The paper presents a part of authors' research results, they obtained within a wider research focused on possibilities to influence students' attitudes and approaches to individual subjects, mainly the less favourite ones. Following the empirically derived hierarchy of subjects identifying the degree of individual subjects popularity among…

This deliverable reports the technical and research development performed until M36 (January 2009) within tasks T5.2 and T5.4 of WP5 in the KP-Lab project, per the latest Description of Work (DoW) 3.2 [DoW3.2]. The described components are included in the KP-Lab Semantic Web Knowledge Middleware (SWKM) Prototype Release 3.0 software that takes…

Low retention rates in third-level computing courses, despite continuing research into new and improved computer teaching methods, present a worrying concern. For some computing students learning programming is intimidating, giving rise to lack of confidence and anxiety. The noncognitive domain of anxiety with regard to learning computer…

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…

Building computerized mechanisms that will accurately, immediately and continually recognize a learner's affective state and activate an appropriate response based on integrated pedagogical models is becoming one of the main aims of artificial intelligence in education. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate how the various kinds of evidence…

The use of the Web to deliver open, distance, and flexible learning has opened up the potential for social interaction and adaptive learning, but the usability, expressivity, and interoperability of the available tools leave much to be desired. This article explores these issues as they relate to teachers and learning designers through the case of…

"The EUROCALL Review" is published online biannually by the European Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL). This issue offers regular sections on: (1) up-to-date information on Special Interest Groups; (2) reports on on-going CALL or CALL-related R&D projects in which EUROCALL members participate; (3) reports…

With the rapid development of web-based learning environments, question-posing activities have become an important teaching and learning mode. However, this learning approach has some difficulties, one being the lack of a practical approach to assist teachers in evaluating the question-posing ability of all learners. To remedy this problem, the…

Early exposure to embedded computing systems is crucial for students to be prepared for the embedded computing demands of today's world. However, exposure to systems knowledge often comes too late in the curriculum to stimulate students' interests and to provide a meaningful difference in how they direct their choice of electives for future…

Individualized exercises are a promising feature in promoting modern e-learning. The focus of this article is on the QuizPACK system, which is able to generate parameterized exercises for the C language and automatically evaluate the correctness of student answers. We introduce QuizPACK and present the results of its comprehensive classroom…

We present COLLECT-UML, a constraint-based intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that teaches object-oriented analysis and design using Unified Modelling Language (UML). UML is easily the most popular object-oriented modelling technology in current practice. While teaching how to design UML class diagrams, COLLECT-UML also provides feedback on…

Discussion of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) focuses on criticism of an earlier article that addressed problems of applying specific functionality to controls across several forms in a Visual Basic project. Examines the Object Oriented techniques, inheritance and composition, commonly employed to extend the functionality of an object.…

This paper explores the cognitive difficulty of assessment tasks in six first year computing courses within an Information Technology (IT) degree. This issue is pertinent to Information Technology education for two reasons. Degree level education in any field of study is expected to develop higher order thinking skills. Bloom's taxonomy is a…

Learning computing with respect to the context of its use has been linked in previous reports to student motivation in introductory Computer Science (CS) courses. In this report, we consider the role of context in a second course. We present a case study of a CS2 data structures class that uses a media computation context. In this course, students…

This paper attempts to describe a research project related to Form Six students' learning "Goal Programming" using an interactive multimedia (IMM) courseware. The purpose of the study is to determine the suitability of the design in the multimedia courseware for learning "Goal Programming" and students' preferences toward the…