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Brightpoint's HyFlex Pilot Program was a year-long project funded by the Online Virginia Network (OVN) to support faculty in the design and delivery of an actual HyFlex course. The cohort consisted of faculty who teach in the biology, architecture, early childhood, and web design disciplines. Participants worked in collaboration with one another and the Center for Teaching and Learning. In the following essay, members of the 2021-22 pilot cohort will reflect on their experiences learning and implementing a HyFlex approach in their courses. Each author will share challenges and successes as well as conclusions with implications for practice by colleagues statewide.

Reflective practice is an essential catalyst through which the benefits of teaching and learning can be reaped. Through it, weaknesses and strengths can be identified in a way that helps raise the level of addressing challenges that may arise as well as overcome them. This paper presents the critical reflective practices among computer science secondary school teachers from their point of view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. To this extent, the study aims to determine the degree of critical reflective practices among computer science secondary school teachers in Riyadh from their perspective. The paper also seeks to investigate the effects of variables such as gender, qualifications and experience on the perceptions of the aforementioned teachers, towards the critical reflective practices among computer science secondary school teachers. The study tool is a questionnaire which consisted of two dimensions and was distributed to a population of 739 participants. From this, the study sample comprised (223) computer science teachers working in secondary school in Riyadh. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference in the estimation degree concerning the critical reflective practices due to the gender. From the results, it was also established that there is no significant difference in the degree of estimation in relation to the critical reflective practices due to educational qualification variables. On the contrary however, there is a significant difference in the degree of estimation in regard to the critical reflective practices due to the years of experience variable. These differences were evident in a group of those with more than 10 years of experience. The other findings produced by the study highlight that the participants are in agreement about the importance of critical reflective practices. The degree of reflective practice, which is from the participants' point of view, is considered to be of a high value. The majority of the subjects opted to agree with the practice of reflection after a training session. It was determined from the results that some of the most common strategies favored by practitioners involved the communal practice of mind reflection with individuals from outside the school.

A trained workforce is needed to protect operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) within national critical infrastructure and critical industries. However, what knowledge, skills, and credentials are employers looking for in OT cybersecurity professionals? To best train the next generation of OT cybersecurity professionals, an understanding of current OT cybersecurity position requirements is needed. Thus, this work analyzes 100 OT cybersecurity positions to provide insights on key prerequisite requirements such as prior professional experience, education, industry certifications, security clearances, programming expertise, soft verbal and written communication skills, knowledge of OT frameworks, standards, and network communication protocols, and position travel. We found that OT cybersecurity roles are typically nonentry level, as experience was the most common requirement, and was required on 95% of analyzed positions. Possession of a bachelor's degree or higher was required for 82% of positions, while industry certifications such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP) were listed on 64% of positions. Knowledge of OT or IT frameworks and standards and strong communication skills were listed on 48% of positions, while programming expertise, possession of a United States security clearance, and knowledge of OT or IT networking protocols were required for 18%, 24%, and 27% of positions, respectively. A work travel requirement was listed on 29% of positions. Individuals seeking to enter the OT cybersecurity field, and educational programs focusing on training OT cybersecurity professionals should prioritize obtaining experience, education, and certification, possessing strong communication skills, and knowledge of relevant OT and IT industry standards and frameworks.

This pilot study aims to assess the acceptability of Open University's training platform called Gamified Intelligent Cyber Aptitude and Skills Training course (GICAST), as a means of improving cybersecurity knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours in undergraduate students using both quantitative and qualitative methods. A mixed-methods, pre-post experimental design was employed. 43 self-selected participants were recruited via an online register and posters at the university (excluding IT related courses). Participants completed the Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire (HAIS-Q) and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) Scale. They then completed all games and quizzes in the GICAST course before repeating the HAIS-Q and FoMO scales as well as several open-ended questions. Pre-training HAIS-Q Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour all improved from 'reasonable' pre-training levels to become 'very high' following training with large effect sizes estimated. FoMO improved to a lesser degree but also predicted the degree of HAIS-Q improvement suggesting it is relevant to the impact of this training course. Qualitatively, five key themes were generated: enjoyment, engagement, usability of GICAST, content relevance, and perceived educational efficacy. Overall, sentiment towards training was very positive as an enjoyable engaging and usable course. GICAST was found to be a feasible course for a wide range of students at a UK university: overall the training improved cyber-security awareness on a well validated measure with outcomes comparable to information-security-trained employees of a secure workplace. Despite a diversity of views about content, the course appears to be well suited to the non-IT undergraduate sector and may suit wide uptake to enhance students' employability in a wide range of cybersecurity relevant contexts.

