{"title":"Computer Science in K-12 with Bebras Challenge: 20 Years of Lithuanian Experience","authors":"V. Dagienė, G. Stupurienė, Lina Vinikiene","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594233","url":null,"abstract":"The first Bebras Challenge in Lithuania was established in 2004. The Challenge quickly became international, with a dozen countries joining every year following. A global community of computer science (CS) educators, known as the Bebras Community, began to emerge; currently, 78 countries are participating. The Bebras Challenge aims to stimulate students' interest in CS from the beginning of their schooling. Creating attractive motivating tasks requiring deep thinking in the CS area is challenging. The number of participants in Lithuania is growing; e.g., in 2015, there were 24,709 participants, and in 2022 - 53,975 participants.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115056433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"TA Role Change towards Guiding Students' Self-directed Learning through Automation of Instruction for Programming Novices","authors":"Lukas Faessler, M. Dahinden","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594192","url":null,"abstract":"Introductory programming courses at university level often face the challenge of having to initiate learning to large student groups with a wide range of prior knowledge. We present a teaching concept that supports individual students' self-learning through online tutorials and programming project work with automated tests on one hand and regular face-to-face project discussion meetings with teaching assistants (TAs) on the other hand. In our teaching approach, TAs take on a new central role with more responsibility by coaching students individually and providing personal feedback. By individualizing and decentralizing the courses with one-to-one tutoring by TAs, they seem to be better adapted to the different needs of individual learners.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"238 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121308471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving Effectiveness of Programming Assignments with Real-time Formative Feedback","authors":"Ilya Baimetov","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594145","url":null,"abstract":"This PhD research explores the problem of building an effective ITS-like system for providing real-time formative feedback for programming assignments given to college/university students. Such system would maximize learning outcomes while minimizing the effort from the tutor to construct such system. It proposes an approach to building such a system and assessing its effectiveness, as well as outlines topics for future research.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116307619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Blink: An Educational Software Debugger for Scratch","authors":"Niko Strijbol, Christophe Scholliers, P. Dawyndt","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594189","url":null,"abstract":"Debugging is an important aspect of programming. Most programming languages have some features and tools to facilitate debugging. As the debugging process is also frustrating, it requires good scaffolding, in which a debugger can be a useful tool [3]. Scratch is a visual block-based programming language that is commonly used to teach programming to children, aged 10--14 [4]. It comes with its own integrated development environment (IDE), where children can edit and run their code. This IDE misses some of the tools that are available in traditional IDEs, such as a debugger. In response to this challenge, we developed Blink. Blink is a debugger for Scratch with the aim of being usable to the young audience that typically uses Scratch. We present the currently implemented features of the debugger, and the challenges we faced while implementing those, both from a user-experience standpoint and a technical standpoint.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127538145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of Student Time Spent on Performance in a CS1 Class, Including Prior Experience Effect","authors":"Frank Vahid, Ashley Pang, Kelly Downey","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594172","url":null,"abstract":"Computer science instructors have long advised students that success in CS1 requires many hours, such as 8-10 hours/week outside class time, but students often don't believe it. Recently, the most-widely used CS1 learning system (zyBooks), which is web-native and records student activity data, began providing instructors with data on student time spent reading and answering reading questions, solving small homework problems, and coding the programming assignments, all online and auto-graded, representing nearly all a student's time outside class. In our 300+ student CS1 course at a large state university in Spring 2022, we required all work to be done in the zyBook and analyzed student time, including analysis relative to self-reported prior programming experience. Students who completed the class averaged 6.1 hours/week, with a large standard deviation of 2.3, and averaged a B+. Students averaged 6.9 hours in weeks 1-5 leading up to the midterm, peaking at 9 hours in Week 5. We found that over 90% of students who averaged 9-12 hours/week earned As or Bs, even those reporting no prior programming experience. Spending under 4 hours/week nearly guaranteed failing the midterm, and almost no students who spent fewer than 6 hours/week got an A on the midterm (unless they had prior experience). We also found that measuring actual time is important because students overreport time in surveys. With this concrete time data available to share with CS1 students, the hope is that future students may be more likely to allocate the time needed for success in CS1.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125630863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hannan Xiao, Joseph Spring, I. Kuzminykh, Jacopo Cortellazzi
