The articles appearing in IEEE Software are the result of hard work by many people. We deeply app... more The articles appearing in IEEE Software are the result of hard work by many people. We deeply appreciate the efforts of everyone who participated in our peer review process last year. Authors often tell us how much they value the reviewers' comments and suggestions. Their expertise, care, and attention help maintain Software's quality. All of us in the software development community owe them a heartfelt ���thank you.��� Readers who would like to contribute to our community by reviewing papers next year can visit www. computer. org/ ...
This research explored the understanding that novice computer science students have of mathematic... more This research explored the understanding that novice computer science students have of mathematical logic. Because concepts of logic are at the heart of many areas of computer science, it was hypothesized that a solid understanding of logic would help students grasp basic computer science concepts more quickly and would better prepare them for advanced topics such as formal verification of program correctness. This exploratory study lays the groundwork for further investigation of this hypothesis. Data for the study were the publicly available versions of the Advanced Placement Examination in Computer Science (APCS examination) and files containing anonymous individual responses of students who took these examinations. A content analysis procedure was developed to provide reliable and valid classification of multiple-choice items from the APCS examinations based on the relationship between concepts covered in each item and the concepts of logic. The concepts in the computer science ...
The 1991 SIGCSE Technical Symposium was held March 7-8, 1991, in San Antonio, Texas. A post-sympo... more The 1991 SIGCSE Technical Symposium was held March 7-8, 1991, in San Antonio, Texas. A post-symposium evaluation form was made available to all attendees, with the request that it be filled out to assist the '91 committee in evaluating the current symposium and to help future committees in planning their symposia. This article highlights the responses to the evaluation forms and includes excerpts from the chair report, the registration report, and the treasurer's report.
This research in progress paper compares the characteristics of high and low performance distribu... more This research in progress paper compares the characteristics of high and low performance distributed student teams doing software development in Computer Science. The distributed student teams were involved in a software development project that was part of a Computer Science course at two universities located in different countries.We developed a set of categories to examine the email communication of distributed student teams. This paper tracks the progression and changes in the categories coded for each team's communication throughout the project's timeline, particularly during key decision periods in the software development cycle.
This paper introduces a Web site designed as a tool for anyone wanting to carry out research in t... more This paper introduces a Web site designed as a tool for anyone wanting to carry out research in the area of CS education. The paper describes the motivation behind the various parts of the site and invites participation from the SIGCSE community in using the site and helping it evolve. The Web site highlights many possibilities for solid educational research and thus publicizes the field as a legitimate academic endeavor.
ABSTRACT This poster compares the hypothesized reasons for why males choose computing versus why ... more ABSTRACT This poster compares the hypothesized reasons for why males choose computing versus why females choose computing. Preliminary results of the analysis validate research results from other gender studies.
This poster presents the findings of a study that used grounded theory methodology to analyze hyp... more This poster presents the findings of a study that used grounded theory methodology to analyze hypothesized reasons for why women choose computing as a profession. Preliminary analysis has resulted in four categories of attraction factors that validate research results from other gender studies.
ABSTRACT Traditional undergraduate Computer Science curricula have been increasingly challenged o... more ABSTRACT Traditional undergraduate Computer Science curricula have been increasingly challenged on a host of grounds: undergraduate computing education is attracting fewer majors, is not producing graduates who satisfy the needs of either graduate programs or ...
Proceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, 2011
ABSTRACT The Computing Educators Oral History Project (CEOHP) is a collection of interviews with ... more ABSTRACT The Computing Educators Oral History Project (CEOHP) is a collection of interviews with computing educators. During 2010, evaluation efforts guided major updates of the CEOHP website (ceohp.org) and the addition of new sections with activities appropriate for use in secondary and post-secondary classes. This poster introduces the CEOHP project, describes the pedagogical aspects of the site, and suggests uses for the educational materials.
Getting started in CS education research(panel). Michael J Clancy, Ed Dubinsky, Richard A Duggan,... more Getting started in CS education research(panel). Michael J Clancy, Ed Dubinsky, Richard A Duggan, Marian Petre, Vicki L Almstrum, Mickey McDonald Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education: San Jose, California, United States 27, 375-376, 2/1997. Abstract not available. 80 Computer Applications(General)(CI).
In this chapter, we demonstrate the importance of Real Projects for Real Clients Courses (RPRCCs)... more In this chapter, we demonstrate the importance of Real Projects for Real Clients Courses (RPRCCs) in computing curricula. Based on our collective experience, we offer advice for setting up an effective support infrastructure for such courses. We discuss where and how to find clients, the types of projects that we have used, and how to form and train teams. We investigate the variety of standards and work products that we have used in our courses and explore issues related to assessment and evaluation. Finally, we consider the benefits of an RPRCC-centric approach to computing curricula. A course is underway. Students are excited, engaged, eager to apply what they are learning, eager to communicate with one another about their project work, what they need to accomplish, and what they must find out from outside stakeholders. As a lovely bonus, the project the students are developing is more than a toy problem or a product that will gather dust on the back of the shelf — they are writi...