The research utilized the descriptive survey model, a quantitative research method, with a study group consisting of 172 social studies teacher candidates (131 females, 41 males). As data collection tools in the study, the Cyberculture Adoption/Development Level Scale developed by Koçak (2019) and the global citizenship scale (Global Citizenship Scale--GCS) developed by Morais and Ogden in 2010 were used. The Turkish adaptation, validity, and reliability study of the global citizenship scale was conducted by Tutkun (2019). In addition, a personal information form prepared by the researcher was used. The data analysis involved the use of the Independent Samples t-test, to determine the relationship between participants' scores on the cyber culture adoption level scale and the global citizenship level scale concerning the gender variable. For situations where differentiation was observed based on class, social media usage purpose and internet usage frequency, the One-Way ANOVA was employed for unrelated Samples. The findings of the research indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the levels of cyberculture adoption and global citizenship among teacher candidates concerning gender and class variables. When examining the variable of social media usage purpose, a statistically significant difference is observed in the global citizenship levels of teacher candidates. In contrast, no statistically significant difference is found in the levels of cyberculture adoption. Regarding the daily internet usage duration variable, no impact is observed on the global citizenship levels of teacher candidates. In contrast, a statistically significant difference is found in the levels of cyberculture adoption.

Contribution: Gender mainstreaming in university teaching should be covered in all the knowledge areas. This work successfully introduces the gender perspective as part of the methodological approach to teaching and learning in Computer Science. Background: This study describes how gender mainstreaming has been introduced and matured during six academic years, from 2016-2017 to 2021-2022, in Software Engineering I course in the Degree of Computer Science at the University of Salamanca. Intended Outcomes: The aim that has been pursued is to raise awareness among students of Computer Science about equality, equity, inclusion, and respect for diversity to build better professional ethics and advance in eliminating any gender-related gap in Computer Science. Application Design: The introduction of gender mainstreaming in the Software Engineering I course has been done in six stages to advance in the gender-gap reduction improving in each academic year with the experience and voluntary feedback from the students of the previous year, using anonymized questionnaires. Findings: Gender mainstreaming requires special attention in careers with a visible gender gap, such as Computer Science. Incorporating the gender perspective as part of the teaching-learning process does not have a measurable impact in a short period but instead aims to make software engineers reflect in such a way that they reason about the need to promote diversity in software development contexts.

Recital 33 GDPR has often been interpreted as referring to 'broad consent'. This version of informed consent was intended to allow data subjects to provide their consent for certain areas of research, or parts of research projects, conditional to the research being in line with 'recognised ethical standards'. In this article, we argue that broad consent is applicable in the emerging field of Computational Social Science (CSS), which lies at the intersection of data science and social science. However, the lack of recognised ethical standards specific to CSS poses a practical barrier to the use of broad consent in this field and other fields that lack recognised ethical standards. Upon examining existing research ethics standards in social science and data science, we argue that they are insufficient for CSS. We further contend that the fragmentation of European Union (EU) law and research ethics sources makes it challenging to establish universally recognised ethical standards for scientific research. As a result, CSS researchers and other researchers in emerging fields that lack recognised ethical standards are left without sufficient guidance on the use of broad consent as provided for in the GDPR. We conclude that responsible EU bodies should provide additional guidance to facilitate the use of broad consent in CSS research.

