Learning the first programming language is challenging for many students. High failure rates and bimodally distributed grades lead to a pedagogical interest in supporting students in first-year programming courses (CS1). In higher education, the important role of feedback for guiding the learning process and improving the learning outcome is…

Learning to program, especially in the object-oriented paradigm, is a difficult undertaking for many students. As a result, computing educators have tried a variety of instructional methods to assist beginning programmers. These include developing approaches geared specifically toward novices and experimenting with different introductory…

This case study examines the life of a digital native who has her online accounts hacked, passwords reset, and is locked out of important online resources including her university email account and Facebook. Part one of the case study examines how the hack was perpetrated and the fallout of losing control of one's digital identity. Part two of the…

Students often face difficulties while learning object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts. Many papers have presented various assessment methods for diagnosing learning problems to improve the teaching of programming in computer science (CS) higher education. The research presented in this article illustrates that although max-min composition is…

Pat Yongpradit is the director of education at Code.org. He leads all education efforts, including professional development and curriculum creation, and he builds relationships with school districts. Pat joined "Educational Horizons" to talk about why it is important to teach computer science--even for non-computer science teachers. This…

In this paper, we present a method for recognizing algorithms from students programming submissions coded in Java. The method is based on the concept of "programming schemas" and "beacons". Schemas are high-level programming knowledge with detailed knowledge abstracted out, and beacons are statements that imply specific…

Activity diagrams are used in Systems Analysis and Design classes as a visual tool to model the business processes of "as-is" and "to-be" systems. This paper presents the idea of using these same activity diagrams in the classroom to model the actual processes (practices and techniques) of Systems Analysis and Design. This tip…

Big Data is becoming a critical component of the Information Systems curriculum. Educators are enhancing gradually the concentration curriculum for Big Data in schools of computer science and information systems. This paper proposes a creative curriculum design for Big Data Analytics for a program at a major metropolitan university. The design…

This paper describes the development of BOLE, a MATLAB-based interactive learning environment, that facilitates the process of learning bio-inspired optimization algorithms, and that is dedicated exclusively to unmanned aerial vehicle path planning. As a complement to conventional teaching methods, BOLE is designed to help students consolidate the…

Present paper aims to give an insight in the field of Mechatronics, specifically its standard of education in India. We have investigated this field right from its origin. We have analyzed how it expanded as a proper discipline of engineering and in which direction the development in this field is going now and, at the same time, its status of…

Machine vision is an important subject in computer science and engineering degrees. For laboratory experimentation, it is desirable to have a complete and easy-to-use tool. In this work we present a Java library, oriented to teaching computer vision. We have designed and built the library from the scratch with emphasis on readability and…

This study is a follow-up to one published in computer science education in 2010 that reported preliminary results showing a positive impact of service learning on student attitudes associated with success and retention in computer science. That paper described how service learning was incorporated into a computer science course in the context of…

For countries to remain competitive in the global economy, it is important to cultivate the next generation of native mathematicians. However, this goal has been increasingly challenging in the United States where, despite the tremendous increase in university enrollment during recent decades, the number of students studying mathematics has…

In higher education, quality feedback for students is regarded as one of the main contributors to improve student learning. Feedback to support students' development into self-regulated learners, who set their own goals, self-monitor their actual performance according to these goals, and adjust learning strategies if necessary, is seen as an…

We have explored educational methods for algorithmic thinking for novices and implemented a block programming editor and a simple learning management system. In this paper, we propose a program/algorithm complexity metric specified for novice learners. This metric is based on the variable usage in arithmetic and relational formulas in learner's…