Conventional taught learning practices often experience difficulties in keeping students motivated and engaged. Video games, however, are very successful at sustaining high levels of motivation and engagement through a set of tasks for hours without apparent loss of focus. In addition, gamers solve complex problems within a gaming environment…

In this paper we present an artifacts-based approach to teaching a senior level Object-Oriented Analysis and Design course. Regardless of the systems development methodology and process model, and in order to facilitate communication across the business modeling, analysis, design, construction and deployment disciplines, we focus on (1) the…

An introduction to programming course can be a challenge for both students and instructors. This paper describes a study that introduced Web services (WS) and Service-Oriented Architecture in Information Systems 1 (IS 1) and Computer Science 1 (CS 1) programming courses over a two-year period. WS were used as an instruction tool based on their…

To meet a growing demand and a projected deficit in the supply of computer professionals (NCWIT, 2009), it is of vital importance to expand students' access to computer science. However, many researchers in the computer science education community unproductively assume that some students lack an innate ability for computer science and…

Although the two-year curriculum guide includes coverage of all eight software engineering core topics, the computer science courses taught in Alabama community colleges limit student exposure to the programming, or coding, phase of the software development lifecycle and offer little experience in requirements analysis, design, testing, and…

Computational thinking aims to outline fundamental skills from computer science that everyone should learn. As currently defined, with help from the National Science Foundation (NSF), these skills include problem formulation, logically organizing data, automating solutions through algorithmic thinking, and representing data through abstraction.…

For at least 2000 years people have been trying to calculate the value of [pi], the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. People know that [pi] is an irrational number; its decimal representation goes on forever. Early methods were geometric, involving the use of inscribed and circumscribed polygons of a circle. However, real…

Large-sized repositories of learning objects (LOs) are difficult to create and also to maintain. In this paper we propose a way to reduce this drawback by improving the classification mechanisms of the LO repositories. Specifically, we present a solution to automate the LO classification of the Universia repository, a collection of more than 15…

Previous analyses (i.e., Bernstein & St. John, 2006; Sender & Sullivan, 2008) of the television show "The Biggest Loser" have detailed its negative presentation of the obese body, potential consequences for viewers, and its role as a technology of governmentality. However, there has been little exploration of how audience members…

This study evaluates a new taxonomy-based self-assessment scale and examines factors that affect assessment accuracy and course performance. The scale is based on Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and is evaluated by comparing students' self-assessment results with course performance in a programming course. Correlation has been used to reveal possible…

This article examines how a rural Canadian secure custody facility for youth implemented positive psychology principles in its case management protocols and residential programming. A directed content analysis design was utilized to identify specific factors of positive psychology in the facility's policy and programming manual, as well as in…

There have been growing criticisms in recent years among the computer and video games community on the apparent lack of graduates capable of meeting the industry's employment needs. Following the sharp rise in the number of computer and video games courses across higher education (HE) institutions in the UK and across the globe, this article…

I am a composer, producer, pianist and part-time music lecturer at a Further Education college where I teach composing on Music Technology courses at levels 3 (equivalent to A-level) and 4 (Undergraduate/Foundation Degree). A "Music Technology" course, distinct from a "Music" course, often attracts applicants from diverse musical backgrounds; it…

The authors' purpose in this report is to examine the application of general-case programming to teach collateral academic skills to a student with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and with a mild intellectual disability who was attending college. The authors use data drawn from their work with Tom to explain and…

Knowledge exchange between employees is an essential feature of recent commercial organisations on the competitive market. Based on the data gathered by various information technology (IT) systems, social links can be extracted and exploited in knowledge exchange systems of a new kind. Users of such a system ask their queries and the system…