Collaborative learning has numerous benefits such as enhancing learners' critical thinking, developing social skills, and improving learning gains. While engaging in this interactive process, learners' satisfaction toward their partners plays a crucial role in defining the success of the collaboration. However, detecting learners' satisfaction during an ongoing collaboration remains challenging, and there are no automatic techniques to predict learners' satisfaction. In this paper, we propose a multimodal approach to automatically predict peer satisfaction for co-located collaboration with features extracted from 44 middle school learners' collaborative dialogues. We investigated three types of features extracted from learners' dialogues: 1) linguistic features indicating semantics and sentiment; 2) acoustic-prosodic features including energy and pitch; and 3) visual features including eye gaze, head pose, facial action units, and body pose. We then trained several regression models with each of those features to predict the peer satisfaction scores that learners received from their partners. The results revealed that head position and body location were significant indicators of peer satisfaction: lower head and body distances between partners were associated with more positive peer satisfaction. Next, we investigated the influence of multimodal feature fusion methods on peer satisfaction prediction accuracy: early fusion versus late fusion. We report the comparison results between models trained with (1) best-performing unimodal features, (2) multimodal features combined by early fusion, and (3) multimodal features combined by late fusion. This line of research reveals how multimodal features from collaborative dialogues are associated with peer satisfaction, and represents a step toward the development of real-time intelligent systems that support collaborative learning.

In today's world, the ability to think computationally is essential. The skillset expected of a computer scientist is no longer solely based on the old stereotype but also a crucial skill for adapting to the future. This perspective presents a new educational challenge for society. Everyone must have a positive attitude toward understanding and using these skills daily. One thousand two hundred seven documents about computational thinking (CT) may be found while searching the Scopus database from 1987 to 2023. Data from Scopus were analyzed using VOSviewer software. This study educates academics by delving into the fundamentals of what is known about the CT of visual and quantitative research skills. This approach allows for a more in-depth look at the literature and a better understanding of the research gap in CT. This bibliometrics analysis demonstrates that (1) research on CT is common to all sciences and will develop in the future; (2) the majority of articles on CT are published in journals in the fields of education, engineering, science and technology, computing and the social sciences; (3) the United States is the most dominant country in CT publications with a variety of collaborations; (4) keywords that often appear are CT, engineering, education, and mathematics, and (5) research on CT has developed significantly since 2013. Our investigation reveals the beginnings and progression of the academic field of research into CT. Furthermore, it offers a road map indicating how this study area will expand in the coming years.

Educational escape rooms aims to motivate students, to strengthen knowledge and evaluate learning. Pre-service teachers enrolled in "Computer Science and Digital Competency" course shows lack of motivation and difficulties to realise its usefulness in everyday practice, becoming an ideal context to apply this strategy. 157 students belonging to a European university participated in the experience as case study. The educational escape room was conducted following a hybrid model, mixing a physical organization of props with a virtual organization of the narrative, tests and achievements. The experiment was designed to answer?two hypotheses, first if applying escape room as an educational strategy fosters pre-primary and primary students' motivation, since this method address complex concepts in a practical way, and second, if the application of this strategy as teaching strategy makes students perceive the learning process as a game.

In this paper, we continue describing the project and the experimentation of "Ricerca Operativa Applicazioni Reali" (ROAR; in English, Real Applications of Operations Research), a three-year project for higher secondary schools, introduced. ROAR is composed of three teaching units, addressed to Grades 10, 11, and 12, respectively, having the main aim to improve students' interest, motivation, and skills related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines by integrating mathematics and computer science through operations research. In a previous paper, we reported on the design and implementation of the first unit, started in Spring 2021 at the scientific high school IIS Antonietti in Iseo (Brescia, Italy), in a Grade-10 class. Here, we focus on the second unit, carried out in Winter/Spring 2022 with the same students, now in a Grade-11 class. In particular, we describe objectives, prerequisites, topics and methods, the organization of the lectures, digital technologies used, and a challenging final project. Moreover, we analyze the feedback from students and teachers involved in the experimentation.

We report the results of a 4800-respondent survey among students at a technical university regarding their usage of artificial intelligence tools, as well as their expectations and attitudes about these tools. We find that many students have come to differentiated and thoughtful views and decisions regarding the use of artificial intelligence. The majority of students wishes AI to be integrated into their studies, and several wish that the university would provide tools that are based on reliable, university-level materials. We find that acceptance of and attitudes about artificial intelligence vary across academic disciplines. We also find gender differences in the responses, which however are smaller the closer the student's major is to informatics (computer science).

