The Information Systems (IS) discipline is facing a sharp downturn in student enrollments. Despite the steady decline in students pursuing the IS major, the demand for information technology (IT) professionals continues to increase. These trends indicate that there might be a shortage of qualified IT employees in the near future. In order to…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss one instructional design that leverages problem-based learning and game structures as a means of developing innovative higher education courses for students as responsive, lived experiences. This paper reviews a curricular redesign that stemmed from the evaluation of an introductory course in computer…

Compared to other subjects, the typical introductory programming (CS1) course has higher than usual rates of both failing and high grades, creating a characteristic bimodal grade distribution. In this article, I explore two possible explanations. The conventional explanation has been that learners naturally fall into populations of programmers and…

This research has two thrusts of teaching object oriented programming to very young audiences and of increasing student excitement about computing applications with the long-term goal of increasing involvement in technology classes, in the use of computer applications and interest in technology careers. The goal of this work was to provide…

With the development of XML Web Services, the Internet could become an integral part of and the basis for teaching computer science and software engineering. The approach has been applied to a university course for students studying introduction to computer science from the point of view of software development in a stateless, Internet…

Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) is a new computing paradigm that has been adopted by major computer companies as well as government agencies such as the Department of Defense for mission-critical applications. SOC is being used for developing Web and electronic business applications, as well as robotics, gaming, and scientific applications. Yet,…

This study performs an exploration of the relationship between introductory IS textbooks and the body of knowledge represented by the set of "super classic" IS publications. Textbooks play a critical role of introducing the IS field to IS majors, describing what constitutes mainstream IS knowledge and communicating to other disciplines and their…

Debugging is often difficult and frustrating for novices. Yet because students typically debug outside the classroom and often in isolation, instructors rarely have the opportunity to closely observe students while they debug. This paper describes the details of an exploratory study of the debugging skills and behaviors of contemporary novice Java…

Closed laboratories are becoming an increasingly popular approach to teaching introductory computer science courses, as they facilitate structured problem-solving and cooperation. However, most closed laboratories have been designed and implemented without embedded instructional research components for constant evaluation of the laboratories'…

This paper describes the Reinventing Computer Science Curriculum Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Motivated by rapid and significant changes in the information technology and computing areas, high diversity in student aptitudes, and high dropout rates, the project designed and implemented an integrated instructional/research…

In order to better understand predictors of success and, when possible, improve the design of the first year computer science courses at university to increase the likelihood of success, we study a number of factors that may potentially indicate students' computer science aptitude. Based on findings in general education, we have studied the…

Computational precision is sometimes given short shrift in a first programming course. Treating this topic requires discussing integer and floating-point number representations and inaccuracies that may result from their use. An example of a moderately simple programming problem from elementary statistics was examined. It forced students to…

As algorithms have been seen to be hard to teach and learn, teachers have tried to look for help in algorithm animation. While the effect of algorithm animation on learning has been studied, but not reliably evidenced, this study tries to approach the problem from a different perspective. Sixty hours of assignment sessions in an introductory…

Students often find that learning to program is hard. Introductory programming courses have high drop-out rates and students do not learn to program well. This paper presents experiences from three educational institutions where introductory programming courses were improved by adopting Python as the first programming language and roles of…

Enrollment in undergraduate computer-science programs has dipped all over the country, and among women it has almost vanished, dropping 70 percent between 2000 and 2005. Observers cite different reasons for the drop, including the dot-com bust a few years ago is one, but universities are beginning to agree on one cause that is within their…