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This article provides a review of educational research literature focused on pair programming in the undergraduate computer science curriculum. Research suggests that the benefits of pair programming include increased success rates in introductory courses, increased retention in the major, higher quality software, higher student confidence in solutions, and improvement in learning outcomes. Moreover, there is some evidence that women, in particular, benefit from pair programming. The literature also provides evidence that the transition from paired to solo programming is easy for students. The greatest challenges for paired students appear to concern scheduling and partner compatibility. This review also considers practical issues such as assigning partners, teaching students to work in pairs, and assessing individual contributions, and concludes with a discussion of open research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates differences between collaboration methods in two summer enrichment classes for students entering the sixth grade. In one treatment, students used pair programming. In the other treatment, students engaged in frequent collaboration, but worked ontheir own computer. Students in the two treatments did not differ significantly in their performance on daily quizzes or responses to attitudinal survey questions. However, the students who worked on their own computer completed exercises more quickly than those using pair programming. This study compares two learning environments with high levels of collaboration to isolate aspects of pair programming that are and are not responsible for the reported success of educational research focused on pair programming. This study expands our understanding of pair programming by moving beyond simplistic comparisons of learning environments with and without collaboration and by extending pair programming research to elementary school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores factors that contribute to low participation rates in computing and information technology (CIT) courses in senior secondary school, particularly for females. Partly drawing on the Values-Expectancy Theory the following variables are explored separately and within a single model: gender, ability and values beliefs, access and use at home and at school. As well as presenting results consistent with current literature, an inclusive and eclectic model is developed. The model indicates that, in addition to gender and the student's beliefs about the value of the subjects, plans to take CIT subjects are also affected by the amount of use of IT at school. These school-related factors are inter-connected either directly or indirectly with students' beliefs about their IT abilities at both schooland home, as well as the amount of use at home. For educators who seek to improve participation rates, particularly for females, theidentification of school-related variables is encouraging, as the school - unlike the home - is a relatively accessible site of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that students with low knowledge understand and learn better from more cohesive texts, whereas high-knowledge students have been shown to learn better from texts of lower cohesion. This study examines whether high-knowledge readers in computer science benefit from a text of low cohesion. Undergraduate students (n = 65) read one of four versions of a text concerning Local Network Topologies, orthogonally varying local and global cohesion. Participants' comprehension was examined through free-recall measure, text-based, bridging-inference, elaborative-inference, problem-solving questions and a sorting task. The results indicated that high-knowledge readers benefited from the low-cohesion text. The interaction of text cohesion and knowledge was reliable for the sorting activity, for elaborative-inference and for problem-solving questions. Although high-knowledge readers performed better in text-based and in bridging-inference questions with the low-cohesion text, the interaction of text cohesion and knowledge was not reliable. The results suggest a more complex view of when and for whom textual cohesion affects comprehension and consequently learning in computer science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that female and male students in undergraduate computer science programs view computer culture differently. Female students are interested more in the use of computers than in doing programming, whereas male students see computer science mainly as a programming activity. The overall purpose of our research was not to find new definitions for computer science culture but to see how male and female students see themselves involved in computer science practices, how they see computer science as a successful career, and what they like and dislike about current computer science practices. The study took place in a mid-sized university in Ontario. Sixteen students and two instructors were interviewed to get their views. We found that male and female views are different on computer use, programming, and the pattern of student interactions. Female and male students did not have any major issues in using computers. In computing programming, female students were not so involved in computing activities whereas male students were heavily involved. As for the opinions about successful computer science professionals, both female and male students emphasized hard working, detailed oriented approaches, and enjoying playing with computers. The myth of the geek as a typical profile of successful computer science students was not found to be true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project MLeXAI (Machine Learning eXperiences in Artificial Intelligence (AI)) seeks to build a set of reusable course curriculum and hands on laboratory projects for the artificial intelligence classroom. In this article, we describe two game-based projects from the second phase of project MLeXAI: Robot Defense - a simple real-time strategy game and Checkers - a classic turn-based board game. From the instructors' prospective, we examine aspects of design and implementation as well as the challenges and rewards of using the curricula. We explore students' responses to the projects via the results of a common survey. Finally, we compare the student perceptions from the game-based projects to non-game based projects from the first phase of Project MLeXAI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national web-based survey was administered to 700 undergraduate computer science (CS) programs in the United States as part of a stratified random sample of 797 undergraduate CS programs. The 251 program responses (36% response rate) regarding social and professional issues are presented. This article describes the demographics of the respondents, presents results concerning whether programs teach social and professional