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced challenges to delivering laboratory-based STEM curricula. This study evaluates students' learning experience in a synchronous team design activity within the laboratory component of an undergraduate Computer Engineering course during the pandemic. Using the EduPad digital platform, students collaborated in small groups to develop a working design for a software simulator. The researchers measured students' social, cognitive, and teaching presences during the remote team design activities and gathered their feedback on the learning experience. The findings demonstrate that students exhibited high levels of cognitive presence during the remote team design activities, suggesting effective strategies for promoting cognitive presence in synchronous engineering laboratory instruction. This study contributes to the community of inquiry framework and expands the existing repertoire of techniques for enhancing cognitive presence in online synchronous instruction. The implications for further research are also discussed.

Online learning has been widely discussed in education research, and open educational resources have become an increasingly popular way to help learners acquire knowledge. However, these resources contain massive amounts of information, making it difficult for learners to identify Web articles that refer to computer science knowledge. This study developed an Internet articles retrieval agent combined with dynamic associative concept maps (DACMs). The system used text mining technology to analyze keywords to filter computer science articles. In previous research, concept maps were manually constructed; in this study, such maps can be automatically and dynamically generated in real time. In a case study of a fundamental course of artificial intelligence, this study designed two experiments to compare students' learning behaviors while using this system and the Google search engine. The results of the first experiment showed that the experimental group searched for more knowledge articles on computer science using this agent, compared to the control group using the Google search engine. The learning performance of the experimental group was significantly better than that of the control group, while the cognitive load of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group. Furthermore, the results of the second experiment showed that the learning progress of students using the agent was significantly greater than that of students who used the Google search engine. This illustrates that the agent effectively filtered computer science articles, and DACMs helped students gain a deeper understanding of academic concepts and knowledge related to artificial intelligence.

Access Foundation Programmes are a widening-participation initiative designed to encourage engagement in higher education among underrepresented groups, including those with socioeconomic and educational disadvantage. In particular, mature students enrolled in these programmes experience greater difficulties making the transition to tertiary education, especially when they opt to study disciplines traditionally considered difficult. Computer programming is perceived as a traditionally difficult subject with typically lower pass rates and progression rates than other subjects. This paper describes the first of a three-cycle action research study examining the perceived effects of a structured Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Programme for mature students enrolled in a computer science programming module for an Access Foundation Programme in an Irish University. The focus of this qualitative study was to evaluate the perceived effect of a PAL programme on learning and whether it offered a positive learning support structure. Findings from our study suggest that PAL programmes have an overall positive effect on subject comprehension as well as enhanced learner confidence for mature Access Foundation students. Furthermore, PAL sessions offered students a support structure that helped with their transition and acculturation to tertiary education. This study also highlights the importance the PAL leader's role has on the perceived effectiveness of the PAL sessions as well as the impact of the students' shared history on the near-peer bond. The study concludes that the implementation of PAL programmes for Access Foundation Programmes has the potential to offer mature students a supportive learning environment and to improve their learning experience.

The impact of hate speech, both on a personal and social level, has increased due to social media. This has made it the focus of interest of numerous scientific journals, which increases the visibility of this global problem. The aim of this research is to analyse the basic descriptive metrics of the scientific production on hate speech and social media, as well as to explore the interdisciplinarity of these approaches. A bibliometric study has been carried out on the basis of the works indexed in the Scopus database related to the binomial 'hate speech' and 'social media' over a period of 20 years (2001 to 2020). The metrics used show that it is from 2017 onwards when this topic begins to arouse greater interest among researchers and that they constitute a sufficient indicator to consider the topic as one of interest to the scientific community. The joint research between both concepts raises its quality levels from a strictly metric point of view. 'Computer Science' and 'Social Sciences' are the two areas that clearly define the scientific production on this subject. The inversion of percentages in terms of the areas of origin of the works and citations in these two areas, is evidence of this interdisciplinarity. The indicators obtained show the relevance and transcendence of a social problem in the face of which proactive measures must be implemented.

Few high schools offer Information Technology (IT)) as a subject in South Africa. This paper used Bourdieu's conception of cultural capital to investigate the reasons why many public schools are shunning away from including IT in their curriculum. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analysed using ANOVA, to determine whether cultural capital influences choosing IT as one of the subjects in the school curriculum. The results showed that public high school principals view IT as a subject that should be done in schools where there is medium-to-high cultural capital status. It is a challenge for schools with low cultural capital to offer IT among their subjects as it is not practiced by the community or society in which the schools exist. The paper concludes by recommending that there is room for the so-called 'low cultural capital' schools to offer IT among their subjects despite the challenges they are facing. Cultural capital does not hinder students' performance. Students from low cultural capital communities can achieve good grades even though they learn under difficult circumstances of inadequate educational resources.

