Transitioning to university is recognised as a challenging endeavour for commencing students. For commencing Computer Science students specifically, evidence suggests a link between poor performance in introductory technical courses, such as programming, and high attrition rates. Building resilience in students, particularly at the start of their…

Teaching students to create computer games has become a common practice in both K-12 and tertiary education to introducing programming concepts, increasing student engagement, and recruiting majors and minors in technology fields. This study describes a project where first-year college students in an introductory technology concepts course use a…

The aim of this paper is to explore the use of an application that scaffolds the constructions of programs on a mobile device. The application was developed to support novice learners of programming outside the classroom. This paper reports on results of a first experiment conducted to evaluate the mobile application. The main research questions…

Integrated curricula and experiential learning are the main ingredients to the recipe to improve student learning in higher education. In the academic computer science world it is mostly assumed that this experiential learning takes place at a business as an internship experience. The intent of this paper is to schism the traditional understanding…

Bioinformatics is a relatively new interdisciplinary field that integrates computer science, mathematics, biology, and information technology to manage, analyze, and understand biological, biochemical and biophysical information. We present our experience in teaching an interdisciplinary course, Introduction to Bioinformatics, which was developed…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate student understanding and application of computational thinking patterns to novel situations. Over 500 students, who had just designed and programmed a Frogger-style game using the AgentSheets platform, responded to a newly developed video-prompt survey instrument administered in the Fall 2010 semester.…

The objective of this study was to find the answers to two primary research questions: "Do students learn programming languages better when they are offered in a particular order, such as 4th generation languages before 3rd generation languages?"; and "Do students learn programming languages better when they are taken in separate semesters as…

The development of collaborative studies in learning has led to a renewed interest in the field of web-based education. In this experimental study, a highly interactive and collaborative teaching environment was created using Moodle, a learning management system with two types of Collaborative Tools (CTs): Standard CT and Advanced CT to create a…

This paper describes Stanford Online, a distance learning program at Stanford University (California) that utilizes the concept of asynchronous learning and the growth of the Internet to make Stanford courses, seminars, and lectures available anywhere, any time, and on demand in order to address the continuing education needs of busy…