Clif Kussmaul

50 ways to be a FOSSer: simple ways to involve students & faculty (abstract only)

Participating in free and open source software (FOSS) has numerous benefits for students (and faculty), and there is increasing interest in encouraging such participation. There is a broad range of possible contributions to FOSS projects including documentation, testing, coding, and more. This range allows people with a variety of backgrounds, including little or no CS background, to contribute to a FOSS project. This poster describes the status of a project to identify and categorize learning activities that contribute to FOSS. During Spring 2011, an NSF-sponsored workshop on student participation in humanitarian FOSS for the SoftHum project brought together a group of experienced FOSS developers, faculty, and students. One result of this workshop was a list of nearly 100 learning activities that could contribute to FOSS projects and provide meaningful experiences for students and faculty. We were surprised by the variety of results. Some of the activities have been used successfully or are variations of familiar learning activities; others are ideas that seem promising but require further development and validation. We are experimenting with individual activities, and seeking colleagues interested in doing likewise. We are also mapping the learning activities onto Computer Science Curriculum 2008 to make it easier for faculty to identify relevant activities and map them to course or program learning objectives. The poster briefly summarizes relevant background, describe the process used to identify appropriate activities and provide examples of activities and their mappings.

Free and open source software in computing education

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) exemplifies the merit and successes of open content, understood broadly as creative work that explicitly allows sharing and further changes by anyone, whether an individual or organization. Although the benefits of improving computing education with open source practices are largely acknowledged, transforming teaching to create effective learning environments has many challenges. The panelists will bring different perspectives on teaching strategies and curricular content they have used in their classrooms. These perspectives will exemplify key issues with FOSS-based education and FOSS-based IT systems. The developer and user communities established around FOSS-based IT systems are of particular interest to the IT discipline because of its focus on user centeredness and advocacy for advancing professional practices in authentic environments.

Guided inquiry learning in context: perspectives on POGIL in CS

Process oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) is an active, student-centered approach to teaching/learning [6]. In a POGIL classroom, students work in small teams on inquiry-based activities that guide students to discover concepts. These activities are designed to align with the learning cycle [8] and include elements that are designed to additionally develop process skills (e.g., team work, conflict resolution, written and oral communication, etc.). The role of the instructor in a POGIL classroom is to facilitate student discovery, rather than to deliver lecture. The POGIL approach was developed and refined within the physical sciences and its success in general and organic chemistry courses has been documented in a variety of university contexts. In particular, POGIL classes contain fewer failing grades and withdrawals [9] and result in a high degree of mastery [5] than traditional classes. Because of its success, the approach has begun to be adopted by the computer science community and has generated increasing interest and activity at SIGCSE ([4], [3], [7], [2]). Though the POGIL approach is well-documented, there is no single way to implement a POGIL classroom. The purpose of this panel is to examine the varying challenges to adopting POGIL in different institutional contexts and to explore how POGIL has been implemented in a wide variety of computer science classrooms. In addition to giving a brief overview of the POGIL approach, panel members will

Wikis for Education - Helping Students Communicate and Collaborate

In educational and professional environments, effective communication (e.g. reading, writing, speaking, and teaming) is important and can be developed with a variety of activities and assignments. This paper summarizes ways that wikis can facilitate these practices and help educators to achieve their goals, and provides examples of successful wiki activities.

Guiding students to discover CS concepts and develop process skills using POGIL (abstract only)

This workshop is for anyone who teaches CS, and introduces process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) in computer science. POGIL is based on learning science, and shares characteristics with other forms of active, discovery, and inquiry learning. In a POGIL classroom, teams of 3-5 learners work on instructor-facilitated activities. Through scripted inquiry and investigation, learners discover concepts and construct their own knowledge. Using assigned team roles and meta-cognition, learners develop process skills and individual responsibility. Studies show that POGIL can significantly improve student performance. POGIL has particular potential for CS education. Software development is largely a team-based problem-solving activity, and POGIL helps students to learn from each other and develop problem-solving abilities as well as important team process skills. POGIL has been developed and validated over the last 15 years in a range of STEM disciplines. The workshop consists primarily of hands-on team activities. Workshop participants will experience POGIL activities, learn core practices, and draft activity pieces. POGIL materials for a variety of CS concepts will be shared. More information and materials are available at http://cspogil.org and http://pogil.org, including sample activities for CS1, CS2, and other courses. Laptops optional. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant DUE-1044679.