Computational thinking is a strategy of thinking to tackle complex problems. There is a paucity of conceptualization and instruments that cogitate on computational thinking disposition and attitudes. This study reacts to these constraints by establishing an instrument to test computational thinking related dispositions and attitudes. The computational thinking disposition Instrument is an indicator of student's disposition towards computational thinking in daily life. The objective of this study is to investigate the psychometric features using Rasch model. Data of 535 form four computer science students in Malaysia were obtained. Instrument consists of 55 core measures in three domains: cognitive, affective and conative. The Rasch analysis indicated good psychometric features of the instrument. In these three domains no items showed disordered thresholds and the reliability was good. As a result, the Rasch analysis provides basis for cautious optimism permitting more detailed and finer level investigation of the instrument.

Everyone uses a traditional five-point grading system to assess students' activities, however, it is not always possible to objectively evaluate students' work using this method. Therefore, the authors use the criteria-based student assessment system in our lessons. The purpose of this article was to compile a model of a system for assessing students' functional literacy based on a criteria-based approach. An experiment was conducted on 32 people and data was collected using observation and interviews. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the assessment system makes it possible to determine how successfully one or another educational material is mastered, or a certain practical skill is formed. Based on the conducted practical experiment, the effectiveness of the content-structural model of the system for assessing the functional literacy of students based on the criteria-based approach in computer science has been proved.

Interdisciplinary project teams are increasingly vital in organizations that are focused on providing successful technical solutions that include a positive user experience. In response to the need for experience in this area, some higher education institutions have created interdisciplinary project-based experiential learning opportunities. In this research, we examine an interdisciplinary computing capstone course and present results from a qualitative study of student participants. We investigate how teams in an interdisciplinary capstone course self-organize, what convictions drive these decisions, and how they assess and value the expected contributions from disciplines other than their own. We analyze students' attitudes, beliefs, and motivations as gleaned from interviews and offer suggested improvement strategies for future interdisciplinary capstone courses.

The purpose of this study is to introduce a developed activity which is named "CityMap" and to present an example of the implementation and evaluation process of a computer science unplugged activity through this activity. The aim of this activity is to write algorithms of going from one place to another using step by step instructions. The rules are also to reach the destination with the shortest way and the least number of steps using correct instructions. Accordingly, a map and a worksheet was designed to implement the "CityMap" which is related to daily life and scenario based. For the evaluation, an answer key was prepared and scoring criteria were determined. Then, the case study was used as a research method and the process of writing algorithms using step by step instructions of students was examined by implementing the the activity with 15 sixth grade students. Both individual and group evaluation were made and for this process game components were used. The findings revealed that, in general, students could wrote algorithms step by step instructions for the tasks determined in the activity. In addition, during the implementation, it was observed that using of the gamification made the activity more enjoyable.

Gen Z stands out as a new age learner group in the context of open and distance learning. Research shows that Gen Z has different needs and expectations form their predecessors; therefore, new educational interventions are required. The purpose of this study is to examine the suggestions of the scientific articles on Gen Z to draw educational conclusions. This systematic review includes educational suggestions (n = 77) of 59 articles selected from search results on Scopus, Google Scholar and ULAKBIM. The suggestions were coded and themed. Then, percentage and frequency analyses were made with the codes obtained. The main categories that emerged were speed, motivation, content, learning environment and active learning. Highlights of these suggestion categories are: rapid delivery of student feedback under the speed category, job-oriented education under the motivation category, use of student-produced content under the content category, paying attention to updating and following the digital contents under the learning environment category, learning autonomy acquisition practices under the active learning category. These educational suggestions are thought to help researchers and educational specialists who try to understand the generational differences and especially the features of Gen Z.

