This article reports on a design-based research study centered on the conception and the assessment of the "Pyrates" application. This online serious game aims at introducing Python programming to K-12 students while easing the transition from block-based to text-based languages. After we present the various aspects underlying the…

Enabling students to recognize and evaluate the ubiquitous impact of computing technology on society is an internationally proclaimed goal of a K-12 computing education. To that end, students need to actually engage with their computing knowledge in concrete everyday situations. From the perspectives of learning transfer and variation theory, we…

The field of Web development has evolved and diversified significantly in recent years, and narrowing the gap between the requirements of academia and the demands of industry remains a challenge. Moreover, many faculty members often struggle with knowing "how much" of a particular subject they should teach to their students and at what…

The computer input/output (I/O) subsystem and its functioning are very abstract concepts that are difficult for undergraduate freshmen to understand. However, it is important that freshmen assimilate these low-level concepts if they are going to be taught about the operating systems (OS) working over that architecture layer, or working directly…

This article presents the design and development of i*CATch, a construction kit for physical and wearable computing that was designed to be scalable, plug-and-play, and to provide support for iterative and exploratory learning. It consists of a standardized construction interface that can be adapted for a wide range of soft textiles or electronic…

Reconfigurable computing is an established field in computer science. Teaching this field to computer science students demands special attention due to limited student experience in electronics and digital system design. This article presents a compact course on reconfigurable processors, which was offered at the Technische Universitat Darmstadt,…

Training professionals to design and produce interactive systems requires the use of well thought-out training scenarios. Indeed, it is essential to consider pedagogical forms whose objective is providing learners with field experience. It is also necessary to motivate learners to learn about subjects that sometimes seem distant from their…

This article proposes a VHDL language course that establishes a strong correlation between the language statements and their use in circuit synthesis. Two course modules are described: a basic module that contains the essential concepts of the language, sufficient for students to describe medium complexity circuits, followed by a second module…

This article presents the design and implementation of a complete review of undergraduate digital hardware design teaching in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Four guiding principles have been used in this exercise: learning-outcome driven teaching, deep learning, affordability, and flexibility. This has identified…

At schools special learning and programming environments are often used in the field of algorithms. Particularly with regard to computer science lessons in secondary education, they are supposed to help novices to learn the basics of programming. In several parts of Germany (e.g., Bavaria) these fundamentals are taught as early as in the seventh…