local High School Curriculums, Madison Matli, Devin Smoot, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

High Performance Computing is a topic that hasn’t been introduced or discussed in most Oklahoma high school curriculums. While students are being pushed to take more general electives, they are missing out on important knowledge pertaining to their field of study. This process usually occurs because students lack access to educational materials or because the school simply does not offer certain specialty courses. Learning high level information at a young age can help students excel in future college courses and research projects. My research is focused on providing Oklahoma high schools with a simplistic High-Performance Computing guide that walks through …

Perfsonar And Offn: Diagnosing And Testing Science Dmz Connections For The High-Speed Transfer Of Large Datasets On Oneoklahoma Friction Free Network, Dylan Ortega, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

The OneOklahoma Friction Free Network (OFFN) is a Science DMZ network that is designed with the purpose of enabling collaboration between high performance computing centers and higher learning institutions from across the state of Oklahoma. OFFN allows researchers the ability to transfer datasets at speeds faster than a standard internet connection by allowing direct connections to servers on OFFN by not having to deal with firewalls. We use PerfSonar to measure the performance of OFFN. A PerfSonar testing server is needed on each OFFN node to monitor the health of the network as a whole. PerfSonar can perform response testing, …

Rpp Panel Chicago: History Of Cafecs, Lucia Dettori, Dale Reed, Steven Mcgee, Don Yanek, Andrew Rasmussen, Ronald Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Lecture Capture / Flipping / Clickers, Darrell Lutey

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Student Success – UNLV needs to improve retention

Programming: Predicting Student Success Early In Cs1. A Re-Validation And Replication Study, Keith Quille, Susan Bergin

Articles

This paper describes a large, multi-institutional revalidation study conducted in the academic year 2015-16. Six hundred and ninetytwo students participated in this study, from 11 institutions (ten institutions in Ireland and one in Denmark). The primary goal was to validate and further develop an existing computational prediction model called Predict Student Success (PreSS). In doing so, this study addressed a call from the 2015 ITiCSE working group (the second "Grand Challenge"), to "systematically analyse and verify previous studies using data from multiple contexts to tease out tacit factors that contribute to previously observed outcomes". PreSS was developed and validated in …

Scenario Development For Unmanned Aircraft System Simulation-Based Immersive Experiential Learning, Nickolas D. Macchiarella, Alexander J. Mirot

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Application of scenario-based training can serve as practical means of educating remote pilots and sensor operators as they seek professional levels of knowledge. Both education and training can build upon time-tested training and simulation methodologies that apply simulators in settings that mirror real-world operations. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s unmanned aircraft system (UAS) program curriculum is rooted in immersive simulation that offers students an experiential learning experience that is aimed to develop higher-order thinking skills. Skills that are critical to professional levels of performance. The degree program builds from basic application skills to critical thinking skills by using immersive scenario-based training in …

A Cluster Analysis Of Challenging Behaviors In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Elizabeth Stevens, Abigail Atchison, Laura Stevens, Esther Hong, Doreen Granpeesheh, Dennis Dixon, Erik J. Linstead

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We apply cluster analysis to a sample of 2,116 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in order to identify patterns of challenging behaviors observed in home and centerbased clinical settings. The largest study of this type to date, and the first to employ machine learning, our results indicate that while the presence of multiple challenging behaviors is common, in most cases a dominant behavior emerges. Furthermore, the trend is also observed when we train our cluster models on the male and female samples separately. This work provides a basis for future studies to understand the relationship of challenging behavior profiles to …

Varying Instructional Approaches To Physical Extraction Of Mobile Device Memory, Joan Runs Through, Gary D. Cantrell

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics is a multidisciplinary field encompassing both computer science and criminal justice. This action research compared demonstrated skill levels of university students enrolled in a semester course in small device forensics with 54 hours of instruction in mobile forensics with an emphasis on physical techniques such as JTAG and Chip-Off extraction against the skill levels of industry professionals who have completed an accelerated 40 hour advanced mobile forensics training covering much of the same material to include JTAG and Chip-Off extraction. Participant backgrounds were also examined to determine if those participants with a background in computer science had an …

Critical Digital Literacies Across Scales And Beneath The Screen, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Digital technologies and education scholarship tend to focus on either individual creative design or analysis of the political economy. To better understand how ideologies travel across networks, critical digital literacies must focus on enactments beneath the screen, as the linguistic constructs known as software can enact interests across scales of activity to “disembed” local actions and meaning. Investigations of these mobilities and disembedding effects challenge popular notions of digital technologies as neutral, rendering overt the ways that algorithms can naturalize manifestations of power and social arrangements. Such a framework allows for descriptive analyses of the ways hegemonic discourses are enacted …