Mark Guzdial

Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning

Project-based learning is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. In this article, we present an argument for why projects have the potential to help people learn; indicate factors in project design that affect motivation and thought; examine difficulties that students and teachers may encounter with projects; and describe how technology can support students and teachers as they work on projects, so that motivation and thought are sustained.

A multi-national, multi-institutional study of assessment of programming skills of first-year CS students

In computer science, an expected outcome of a students education is programming skill. This working group investigated the programming competency students have as they complete their first one or two courses in computer science. In order to explore options for assessing students, the working group developed a trial assessment of whether students can program. The underlying goal of this work was to initiate dialog in the Computer Science community on how to develop these types of assessments. Several universities participated in our trial assessment and the disappointing results suggest that many students do not know how to program at the conclusion of their introductory courses. For a combined sample of 216 students from four universities, the average score was 22.89 out of 110 points on the general evaluation criteria developed for this study. From this trial assessment we developed a framework of expectations for first-year courses and suggestions for further work to develop more comprehensive assessments.

Learner-centered design: the challenge for HCI in the 21st century

In the 1980s a major transformation took place in the computing world: attention was finally being paid to making computers easier-to-use. You know the history: in the 1970s folks at Xerox were exploring so-called personal computers and developing graphical, point-and-click interfaces. The goal was to make using computers less cognitively taxing, there- by permitting the user to focus more mental cycles on getting the job done. For some time people had recognized that there would be benefits if users could interact with computers using visual cues and motor movements instead of testu- al/linguistic strings. However, computer cycles were costly; they could hardly be wasted on supporting a non-textual interface. There was barely enough zorch (i.e., computer power, measured in your favorite unit) to simply calculate the payroll.

Effective Discussion Through a Computer-Mediated Anchored Forum

Computer-mediated discussion forums (such as newsgroups or those in instructional management software environments) are becoming common in higher education. Such forums are interesting because they are not only one of the easiest technologies to add to a class but may also provide an important learning opportunity for students. However, simply making a discussion forum available does not mean that it will be used effectively to enable learning. In this paper, we explore the idea that specific features of a discussion forum may increase the likelihood of effective discussions taking place within the forum. We define effective discussions as those that are sustained and are focused on topics related to class learning goals. We then describe the specifications for an electronic discussion forum-a computer-mediated anchored discussion forum-that we propose makes sustained on-topic discussion more likely. We report on the results of two studies that support this proposal. We end by exploring implications for research into computer-supported discussion tools for learning and their design.

An evaluation of space-filling information visualizations for depicting hierarchical structures

A variety of information visualization tools have been developed recently, but relatively little effort has been made to evaluate the effectiveness and utility of the tools. This article describes results from two empirical studies of two visualization tools for depicting hierarchies, in particular, computer file and directory structures. The two tools examined implement space-filling methodologies, one rectangular, the Treemap method, and one circular, the Sunburst method. Participants performed typical file/directory search and analysis tasks using the two tools. In general, performance trends favored the Sunburst tool with respect to correct task performance, particularly on initial use. Performance with Treemap tended to improve over time and use, suggesting a greater learning cost that was partially recouped over time. Each tool afforded somewhat different search strategies, which also appeared to influence performance. Finally, participants strongly preferred the Sunburst tool, citing better ability to convey structure and hierarchy.

Software‐Realized Scaffolding to Facilitate Programming for Science Learning

Abstract Programming is an activity through which students can learn about other domains, but the difficulty of programming diminishes its usefulness as a learning activity. One approach to facilitate the use of programming for learning is to view programming as a skill like those taught through apprenticeships, and to use the apprenticeship concept of scaffolding to facilitate doing and learning through programming. Scaffolding means providing modifiable support (through fading) that communicates process, coaches, and elicits articulation. Software‐realized scaffolding embeds scaffolding in a computer‐based environment. Emile implements software‐realized scaffolding to facilitate student learning of physics by facilitating students building computer‐based models and simulations. In this article, I present Emiles features as examples of software‐realized scaffolding, and I present the results of an evaluation of Emiles effectiveness. Students were able to use Emile to create fairly sophisticated program...

Teaching the Nintendo generation to program

Preparing a new strategy for teaching introductory computer programming.

A media computation course for non-majors

Computing may well become considered an essential part of a liberal education, but introductory programming courses will not look like the way that they do today. Current CSI course are failing dramatically. We are developing a new course, to be taught starting in Spring 2003, which uses computation for communication as a guiding principle. Students learn to program by writing Python programs for manipulating sound, images, and movies. This paper describes the course development and the tools developed for the course. The talk will include the first round of assessment results.

Education Paving the way for computational thinking

Drawing on methods from diverse disciplines---including computer science, education, sociology, and psychology---to improve computing education.

Beyond Adoption to Invention: Teacher-Created Collaborative Activities in Higher Education

The potential learning benefits of the Web are diminished due to the complexity of creating interactive, collaborative Web-based applications. The CoWeb is a collaborative Web site that allows users to create collaborative applications with great flexibility. The CoWeb facilitates open authoring where any user can edit any existing page or creating new pages. Using the CoWeb, both teachers and students have invented a wide variety of educational applications. Thus, the CoWeb serves as an example of an educational technology that has led to teacher inventiveness.