Analysis of Active Learning Activities Transitions and Patterns in Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL)

To improve education, teachers need to apply strategies based in research on how people learn, and then use technology and other means to leverage these strategies to meet the needs of an ever growing population. This paper briefly surveys proven approaches for active learning, and describes initial efforts to analyze activities to identify reusable patterns that could help researchers understand how activities work and how to improve them. The objective is to inspire teachers to learn more about active learning and explore ways to help people learn more effectively.

Panel — Teaching students to participate in Open Source Software projects

This panel will present several experiences in involving students in Open Source Software (OSS) projects from the perspectives of both the instructor and a member of the OSS community. OSS is growing rapidly and gaining market share in both industry (e.g., Linux and Mozilla) as well as academia (e.g, Moodle, Greenfoot, and Drupal). OSS projects have a culture built on volunteer participation to support software development. Computing degree programs desire to involve students in large-scale software projects to provide students with real-world experience and an understanding of the issues found in large, complex software projects. Involving computing students in OSS projects serves both the OSS community by providing development resources for the project while also serving the academic community by providing access to large software projects in which students can gain experience. However, the marriage of student and OSS project presents some challenges including identification of approachable OSS projects, creation of appropriate educational infrastructure, evaluation and grading, and more. Panelists will address the factors that contribute to student success in an OSS project.

CS1: Computation & Cognition -- An Evidence-Based Course to Broaden Participation (Abstract Only)

This poster describes a new CS1 course on Computation & Cognition (C&C), targeted at students in psychology, neuroscience, and biology. In C&C, students learn to create and use software to imitate, model, or study processes in the brain. Topics include software development, control structures, data types, and testing, as well as key ideas in experimental design, stimulus presentation, searching, natural language processing, genetic algorithms, and neural networks. Thus, C&C enriches student understanding of content in their majors, and develops programming and computational skills in a relevant context, which should enhance subsequent research projects and career outcomes. C&C was developed with support from a 2015 Google CS Engagement grant, and incorporates research-based practices that improve student learning and help broaden participation in computing. In particular, C&C uses Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) (http://pogil.org), in which student teams work on classroom activities that are specifically designed to guide them to construct their own understanding of key concepts, and to develop process skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork. C&C also uses PsychoPy (http://psychopy.org), a FOSS tool to run psychology experiments with two interfaces -- the Builder GUI to design experiments, and the Coder IDE to write Python code. The first offering of C&C was small (3 female, 3 male) with strong ratings for the course overall, and for increasing student interest in the subject matter. In the future, we hope to add experimental paradigms and techniques, and engage more students from diverse backgrounds.

Bringing Undergraduate Research Experience in Non-R1 Institutions

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in computer science undergraduate research activities at colleges and universities nationwide. Developing and maintaining undergraduate research benefits students, faculty mentors, and the institution. Incorporating a research culture along with a sound academic foundation enables students to develop independent critical thinking skills along with effective oral and written communication skills. However, we are in a time when budgets are being tightened and some institutions do not have the resources to pursue such initiatives. Traditionally research focused universities (like R1) have access to various large funding sources to host Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs. R1 universities have established records of accomplishment for innovative research and the faculties at R1 institutions have lab infrastructure to blend such activities for undergraduate students. However, non-R1 institutions (like community colleges, undergraduate, masters, and to some extent R2 institutions) lack resources, lab infrastructure and above all a track record for innovative research that makes it hard for them to obtain funding to host an REU program. Thus, in this panel, our goal is to present ideas for establishing a track record and building an internally and externally funded Undergraduate Research experience (UR), particularly for non-R1 institutions. This involves obtaining funds to conduct the research and to secure travel funds to disseminate research results.

POGIL in Computer Science for Beginners and Experts (Abstract Only)

Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is a research-based instructional strategy with a proven history across STEM disciplines. In a POGIL classroom, teams of students work on activities that are specifically designed to guide them to construct their own understanding of key concepts. At the same time, students develop process skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking. POGIL incorporates practices shown to be particularly helpful for students from underrepresented populations. In a POGIL classroom, teachers are facilitators, not lecturers. Multiple studies have shown that students in POGIL classes do better on common exams and in subsequent courses. For more information, see http://cspogil.org and http://pogil.org. This BOF will (1) enable people unfamiliar with POGIL to ask questions and learn more, and (2) bring together experienced POGIL practitioners to share experiences, concerns, ideas, and insights. As in a POGIL classroom, we will discuss topics in small teams and report out to the larger group.