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The main purpose of this study is to examine the implementation of active methodologies in the teaching–learning process in computer science. To achieve this objective, a systematic review using the PRISMA method was performed; the search for articles was conducted through the Scopus and Web of Science databases and the scientific search engine Google Scholar. By establishing inclusion and exclusion criteria, 15 research papers were selected addressing the use of various active methodologies which have had a positive impact on students' learning processes. Among the principal active methodologies highlighted are problem-based learning, flipped classrooms, and gamification. The results of the review show how active methodologies promote significant learning, in addition to fostering more outstanding commitment, participation, and motivation on the students' part. It was observed that active methodologies contribute to the development of fundamental cognitive and socio-emotional skills for their professional growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a nationwide effort to increase the representation and engagement of minoritized students in computer science education. Discourse about the barriers to diversity among computer science majors is often characterized by student pathologies and does not consider the impacts of classroom culture and instructor pedagogies. Amid the push for strategies to recruit and retain minoritized students in computer science, little has been done to transform curriculum and analyze faculty perspectives on curriculum and pedagogy as methods to increase students' access to the computer science major. This paper presents an example of curriculum redesign for an undergraduate introductory computer science course (ICS) that sought to address issues of inequitable representation by centering student identities and redistributing power in favor of students. The authors draw upon critical sociocultural and the 4Es heuristic for disciplinary literacy to reimagine the ICS course as a space that centers on the important roles of identity and power in solving for diversity in computer science education. We highlight for researchers and practitioners how our work may be used to disrupt meritocratic practices that alienate minoritized and economically disadvantaged students and to expand definitions of mastery and expertise in computer science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing computational thinking at elementary school can develop students' capabilities and interest in Computing skills. In this study, we introduced the Computer Science unplugged (CS-unplugged) technique in Pakistan. We use paper-based activities to equip students with basic Computer Science skills without introducing any programming language. This study contributes twofold: First, we report the impact of CS-Unplugged training on more than 350 elementary students. The empirical study reveals that the students perform better in solving problems after unplugged training. Improved results in the post-training activity support this impact. Second, we applied machine learning to predict students' performance. We employed different supervised machine learning algorithms to predict the students' performance. Our results indicate that the Logistic regression-based model can predict the positive response of the student with a 0.91 receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve). This pilot study results encourage introducing unplugged techniques at elementary schools in third-world countries. The goal is to have minimal changes in infrastructure and focus on better student learning. In the future, we plan to introduce more unplugged problem-solving techniques to elementary students by providing little training to the science or math teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to evaluate the impact of using augmented reality, gamification, and serious games in computer science education. The study presents the development process of an educational mobile application, describes an experiment that was conducted and involved 117 higher education students, and analyzes the results of a 49-item paper-based questionnaire. In total, 8 research questions were explored. The results of the study revealed that several educational benefits can be yielded when integrating such applications in teaching and learning activities and actively involving students in the design and development process. In particular, the application was assessed as an effective learning tool that could enrich and improve the educational process and create interactive, inclusive, and student-centered learning environments. Its use led mostly to positive effects and experiences while maintaining the negative ones to a minimum and most students expressed positive emotions. Students were able to learn in a more enjoyable and interesting manner, and their motivation, engagement, self-efficacy, and immersion were greatly increased. Students' innate need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness was satisfactorily met and both their intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivations were triggered. They felt a sense of belonging and cultivated their social skills. The potential of the application to improve students' knowledge acquisition and academic achievements was also observed. The application also enabled students to improve their computational thinking and critical thinking skills. Therefore, the potential of combining augmented reality, gamification, and serious games to enhance students' cognitive and social–emotional development was highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation Z members use their smart devices as part of their everyday routine. Teaching methods may need to be updated to make learning materials more interesting for this generation. This paper suggests gamifying computer science subjects to enhance the learning experience for this generation. Additionally, many students face difficulty in understanding computer science materials and algorithms. Gamifying computer science education is one of the suggested teaching methods to simplify topics and increase students' engagement. Moreover, the field of computer science is dominated by males. The use of gamification could increase women's interest in this field. This paper demonstrates different techniques that were developed by the researchers to employ gamification in teaching computer science topics. The data was collected at the end of the two different courses. Results show that students enjoyed the suggested teaching method and found it useful. This paper also demonstrates two tools and their gamification elements. These tools were developed by the researchers to help people learn computer programming and information security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a case study, developed in K-12 Portuguese Education, that aimed to analyze the computer science teachers' knowledge, interest, and self-confidence to use educational robotics and other programable objects in classroom activities to teach computer science concepts and to promote students' computational thinking skills. The research design was organized into a descriptive and exploratory quantitative approach. The participants were 174 in-service computer science teachers of Portuguese public education. The data was gathered from the participants, through the online application of the Robotics Interest Questionnaire scale (RIQ). Very positive levels of teacher's knowledge, interest, and self-efficacy to use educational robotics for teaching purposes