An increase in student motivation is often cited as an expected effect of software visualization, but, as far as the authors are aware, no controlled experiments have yet demonstrated this. This paper therefore presents a controlled evaluation of this effect, conducted within the framework of self-determination theory. Students were tasked with…

Teaching computer coding to children from a young age provides with them a competitive advantage for the future in a continually changing workplace. Programming strengthens logical and critical thinking as well as problem-solving skills, which lead to creative solutions for today's problems. The Little Programmer is an application for mobile…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of employing self-explanation learning strategy supported with Worked Examples on acquiring computer programing skills among freshmen high school students. The study adopted a quasi-experimental method, where an experimental group (n = 33) used the self-explanation strategy supported with worked…

We report on an intervention in which informal programming labs were switched to a weekly machine-evaluated test for a second year Data Structures and Algorithms module. Using the online HackerRank system, we investigated whether greater constructive alignment between course content and the exam would result in lower failure rates. After…

Teaching and learning programming has presented many challenges in institutions of higher learning worldwide. Teaching and learning programming require cognitive reasoning, mainly due to the fundamental reality that the underlying concepts are complex and abstract. As a result, many institutions of higher learning are faced with low success rates…

The need for computing education in the K-12 curriculum has grown globally. The Republic of Korea is not an exception. In response to the need, the Korean Ministry of Education has announced an outline for software-centric computing education in the K-12 system, which aims at enhancing the current computing education with software emphasis. In…

This article describes a school librarian's experience with initiating an Hour of Code event for her school's student body. Hadi Partovi of Code.org conceived the Hour of Code "to get ten million students to try one hour of computer science" (Partovi, 2013a), which is implemented during Computer Science Education Week with a goal of…

Computer programming education has practice-oriented as well as theory-oriented learning goals. Here, lab work plays an important role in students' learning. It is however widely reported that many students face great difficulties in learning theory as well as practice. This paper investigates the important but problematic relation between the…

Educating our future engineers so that they can gain high proficiency in computational thinking is essential for their career prospects. As educators, acquiring a good understanding of the various learning motivation factors/tools as well as their inter-relationships is a significant step forward in achieving this goal. In this article, we…

Recognition of spontaneous emotion would influence human-computer interaction and emotion-related studies in many related fields. In any given environment, the spontaneous generation of expression are more often observed than their prototypic counterparts.This thesis explores methods for detecting emotional facial expressions occurring in a…

Computing and computers are introduced in school as important examples of technology, sometimes as a subject matter of their own, and sometimes they are used as tools for other subjects. All in all, one might even say that "learning about" computing and computers is part of "learning about" technology. Lately, many countries…

Teaching is the process of conveying knowledge and skills to learners. It involves preventing misunderstandings or correcting misconceptions that learners have acquired. Thus, effective teaching relies on solid knowledge of the discipline, but also a good grasp of where learners are likely to trip up or misunderstand. In programming, there is much…

In recent years, learning process data have become increasingly easy to collect through computer-based learning environments. This has led to increased interest in the field of "learning analytics," which is concerned with leveraging learning process data in order to better understand, and ultimately to improve, teaching and learning. In…

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…

The popular press is rife with examples of how students in the United States and around the globe are learning to program, make, and tinker. The Hour of Code, maker-education, and similar efforts are advocating that more students be exposed to principles found within computer science. We propose an expansion beyond simply teaching computational…