The aim of this study is to compare computational thinking skills of teacher candidates who are educated in Turkey and India. For this purpose, 555 male and 212 female who are students in the Faculty of Education at a University in Turkey and, 239 male and 493 female who are students in Faculty of Education at University of Madras in India. Within the scope of the research, the "computer thinking skill levels scale" developed by Korkmaz, Çakir and Özden (2017) to measure the computer thinking skills of university students in Turkey was used. The scale consists of 29 items and five factors. The Cronbach alpha of Scale' Turkish form is 0.822, and the Indian form is 0.769. Mean, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA analyses were run on the collected data. According to the results, computational thinking skills of Indian teacher candidates are generally quite high, whereas Turkish teacher candidates are moderately high, and in both groups the students' highest level in term of factors is creativity, and the lowest one is problem-solving skill.

Bachelors and graduate students are offered in the course of teaching computational informatics, the ability to solve nonstandard mathematical problems, which, as a rule, are not included in the content of teaching computational informatics. The article aimed to analyze the application effectiveness of non-standard mathematical problems in the course of teaching computational informatics, elaboration of constructive computational solution algorithms of inverse problems for differential equations, during which the bachelors and graduate students develop own professional competencies. The research conducted a review of previous literature on the topic. Formulation of the inverse problem for differential equations for the investigation of which the computational mathematics finite difference methods are applied, is presented. In the course of investigation, it was revealed that at elaborating the constructive computational algorithms of its solution, the bachelors and graduate students develop not only fundamental knowledge in the field of applied and computational mathematics, computational informatics methods, but also develop the professional competences, including computational thinking.

Over its short disciplinary history, computing has seen a stunning number of descriptions of the field's characteristic ways of thinking and practicing, under a large number of different labels. One of the more recent variants, notably in the context of K-12 education, is "computational thinking", which became popular in the early 2000s, and which has given rise to many competing views of the essential character of CT. This article analyzes CT from the perspective of computing's disciplinary ways of thinking and practicing, as expressed in writings of computing's pioneers. The article describes six windows into CT from a computing perspective: its intellectual origins and justification, its aims, and the central concepts, techniques, and ways of thinking in CT that arise from those different origins. The article also presents a way of analyzing CT over different dimensions, such as in terms of breadth vs. depth, specialization vs. generalization, and in terms of skill progression from beginner to expert. Those different views have different aims, theoretical references, conceptual frameworks, and origin stories, and they justify their intellectual essence in different ways. [Note: The issue number (1) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct citation for this article is v20 n3.]

This study aimed to determine the views of thirty preservice preschool teachers recruited using convenience sampling on STEM education and engineering. Phenomenology was the design of choice. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview form and analyzed using inductive content analysis. Participants offered different definitions of STEM education and thought that it could have contributions in numerous aspects. They also remarked that preschool STEM education on civil and computer engineering skills made teachers better equipped. They mentioned designs and projects for preschool STEM education as well. However, they had the stereotypical image of engineering as a dirty job for men working in construction sites and carrying sand. Results suggest that preschool undergraduate education should integrate STEM activities and offer workshops and trainings to change preservice preschool teachers' misconceptions about engineering.

The present study aimed to determine the effect of Scratch-assisted expressions and applications on the Computational Thinking skills of pre-service teachers. For this purpose, the research was designed with an exploratory sequential design, a mixed research method. Thirty-three pre-service teachers participated in the study. Data were collected with Computational Thinking Scale before and after the applications conducted in the Instructional Technologies course, and with a survey form developed by the author and face-to-face interviews conducted with the participants at the end of the course. Based on the data obtained, it was determined that the applications conducted in the course improved the Computational Thinking skills of the participants. Although the improvement did not differ based on gender, it was determined that the differences were significant based on creativity, algorithmic thinking, and critical thinking sub-dimensions. Furthermore, it was observed that there was a positive and significant correlation between Computational Thinking and academic achievement. Also, pre-service teachers stated that Scratch applications contributed to the acquisition of Computational Thinking skills. It was suggested that the present study findings would contribute to future studies on Computational Thinking acquisition in similar courses.

