Several college majors, outside of computer science, require students to learn computer programming. Many students have difficulty getting through the programming sequence and ultimately change majors or drop out of college. To deal with this problem, active learning techniques were developed and implemented in a freshman programming logic and…

The development of software for spacecraft represents a particular challenge and is, in many ways, a worst case scenario from a design perspective. Spacecraft software must be "bulletproof" and operate for extended periods of time without user intervention. If the software fails, it cannot be manually serviced. Software failure may…

Faculty who offer university-level technical courses through e-Learning environments must surmount several difficult challenges. Traditionally, learning in technical courses takes place through real-time interactions between instructor and students in the course of solving actual problems--a form of activity that is not possible in asynchronous…

An eTextbook and iPad were used in a pilot program, and the impact on the course was assessed to guide the development of a college policy. Students in the course completed three questionnaires to provide feedback about their perceptions of the eTextbook and iPad. During the pilot program, students' perceptions of the usefulness, ease of use, and…

The present article is primarily targeted for the advanced college/university undergraduate students of chemistry/physics education, computational physics/chemistry, and computer science. The most recent software system such as MS Visual Studio .NET version 2010 is employed to perform computer simulations for modeling Bohr's quantum theory of…

The growth of online resources and the advances in Web 2.0 technology are changing the information landscape and impacting teaching and learning. While information literacy has been recognized as a critical component of undergraduate learning, little if any discipline-specific research is done in the lower division mathematics/computer science…

Introductory courses in computer science at colleges and universities have undergone significant changes in 20 years. This article provides an overview of the history of introductory computer science (FORTRAN, ANSI flowchart symbols, BASIC, data processing concepts, and PASCAL) and its future (robotics and C++). (PEN)

Reviews the development of artificial intelligence systems and the mechanisms used, including knowledge representation, programing languages, and problem processing systems. Eleven books and 6 journals are listed as sources of information on artificial intelligence. (23 references) (CLB)

Discusses programer job training programs, designed to give the knowledge, skills, and effective job experience required for placement in entry level business programing jobs, to chronically unemployed, low-income adults who lack marketable skills, but demonstrate the intelligence, competence, motivation, and temperament required to do…

This description of a project to review computer impact on society and computer literacy courses and materials includes the effort to gather and maintain a comprehensive bibliography, an analysis of the literature currently included, a set of objectives for courses, and future plans for refinement. (Author/JEG)

Discusses the role of computer assisted instruction (CAI) in undergraduate education via a survey of related literature and specific applications. Describes an undergraduate computer concepts course and includes appendices of instructions, flowcharts, programs, sample student work in accounting, COBOL instructional model, decision logic in a…

Describes a 12-day undergraduate immersion course in computer science in which extensive experience is provided in programming in BASIC and WATIV on microcomputers and time-shared computers. The article includes a discussion of experience with the course at Glassboro State College for the years 1979-1981 which outlines course organization and…

Describes the use of a graduate student in computer science to develop an automated fiscal reporting system to handle budgetary problems associated with funded research projects at the Texas A&M College of Medicine. The roles of graduate students, faculty members, and system users in the project are described. (Author/JL)

A learning object is a small, stand-alone, mediated content resource that can be reused in multiple instructional contexts. In this article, we describe our approach to design, develop, and validate Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compliant learning objects for undergraduate computer science education. We discuss the advantages of…