were reported in the study outcomes. These constructs were underlined in several studies as relevant factors to promote the use of educational robotics and other similar technologies by the teachers. Despite the study limitations and the small context, a set of relevant results was highlighted on computer science in-service teachers' interest and preparation to use robotics and to support their students in learning activities with these artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem-based learning is a widely used learning methodology in the field of technological disciplines, especially in distance education environments. In these environments, the most used tools, which provide learning scenarios, are remote and virtual laboratories. Internet of Things (IoT) devices can be used as remote or virtual laboratories. In addition to this, they can be organized/orchestrated to build remote maker spaces through the web. These types of spaces are called the Web of Things (WoT). This paper proposes the use of these types of spaces and their integration as practical activities into the curricula of technological subjects. This approach will allow us to achieve two fundamental objectives: (1) To improve the academic results (grades) of students; and (2) to increase engagement and interest of students in the studied technologies, including IoT devices. These platforms are modeled using archetypes based on different typologies and usage scenarios. In particular, these usage scenarios will implement a learning strategy for each problem to be solved. The current work shows the evolution of these archetypes and their application in the teaching of disciplines/subjects defined in computer science, such as distributed computing and cybersecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With more recognition being given to the diverse and changing demographics in education, there is a need to understand how well computer science education is meeting the needs of all learners as it starts to infiltrate K-12 schools. The CAPE framework is a newer model for assessing the equitable delivery of computer science education and can be used to understand a school's capacity to offer equitable computer science (CS) education, equitable student access to CS education, equitable student participation in CS, and equitable experiences of students taking CS. Since the CAPE framework is a new way to research CS education through an equity-lens, there are few, if any, frameworks that can be leveraged to explore research questions in a complex, multi-school intervention. To address this gap, we used a design-based research approach to create and determine the feasibility of a new model, Theory of Impacts, informed by the CAPE framework (the ToI-CAPE model), for evaluating a multi-school intervention. In this article, we provide a detailed explanation of creating and using the ToI-CAPE model for a specific intervention and the feasibility of using ToI-CAPE across factors based in experiences and how to use this model in other research and evaluation projects. Overall, the use of the ToI-CAPE model can be used to shed light on the critical subcomponents and agents at work in the intervention and the actions necessary across these components and agents to support intended outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we report findings from the PCBuildAR project, in which students developed augmented reality (AR) artifacts following a guided design-based learning (DBL) approach. Sixty-two students participated in the study and were either in their first year to learn about computer science or were more experienced computer science students. In terms of learning performance, only the firstyear students benefited from our guided DBL approach. In contrast, the experienced students were highly motivated to learn computer science not only immediately after the intervention, but also in the long term. For first-year students, this effect was only evident directly after the intervention. Overall, the guided DBL design proved to be effective for both motivation and learning, especially for younger students. For older learners, a better balance between guidance and autonomy is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education is changing, and a new normal is coming. Students are even more demanding, and professors need to follow the evolution of technology and try to increase student engagement in the classrooms (presential or virtual). Higher education students recognise that the introduction of new tools and learning methods can improve the teaching quality and increase the motivation to learn. Regarding a question about which type of classes students preferred, ninety-one point ninety-nine per cent (91.99%) of the students wanted interactive classes over traditional. Having this concern in mind over the past years, a professor explored a set of methods, strategies and tools and designed a new and innovative paradigm using gamification. This approach is denominated TechTeach and explores a set of trending concepts and interactive tools to teach computer science subjects. It was designed to run in a B-learning environment. The paradigm uses flipped classrooms, bring your own device (BYOD), gamification, training of soft-skills and quizzes and surveys to increase the student's engagement and provide the best learning environment to students. Currently, COVID-19 is bringing about new challenges, and TechTeach was improved in order to be more suitable for this new way of teaching (from 0% to 100% online classes). This article details this method and shows how it can be applied in a real environment. A case study was used to prove the functionality and relevance of this approach, and the achieved results are motivating. During the semester, more than a hundred students experienced this new way of teaching and assessment. In the end, more than eighty-one per cent (81%) of the students gave a positive grade to the approach, and more than ninety-five per cent (95.65%) of the students approved the use of the concept of BYOD in the classroom. With TechTeach, the classroom is not a boring place anymore; it is a place to learn and enjoy regardless of being physical or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a clear call for pre-collegiate students in the United States to become literate in computer science (CS) concepts and practices through integrated, authentic experiences and instruction. Yet, a majority of in-service and pre-service pre-collegiate teachers (instructing children aged five to 18) lack the fundamental skills and self-efficacy to adequately and effectively integrate CS into existing curricula. In this study, 30 pre-collegiate teachers who represent a wide band of experience, grade-levels, and prior CS familiarity participated in a 16-day professional development (PD) course to enhance their content knowledge and self-efficacy in integrating CS into existing lessons and curricula. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodology, a social constructivist approach guided the researchers in the development of the PD, as well as the data collection and analysis on teacher content knowledge and perceptions through a mixed-methods study. Ultimately, participants were introduced to CS concepts and practices through NetLogo, which is a popular multi-agent simulator. The results show that although the pre-collegiate teachers adopted CS instruction, the CS implementation within their curricula was limited to the activities and scope of the PD with few adaptations and minimal systemic change in implementation behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]