Lexical bundles are two or more string of words that co-occur frequently in a corpus. Hence, this corpus-based research design study examines the effects of lexical bundles on English as a foreign language learner's abstract genre academic writing skills, and it also investigates students' perception towards lexical bundles instruction to enhance their academic writing skills. Hence, frequent lexical bundles were selected from 70 computer science articles. These articles were selected from 7 journals that were published in reputable, indexed, and through representative criteria. Accordingly, sixteen frequent lexical bundles were selected through corpus analysis software (Laurence Anthony's Antconc software) for the purpose of classroom instruction. The bundles are intended to help computer science students to develop their abstract genre academic writing skills. Students have instructed their academic writing through corpus informed instruction for two months, and the data were gathered through pre and post-tests and questionnaire. The findings indicated that lexical bundles have a positive effect on students' academic writing skills, particularly abstract genre writing. Besides, the students have a positive perception of the lexical bundle and the instruction to enhance their academic writing skills. Finally, this research calls attention to discipline-oriented lexical bundles since they are crucial for academic writing.

Societal stereotypes depict girls as less interested than boys in computer science and engineering. We demonstrate the existence of these stereotypes among children and adolescents from first to 12th grade and their potential negative consequences for girls' subsequent participation in these fields. Studies 1 and 2 (n = 2,277; one preregistered) reveal that children as young as age six (first grade) and adolescents across multiple racial/ethnic and gender intersections (Black, Latinx, Asian, and White girls and boys) endorse stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering. The more that individual girls endorse gender-interest stereotypes favoring boys in computer science and engineering, the lower their own interest and sense of belonging in these fields. These gender-interest stereotypes are endorsed even more strongly than gender stereotypes about computer science and engineering abilities. Studies 3 and 4 (n = 172; both preregistered) experimentally demonstrate that 8- to 9-y-old girls are significantly less interested in an activity marked with a gender stereotype ("girls are less interested in this activity than boys") compared to an activity with no such stereotype ("girls and boys are equally interested in this activity"). Taken together, both ecologically valid real-world studies (Studies 1 and 2) and controlled preregistered laboratory experiments (Studies 3 and 4) reveal that stereotypes that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering emerge early and may contribute to gender disparities.

Background: The coronavirus pandemic has caused a shift in how many teaching, learning and research activities are conducted internationally. Lockdowns compelled all education sectors, including higher education (HE), to adopt a variety of online learning practices at short notice. As these changes in practice have implications beyond the pandemic, more needs to be understood about settings across the globe where the move to online may pose particular challenges. This study brings a focus to how lecturers in a college of education in Nigeria responded to the professional demands of lockdowns and developed strategies for managing educational activities that have relevance during and beyond the pandemic itself. Purpose: The aim of the study reported in this paper was to examine lecturers' perceptions of the management of teaching, learning and research activities during a lockdown, drawing out longer term implications. Methods: Data were collected through in-depth, one-to-one interviews with six lecturers from a college of education in Nigeria. Interview data were analysed qualitatively. Findings: Detailed analysis indicated that lecturers' strategies included encouraging students to engage in self-directed learning, as they uploaded learning materials on messaging groups and the college's e-learning platform. However, lecturers felt that the quality of teaching and assessment was compromised by factors including: irregular power supply, poor internet connection, high data costs and some students' limited digital skills. A particular concern was students' lack of interaction on the online platforms, which lecturers perceived to result in a more passive teaching and learning process. Lecturers also experienced difficulties undertaking research activities. A range of strategies and implications for the ongoing management of educational activities was discussed. Conclusions: The study offers insights into how some of the challenges encountered could be addressed to support sustainable online and blended teaching and learning in the longer term, in settings internationally where there are barriers to accessing online teaching and learning. Crucial aspects include strengthening educational technology training for lecturers and students, enhancing e-learning platforms for teaching practical courses, and enabling lecturers to develop beneficial and valuable online resources.

The heterogeneous data acquired by educational institutes about students' careers (e.g., performance scores, course preferences, attendance record, demographics, etc.) has been a source of investigation for Educational Data Mining (EDM) researchers for over two decades. EDM researchers have primarily focused on course-specific data analyses of students' performances, and rare attempts are made at the domain level that may benefit the educational institutes at large to gauge and improve their institutional effectiveness. Our work aims to fill this gap by examining students' transcripts data for identifying similar groups of students and patterns that might associate with these different cohorts of students based on: (a) difficulty level of a course category, (b) formation of course trajectories, and, (c) transitioning of students between different performance groups. We have exploited descriptive data mining and visualization methods to analyze transcript data of 1398 undergraduate Computer Science students of a private university in Pakistan. The dataset includes students' transcript data of 124 courses from nine distinct course categories. In the end, we have discussed our findings in detail, challenges, and, future work directions.