The articles appearing in IEEE Software are the result of hard work by many people. We deeply app... more The articles appearing in IEEE Software are the result of hard work by many people. We deeply appreciate the efforts of everyone who participated in our peer review process last year. Authors often tell us how much they value the reviewers' comments and suggestions. Their expertise, care, and attention help maintain Software's quality. All of us in the software development community owe them a heartfelt ���thank you.��� Readers who would like to contribute to our community by reviewing papers next year can visit www. computer. org/ ...
This research explored the understanding that novice computer science students have of mathematic... more This research explored the understanding that novice computer science students have of mathematical logic. Because concepts of logic are at the heart of many areas of computer science, it was hypothesized that a solid understanding of logic would help students grasp basic computer science concepts more quickly and would better prepare them for advanced topics such as formal verification of program correctness. This exploratory study lays the groundwork for further investigation of this hypothesis. Data for the study were the publicly available versions of the Advanced Placement Examination in Computer Science (APCS examination) and files containing anonymous individual responses of students who took these examinations. A content analysis procedure was developed to provide reliable and valid classification of multiple-choice items from the APCS examinations based on the relationship between concepts covered in each item and the concepts of logic. The concepts in the computer science ...
The 1991 SIGCSE Technical Symposium was held March 7-8, 1991, in San Antonio, Texas. A post-sympo... more The 1991 SIGCSE Technical Symposium was held March 7-8, 1991, in San Antonio, Texas. A post-symposium evaluation form was made available to all attendees, with the request that it be filled out to assist the '91 committee in evaluating the current symposium and to help future committees in planning their symposia. This article highlights the responses to the evaluation forms and includes excerpts from the chair report, the registration report, and the treasurer's report.
This research in progress paper compares the characteristics of high and low performance distribu... more This research in progress paper compares the characteristics of high and low performance distributed student teams doing software development in Computer Science. The distributed student teams were involved in a software development project that was part of a Computer Science course at two universities located in different countries.We developed a set of categories to examine the email communication of distributed student teams. This paper tracks the progression and changes in the categories coded for each team's communication throughout the project's timeline, particularly during key decision periods in the software development cycle.
This paper introduces a Web site designed as a tool for anyone wanting to carry out research in t... more This paper introduces a Web site designed as a tool for anyone wanting to carry out research in the area of CS education. The paper describes the motivation behind the various parts of the site and invites participation from the SIGCSE community in using the site and helping it evolve. The Web site highlights many possibilities for solid educational research and thus publicizes the field as a legitimate academic endeavor.
ABSTRACT This poster compares the hypothesized reasons for why males choose computing versus why ... more ABSTRACT This poster compares the hypothesized reasons for why males choose computing versus why females choose computing. Preliminary results of the analysis validate research results from other gender studies.
This poster presents the findings of a study that used grounded theory methodology to analyze hyp... more This poster presents the findings of a study that used grounded theory methodology to analyze hypothesized reasons for why women choose computing as a profession. Preliminary analysis has resulted in four categories of attraction factors that validate research results from other gender studies.
ABSTRACT Traditional undergraduate Computer Science curricula have been increasingly challenged o... more ABSTRACT Traditional undergraduate Computer Science curricula have been increasingly challenged on a host of grounds: undergraduate computing education is attracting fewer majors, is not producing graduates who satisfy the needs of either graduate programs or ...
Proceedings of the 16th annual joint conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, 2011
ABSTRACT The Computing Educators Oral History Project (CEOHP) is a collection of interviews with ... more ABSTRACT The Computing Educators Oral History Project (CEOHP) is a collection of interviews with computing educators. During 2010, evaluation efforts guided major updates of the CEOHP website (ceohp.org) and the addition of new sections with activities appropriate for use in secondary and post-secondary classes. This poster introduces the CEOHP project, describes the pedagogical aspects of the site, and suggests uses for the educational materials.
Getting started in CS education research(panel). Michael J Clancy, Ed Dubinsky, Richard A Duggan,... more Getting started in CS education research(panel). Michael J Clancy, Ed Dubinsky, Richard A Duggan, Marian Petre, Vicki L Almstrum, Mickey McDonald Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education: San Jose, California, United States 27, 375-376, 2/1997. Abstract not available. 80 Computer Applications(General)(CI).
In this chapter, we demonstrate the importance of Real Projects for Real Clients Courses (RPRCCs)... more In this chapter, we demonstrate the importance of Real Projects for Real Clients Courses (RPRCCs) in computing curricula. Based on our collective experience, we offer advice for setting up an effective support infrastructure for such courses. We discuss where and how to find clients, the types of projects that we have used, and how to form and train teams. We investigate the variety of standards and work products that we have used in our courses and explore issues related to assessment and evaluation. Finally, we consider the benefits of an RPRCC-centric approach to computing curricula. A course is underway. Students are excited, engaged, eager to apply what they are learning, eager to communicate with one another about their project work, what they need to accomplish, and what they must find out from outside stakeholders. As a lovely bonus, the project the students are developing is more than a toy problem or a product that will gather dust on the back of the shelf — they are writi...
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Papers by Vicki Almstrum