issues, how social and professional issues are integrated, perceptions of CS faculty regarding the importance of social and professional issues, pedagogies used to teach social and professional issues, and what specific social and professional topics have been included in the CS curriculum. Additionally, we (a) provide suggestions for CS programs regarding the integration of social and professional issues into the CS curriculum, (b) suggest ways to encourage more social and professional coverage in CS programs, pedagogy, and (c) recommend what social and professional topics should be included in future CS curriculum reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of computer science education research to date has focused on purely cognitive student outcomes. Understanding the motivational states experienced by students may enhance our understanding of the computer science learning process, and may reveal important instructional interventions that could benefit student engagement and retention. This article investigates issues of student motivation as they arise during one-on-one human tutoring in introductory computer science. The findings suggest that the choices made during instructional discourse are associated with cognitive and motivational outcomes, and that particular strategies can be leveraged based on an understanding of the student motivational state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators in the computing fields are often familiar with the characterization of computing as a combination of theoretical, scientific, and engineering traditions. That distinction is often used to guide the work and disciplinary self-identity of computing professionals. But the distinction is, by no means, an easy one. The three traditions of computing are based on different principles, they have different aims, they employ different methods, and their products are very different. Educators in the field of computing should be aware of the fundamental differences between the traditions of computing so that they can offer their students a truthful and balanced view about computing branches. In this article the three traditions of computing are presented and some of their underlying assumptions, principles, application areas, restrictions, and weaknesses are portrayed. Also, some of the landmark arguments in the debates about the identity of computing disciplines are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study considered the syllabus of the first and second year studies in computer science. The aim of the study was to reveal which topics covered in the syllabi were really needed during the following years of study or in working life. The program that was assessed in the study was a Masters program in computer science and engineering at a university of technology in Finland. The necessity of different subjects for the advanced studies (years 3?–?5) and for working life was assessed using four content analyses: (a) the course catalog of the institution where this study was carried out, (b) employment reports that were attached to the applications for internship credits, (c) masters theses, and (d) job advertisements in a newspaper. The results of the study imply that the necessity of physics for the advanced study and work was very low compared to the extent to which it was studied. On the other hand, the necessity for mathematics was moderate, and it had remained quite steady during the period 1989?–?2002. The most necessary computer science topic was programming. Also telecommunications and networking was needed often, whereas theoretical computer science was needed quite rarely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practical programming is one of the basic skills pursued in computer science education. On programming courses, the coursework consists of programming assignments that need to be assessed from different points of view. Since the submitted assignments are executable programs with a formal structure, some features can be assessed automatically. The basic requirement for automated assessment is the numerical measurability of assessment targets, but semiautomatic approaches can overcome this restriction. Recognizing automatically assessable features can help teachers to create educational models, where automatic tools let teachers concentrate their work on the learning issues that need student-teacher interaction the most. Several automatic tools for both static and dynamic assessment of computer programs have been reported in the literature. This article promotes these issues by surveying several automatic approaches for assessing programming assignments. Not all the existing tools will be covered, simply because of the vast number of them. The article concentrates on bringing forward different assessment techniques and approaches to give an interested reader starting points for finding further information in the area. Automatic assessment tools can be used to help teachers in grading tasks as well as to support students' working process with automatic feedback. Common advantages of automation are the speed, availability, consistency and objectivity of assessment. However, automatic tools emphasize the need for careful pedagogical design of the assignment and assessment settings. To effectively share the knowledge and good assessment solutions already developed, better interoperability and portability of the tools is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical issues of computer science are traditionally taught in a way that presupposes a solid mathematical background and are usually considered more or less inaccessible for students without this. An effective methodology is described which has been developed for a target group of university students with different backgrounds such as natural science or humanities. It has been developed for a course that integrates theoretical material on computer languages and abstract machines with practical programming techniques. Prolog used as meta-language for describing language issues is the central instrument in the approach: Formal descriptions become running prototypes that are easy and appealing to test and modify, and can be extended into analyzers, interpreters, and tools such as tracers and debuggers. Experience shows a high learning curve, especially when the principles are extended into a learning-by-doing approach having the students to develop such descriptions themselves from an informal introduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents and discusses the evaluation of a human-computer interaction design studio course created and taught in spring 2002 in the Computer and Information Science Department of the University of Oregon. Review of the studio-based teaching concept and how it has been used in architecture, science/engineering and computer science education; Promises and challenges presented by studio-teaching to widespread acceptance in the computer science curriculum.

