The Berkeley Foundation for Opportunities in Information Technology is a decade-old endeavor to expose pre-college young women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities to the fields of computer science and engineering, and prepare them for rigorous, university-level study. We have served more than 150 students, and graduated more than 65…

We used both student interviews and diagnostic testing to reveal students' misconceptions about number representations in computing systems. This article reveals that students who have passed an undergraduate level computer organization course still possess surprising misconceptions about positional notations, two's complement representation, and…

In recent decades, increasing numbers of EMI (English as Medium of Instructions) courses have been added to university course offerings in countries where English is not the first language, as a way of supporting university internalization and addressing the global status of English. However, some studies argue that EMI courses might affect the…

This study investigated the impact of discussion forum design and facilitative strategies on student participation and cognitive levels of student dialogue. A multiple-case study design was used. Three online classes taught by the same instructor participated (n = 55). Data were collected from observations, discussion transcripts, and teacher…

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,…

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are low-cost devices that are used to uniquely identify the objects to which they are attached. Due to the low cost and size that is driving the technology, a tag has limited computational capabilities and resources. This limitation makes the implementation of conventional security protocols to prevent…

In this article we set a context for three Initial Learning Environments Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch. We consider historical antecedents, technical comparators and design approaches. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

This article explores the major design characteristics (both pedagogic as well as technical) that helped to shape Alice 2. It identifies several strengths of Alice as well as several weaknesses. An example problem is solved in Alice, covering many of the design characteristics. Finally, the effects and impacts of Alice instruction are presented,…

This paper presents results of a questionnaire focused on investigating students' confidence and behavioral intention in the area of programming, particularly that of structures, problem solving, and programming commands (Conditional--Loop). Responses from 116 1st year students regarding informatics were used. The results indicate that the…

This paper describes a newly designed upper-level undergraduate and graduate course, Autonomous Mobile Robots. The course employs active, cooperative, problem-based learning and is grounded in the fundamental computational problems in mobile robotics defined by Dudek and Jenkin. Students receive a broad survey of robotics through lectures, weekly…

This article discusses the evolution of computing education in preparing for the next wave of computing. With the proliferation of mobile devices, most agree that we are living in a "post-PC" world. Using the Raspberry Pi computer platform, based in the UK, as an example, the author discusses computing education in a world where the…

A new educational simulation tool designed for the generic study of wireless networks, the Wireless Fidelity Simulator (WiFiSim), is presented in this paper. The goal of this work was to create and implement a didactic tool to improve the teaching and learning of computer networks by means of two complementary strategies: simulating the behavior…

This study investigates the relationship between approaches to studying and course completion in two online preparatory university courses in mathematics and computer programming. The students participating in the two courses are alike in age, gender, and approaches to learning. Four hundred and ninety-three students participating in these courses…

Background: Despite the recent evidence for a multi-component nature of both visual imagery and creativity, there have been no systematic studies on how the different dimensions of creativity and imagery might interrelate. Aims: The main goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between different dimensions of creativity (artistic and…

Decreasing enrollments, lower rates of student retention and changes in the learning styles of today's students are all issues that the Computer Science (CS) academic community is currently facing. As a result, CS educators are being challenged to find the right blend of technology and pedagogy for their curriculum in order to help students…