The purpose of this research project was to design, deliver, and informally assess the content and methodology of an introductory online course for the educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students (N=20) that focused on the block-based coding language, Scratch. Prior work by The Playful Learning Lab examined various STEM resources and their…

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly recognized as a promising tool to enhance learning, yet research on the use of VR instructional approaches for online learning remains limited. The present study aims to address this research gap by examining the effects of VR instructional approaches and textual cues on learning. We conducted an educational VR…

Based on a current Research to Practice Partnership (RPP) between a southeastern public university and a state virtual public school in the United States, ten high school teachers from a virtual school who teach Computer Science (CS) online participated in a summer workshop to collaborate through a participatory action research project regarding…

A majority of research in Computational Thinking (CT) mainly focuses on teaching coding to school students. However, CT involves more than just coding and includes other skills like algorithmic thinking. The current study developed an Online Inquiry-based Learning Platform for Computational Thinking (CT-ONLINQ) that follows Inquiry-Based Learning…

We live in a digital age, not least accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is all the more important in our society that students learn and master the key competence of algorithmic thinking to understand the informatics concepts behind every digital phenomena and thus is able to actively shape the future. For this to be successful, concepts must…

Fostering students' computer programming skills has become an important educational issue in the globe. However, it remains a challenge for students to understand those abstract concepts when learning computer programming, implying the need to provide instant learning diagnosis and feedback in computer programming activities. In this study, a…

Despite the importance of computer science education and computational thinking, there have been limited examples of computer science education at K-12 classrooms that authentically represents the work of computer scientists, especially programming. One reason is the lack of a measurable definition of computational thinking and a programming…

With ongoing efforts in the United States to further develop the availability of computer science education in the public schools, federal, state, and local educational agencies are increasing efforts to encourage and promote the inclusion of computer science and programming skills in the middle school curriculum (Grover, Pea, & Cooper, 2015).…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report changes when a classroom-based makerspace moved from face-to-face to an online setting. Design/methodology/approach: To better understand changes in teaching maker activities, as they move from face-to-face to online contexts, the authors analyzed video and interview data from six weeks of an…

This article draws on a one-semester online programming course to determine the relationships between the types of feedback that students received and their programming performances. An explorative study was designed including both quantitative and qualitative data. Participants were 15 second-year students enrolled at an Information Technology…

The COVID-19 epidemic had caused one of the most significant disruptions to the global education system. Many educational institutions faced sudden pressure to switch from face-to-face to online delivery of courses. The conventional classes are no longer the primary means of delivery; instead, online education and resources have become the…

With ongoing efforts in the United States to further develop the availability of computer science education in the public schools, federal, state, and local educational agencies are increasing efforts to encourage and promote the inclusion of computer science and programming skills in the middle school curriculum (Grover, Pea, & Cooper, 2015).…

Online courses for high school students promise the opportunity to bring critical education to youth most at need, bridging gaps which may exist in brick-and-mortar institutions. In this work, we investigate a hybrid Massive Open Online Course for high schoolers which includes an in-person coaching component. We address the efficacy of these…

With the success and proliferation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for college curricula, there is demand for adapting this modern mode of education for high school courses. Online and open courses have the potential to fill a much needed gap in high school curricula, especially in fields such as computer science, where there is shortage of…

This dissertation conducted a science classroom intervention using two instructional approaches, computational modeling and paper-based pictorial modeling, in the context of food webs. A series of research papers were written on the impact of the intervention on students' attitudes and learning, and on teachers via professional development and…