Discusses the importance of human-computer interaction (HCI) as a component of software engineering and computer science curricula. Relationship between the design of the human interface and the design of the functionality; Outline of a minimal course on HCI that should be part of software engineering or computer science curriculum; Implications on computer science education.

Outlines a project-oriented human-computer interaction (HCI) course in which we are able to emphasize some science education notions in the context of HCI concepts. Exposure of students to a number of non-programming computer science activities; Overview of course content that illustrates the approach; Implications on computer science education.

Examines the needs of students who, in the past, may have chosen to major in computer science or some other aspect of information technology as a way of achieving the goal of finding a job in the computer graphics field. Comparison of two extant Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Graphics; Importance of creating an interdisciplinary undergraduate computer graphics degree.

Describes a course covering graphic design topics relevant to computer science students. Course emphasizing basic visual elements, visual organizational principles, and applications in the context of digital pages.

Describes Graph Magic, a package of Java classes that represents graphs. Design for undergraduate students to use early in their studies; Tool for implementing graph algorithms with object-oriented programming an visualization techniques; Experimental evaluation results.

In the fall 2000 a need for an inexpensive cutting edge computation facility provided an opportunity to explore the use of department needs as a real world problem in a classroom setting. The results of the class would benefit the department's research goals, provide a practical student experience with a cutting edge real world problem, and an educational opportunity for the instructor. The successes and pitfalls of our two semester adventure of placing the students in real world scenario to design, buy, and build a Beowulf cluster from scratch is described. Teaching techniques such as project based learning as well as tips for Beowulf construction are detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A formal pair programming experiment was run at North Carolina to empirically assess the educational efficacy of the technique in a CS1 course. Results indicate that students who practice pair programming perform better on programming projects and are more likely to succeed by completing the class with a C or better. Student pairs are more self-sufficient which reduces their reliance on the teaching staff. Qualitatively, paired students demonstrate higher order thinking skills than students who work alone. These results are supportive of pair programming as a collaborative learning technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer science teaching is often based upon thetraditional lecture format. However, this methodology may not be the bestway to help many students actively understand underlying concepts. This paperexplores an alternative pedagogical approach that emphasizes constructiveand collaborative learning in CS1 classrooms. After briefly discussing constructivismand providing examples of constructivist techniques in CS1, empirical researchresults are provided. These results arise from a study that compares differentCS1 sections that utilized the techniques at varying frequencies. A positivecorrelation was found between frequency and mean final exam scores. However,no pair-wise differences between sections were statistically significant.These outcomes and others are discussed in addition to future research designimplications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introductory computer science education is entrenched in an outdated computational model. Although it corresponds neither to our computing environments nor our work, we teach our students a single-thread-of-control, static, problem-solving view of the role of the computer program: computation as calculation. In this model, the job of a computer program is to start with a problem, calculate its answer, return that answer, and stop. This program-as-an-island bears little resemblance to most of today's software. We can dramatically improve this situation—and, as a corollary, all of undergraduate computer science—by teaching our students from the very beginning to conceptualize computation with a model of computer programs as simultaneous ongoing entities embedded in and interacting with a dynamic environment: computation as interaction; computation as it occurs in spreadsheets and video games, web applications and robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the results of designing, class-testing, and developing teaching materials (texts, laboratory manuals, and software) for a novel introductory curriculum in computer science known as the "breadth-first curriculum." This curriculum covers the first four one-semester courses in an undergraduate computer science major, and has been class-tested in several colleges of science, engineering, and liberal arts. It differs fundamentally from the traditional model because it emphasizes breadth of discipline coverage, regular structured laboratory experiences, incorporation of theory, and inclusion of the social context as essential parts of each course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]