We introduce "Ricerca Operativa Applicazioni Reali" (ROAR; in English, "Real Applications of Operations Research"), a three-year project for higher secondary schools. Its main aim is to improve students' interest, motivation, and skills related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines by integrating mathematics and computer science through operations research. ROAR offers examples and problems closely connected with students' everyday life or with the industrial reality, balancing mathematical modeling and algorithmics. The project is composed of three teaching units, addressed to grades 10, 11, and 12. The implementation of the first teaching unit took place in Spring 2021 at the scientific high school IIS Antonietti in Iseo (Brescia, Italy). In particular, in this paper, we provide a full description of this first teaching unit in terms of objectives, prerequisites, topics and methods, organization of the lectures, and digital technologies used. Moreover, we analyze the feedback received from students and teachers involved in the experimentation, and we discuss advantages and disadvantages related to distance learning that we had to adopt because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The under-representation of women in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) is of great concern in South Africa. Despite the efforts made by the government to improve access to education for learners from previously disadvantaged communities, South African Black women are still under-represented in STEM fields. The present study aimed to understand the experiences and challenges that limited the success of Black South African women in STEM courses. The study adopted a qualitative approach and was descriptive in nature. The purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of eight students studying towards an undergraduate degree in Computer Science at a South African public university. Data was collected using in-depth one-on-one interviews and thematic analysis was deployed to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the majority of the students attended public schools with limited resources (e.g. computer access), as a result struggled to cope with the course workload and language of tuition (English). The absence of relevant mentorship programmes also contributed to the challenges the students experienced in the field. The findings underscore the need for policy that utilizes an intersectionality approach to understanding the multiple interconnected challenges that Black women students experience in STEM courses in South African universities.

This paper explored the attitudes and roles of computer science (CS) teachers in elementary and high schools in Croatia in the period from completely online to "normal" schooling. The research was conducted in two phases to gain insight into the adaption of online education in schools. The first part of the research was a quantitative study conducted during online education in 2019/2020 among 538 elementary and high school informatics teachers across Croatia. Data were collected from an online survey. The second part of the research was a qualitative study conducted in 2022, employing interviews for data collection. The interview questions were designed based on the survey results mentioned above. The results showed that CS teachers had a significant role in implementing online schools, acting as implementers of tools for online teaching and as helpdesk IT support to other teachers. Still, formal education nowadays is affected by online schooling, and some online practices are now adopted into regular teaching. Therefore, the findings can serve as a guideline for future education related to the digital competencies of teachers and students.

This research aims to determine the change in students' computational thinking skills according to their ICT and mobile technology experience and frequency of use. The sample of the study, designed with the survey model, consisted of 269 students attending a vocational school of higher education. Data were collected using the Computational Thinking Scale and the Personal Information Form. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were used in data analysis. According to results, it was determined that students' computational thinking skills differs according to their internet experience, mobile device experience, mobile internet experience and period of daily mobile Internet use, while no differences were found based on computer experience, the number of times they checked their mobile devices a day and purpose of mobile technology usage

The constant development of digital technologies has allowed living in a digital environment based on connections, also transforming the context of the educational process. Experiences show that digital technologies have influenced the way of learning and, consequently, the way of teaching. Learning in the digital age is a complex process since it is a multifaceted and diverse action. The aim of this research is to identify global trends in digital education and its link with the learning of artistic and visual education in higher education settings, during the period 2000-2019. For this, bibliometric techniques have been applied to 1291 documents, obtaining results from the scientific activity of the main authors, research institutions, and countries that promote this topic. The data show increasing relevance, particularly in the last three years. The main subject area is the social sciences. The study has detected the lines of research that are related to the Internet, education, visuals, computer programs, learning, digital media literacy, and educational technology. This work contributes to the academic, scientific, and institutional debate to enhance decision-making based on existing information.

The paper discusses a certain type of competitions based on distance interaction of a participant with simulation models of concepts from discrete mathematics and computer science. One of them is the "Construct, Test, Explore" (CTE) competition, developed by the authors, the other is the Olympiad in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Informatics (DM&TI). The tasks presented in this paper are generally devoted to the concept of a graph isomorphism. Most of the tasks are verified automatically.