Mattias Wiggberg

I think it's better if those who know the area decide about it: a pilot study concerning power in CS student project groups

In the light of an emerging interest in project work within the CS curricula, research about projects is gaining importance. In the current work I investigate a full semester CS project course, where focus is on how power is distributed within a group of students. CS skills are shown to be a contributing factor when it comes to power. Using a phenomenographic research approach, a way of researching some aspects on power within CS projects groups is demonstrated. Finally, three qualitatively different ways of experiencing CS skills of other students, and thus power, are revealed.

Reflecting on running large scale student collaboration projects

Large scale student collaboration projects are commonly used in Computer Science education programs. These endeavors are complex and there are many aspects to consider when using such a learning environment. We propose a model based on four key features for reflecting on how to set up and analyze such projects. The proposal is based on insights from two empirically grounded phenomenographic studies on large scale student collaboration projects at Uppsala University, Sweden. The studies were focused on decision-making and experience of competence, e.g. how the perceived level of competence and the decision-making process among students influence the projects. The overall aim with using the framework is to address issues related to the learning outcomes of such project courses, and thus be useful for both education researchers and teachers.