The "doer effect" is the assertion that the amount of interactive practice activity a student engages in is much more predictive of learning than the amount of passive reading or watching video the same student engages in. Although the evidence for a doer effect is now substantial, the evidence for a causal doer effect is not as well…

Chess programming is an old and venerable branch of game development. In the modern computing environment, it encompasses the development of chess engines, chess user interfaces (UIs), chess tournament broadcast tools, chess databases, endgame tablebases (EGTBs) and opening books. In this paper, the author shares his multi-year experience of…

Systematic endeavors to take computer science (CS) and computational thinking (CT) to scale in middle and high school classrooms are underway with curricula that emphasize the enactment of authentic CT skills, especially in the context of programming in block-based programming environments. There is, therefore, a growing need to measure students'…

The gender gap in computer science is worst amongst any of the STEM fields. At the secondary school level, only 18.6% of AP computer science test-takers in the United States were girls. In order to address the persistent gender gaps in computer science, it is important to understand K-12 students' views about computer science and programming. The…

Following a multi-year effort that developed not only a detailed list of functional requirements but also the preliminary physical and logical design layouts, the concept for a multi-faceted cybersecurity center was approved and the physical, as well as, additional infrastructure space was subsequently allocated. This effort briefly describes the…

Background: Research shows that engineering and computing students who are marginalized by race and/or gender and experience social suffering often wish to challenge social inequities through their vocation, an attribute we refer to as an equity ethic. This study explores how doctoral engineering and computing students develop this attribute even…

Python is a popular, general purpose programming language that is gaining wide adoption in beginning programming courses. This paper describes the development and implementation of an introductory Python course at a business university open to students in a variety of majors and minors. Given the growing number of career opportunities in…

Studying worked examples has been found to be effective for learning problem solving, especially among students. However, students need to actively process example content to benefit from it and content must be structured in a manner that facilities knowledge construction. This study investigated the use of worked examples for teaching and…

The introduction and implementation of ICT depends not only on technological issues but also on social and institutional factors. To respond to these challenges, in this article we describe our engagement with an ICT4D research case conducted in collaboration with the Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) of the non-governmental organization (NGO)…

In the last few years, engaging students to create digital games has been a pole of attraction for many teachers and researchers, resulting in highly positive learning experiences and promoting their thinking skills, e.g., programming and computational thinking (CT) skills. Researchers have already stated about the need for further research not…

The changes in our society in recent years and the consequent idiosyncrasy of young people demand new teaching methodologies. The methodology known as flip teaching, in which pupils study the subject before the class experience, using the material given by the teacher, makes it possible to turn the classroom into a place to solve different…

Contribution: An online genetic algorithm-based remedial learning system is presented in order to strengthen students' understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts by tailoring personalized learning materials according to each student's strengths and weaknesses. Background: Prior studies on computer programming education have…

Computational Thinking (CT) is an increasingly relevant concept that researchers are promoting in formal learning contexts. In their mission to prepare teachers to integrate CT into K-12 schooling, teacher educators would benefit from understanding the different kinds of preconceptions of CT that their students bring to the classroom in order to…

The gap between education and employment is the harsh reality for countless graduates, particularly in rapidly transforming, highly technical fields like computer science and software development. The unemployment statistics are deceiving. College graduates may be finding employment, but that employment falls far short of the promise of higher…

Background and Context: Computer Science attrition rates (in the western world) are very concerning, with a large number of students failing to progress each year. It is well acknowledged that a significant factor of this attrition, is the students' difficulty to master the introductory programming module, often referred to as CS1. Objective: The…