{"title":"Inclusive Group Work Assessment for Cybersecurity","authors":"Hannan Xiao, Joseph Spring, I. Kuzminykh, Jacopo Cortellazzi","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594173","url":null,"abstract":"This poster presents an ongoing study that takes a diverse and inclusive approach to designing a practical group work assessment for an undergraduate cybersecurity course delivered to third year university cohorts. Students were given the choice to either work individually or as part of a group to complete the assignment in virtual laboratories. The study evaluates how student grouping preferences change when the teaching structure adapts in response to the the Covid-19 pandemic and how grouping preference impacts upon academic performance. Students reflected positively on the assignment and demonstrated a preference for treating group information as private. No disputes regarding group marks or contributions from different group members arose despite the number of groups involved. Students have taken responsibility for their choices and have accepted the outcomes of their teamwork.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"112 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117271226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Edit, Run, Error, Repeat: Learning Analytics to Find Struggling Students in Upper Secondary Programming Classes","authors":"Johan Snider","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594144","url":null,"abstract":"This dissertation research explores the potential of using learning analytics to improve programming education. The research goals include replicating previous research through studying heterogeneous groups of students at upper secondary schools over several months. The expected contribution of this dissertation is to provide insights into how learning analytics can identify struggling students.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125445657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Checking Conformance to a Subset of the Python Language","authors":"M. Wermelinger","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594155","url":null,"abstract":"Introductory courses usually only teach a small subset of a programming language and its library, in order to focus on the general concepts rather than overwhelm students with the syntactic, semantic and API minutiae of a particular language. This paper presents courseware that checks if a program only uses the subset of the Python language and library defined by the instructor. This allows to automatically check that programming examples, exercises and assessments only use the taught constructs. It also helps detect student code with advanced constructs, possibly copied from Q&A sites or generated by large language models. The tool is easy to install, configure and use. It also checks Python code in Jupyter notebooks, a popular format for interactive textbooks and assessment handouts.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127799420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Q. Cutts, Maria Kallia, Ruth E. Anderson, T. Crick, M. Devlin, Mohammed F. Farghally, C. Mirolo, Ragnhild Kobro Runde, O. Seppälä, J. Urquiza-Fuentes, J. Vahrenhold
{"title":"Considering Computing Education in Undergraduate Computer Science Programmes","authors":"Q. Cutts, Maria Kallia, Ruth E. Anderson, T. Crick, M. Devlin, Mohammed F. Farghally, C. Mirolo, Ragnhild Kobro Runde, O. Seppälä, J. Urquiza-Fuentes, J. Vahrenhold","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594210","url":null,"abstract":"This working group concerns the adoption of computing education (CE) in undergraduate computer science (CS) programmes. Such adoption requires both arguments sufficient to persuade our departmental colleagues and our education committees, and also curricular outlines to assist our colleagues in delivery. The goal of the group is to develop examples of both arguments and curricular outlines, drawing on any prior experience available.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133696246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Automatic Feedback During Coding Exams: Curse or Blessing?","authors":"M. Dahinden, Lukas Faessler","doi":"10.1145/3587103.3594184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3587103.3594184","url":null,"abstract":"Automatic feedback during a coding exam can be very useful for both the students and the examiners. It can provide a quick and objective evaluation of the code written by the students, which can save a lot of time for the examiners and ensure consistency in grading. However, an exam is also a stressful, emotional situation for students. Therefore, the question arises as to what this immediate feedback triggers in weaker students. Does it help them to recognise their mistakes better or does it tend to prevent them from doing so? How should feedback be designed so that it has the most positive effect possible? What are the key mistakes? These and other points will be discussed in our poster session with the interested participants.","PeriodicalId":366365,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 2","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114150960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}