Mike Richards

Educating the Internet-of-Things Generation

The Open Universitys My Digital Life course offers a learning infrastructure that allows complete novices to experiment with, and learn about, Internet-of-Things technologies by engaging in a range of activities that include collaborative and collective programming of real-world sensing applications. The first Web extra at http://youtu.be/JUpkHqivXp4 is a video presentation in which Arosha Bandara, a lecturer in computing at the Open University, explains how embedded, interconnected devices have grown to affect our lives. The second Web extra at http://youtu.be/VL37sjj_I1sis a video demonstration of Sense from the Open Universitys My Digital Life course. Sense is a newly developed visual programming language and programming environment based on SenseBoard, an embedded networked sensor device that supports active learning and experimentation with sensing, actuation, and networking by students at home.

Remote electronic examinations: student experiences

This paper presents the findings from a small–scale experiment investigating the presentation of a synchronous remote electronic examination. It discusses the students’ experiences of taking such an examination. The study confirms that the majority of participants found the experience at least as good as a conventional written examination. In addition, typing answers does not prevent students from producing answers in the time available. However, the pressure of time continues to be a major cause of anxiety for students. The paper discusses technical issues, particularly those related to the loss of communications during the 3–hour duration of the exam. Although software processes were available to save and restore students’ answers throughout the examination, problems still occurred and more robust software is required.

Civic crowdfunding research: Challenges, opportunities, and future agenda

Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding through which citizens, in collaboration with government, fund projects providing a community service. Although in the early stages of development, civic crowdfunding is a promising area for both research and application due to its potential impact on citizen engagement, as well as its influence on the success of a wide range of civic projects ranging from physical structures to amenities and local services. However, the field remains under-addressed in academic research and underdeveloped in terms of the number of civic projects posted to crowdfunding platforms. Acknowledging these issues, we outline the history of civic crowdfunding and describe the current landscape, focusing on online crowdfunding platforms established specifically for the funding of civic projects (Citizinvestor, ioby, Neighbor.ly, Spacehive). The challenges and the opportunities of civic crowdfunding are examined, and its distinguishing characteristics are outlined, including a consideration of the impact of social media and platform features. We then propose a research agenda to help shape the future of this emergent field.

What is the best programming environment/language for teaching robotics using Lego Mindstorms?

We are in the process of producing a range of eductional materials to teach robotics to a variety of audiences using the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System. We briefly review the programming environments currently available, and consider how appropriate they are for each of our candidate audiences. There is the usual trade-off between ease of use and power. It is suggested that no single programming environment is suitable for all audiences. Instead, aprogression of environments from microworlds, through graphical programming environments, to textual languages seems to provide the best way to develop our teaching.

Developing robotics e-teaching for teamwork

This paper addresses whether students can e-learn teamworking skills when most are logged on to the Internet without direct personal interactions. We give examples of how the Open University achieves this and argue both that teamwork skills can be learned through electronic interactions and that robotics can be a particularly effective focus for that experience.

Starting with Ubicomp: using the senseboard to introduce computing

In this paper, we describe a new undergraduate module for novice students conducted entirely through distance learning: My Digital Life (TU100). The module has been designed to lower the barriers to creating programs that interact with the world; TU100s materials have been designed to excite, encourage, reassure and support learners who explore the novel topic of ubiquitous computing through playful experimentation. It introduces the fundamentals of computing by giving students the capability for programming a device, the SenseBoard, which has built-in input/output and sensors. Programming is done in Sense, an extension of Scratch, which scaffolds programming and reduces the syntax burden. TU100 has taken inspiration from childhood learning and commercial product design to produce compelling, yet academically rigorous study materials.

Teaching UbiComp with sense

Modern computer science education should take account of recent advances in smart and ubiquitous computing technologies. Ubicomp shows great potential to attract new learners. However, novice students find it needlessly difficult to learn concepts with existing programming languages, let alone the additional demands of programming sensors, actuators and networks. We have developed Sense, an extension to the graphical programming language Scratch, and an associated sensor/actuator board. Together, these will allow novice undergraduate students to quickly develop their own smart devices while learning the fundamentals of programming. Students will first study with Sense in 2011 but developmental feedback has been positive.

A comparison of MOOC development and delivery approaches

We present a comparison of two ways of developing and delivering MOOCs. One was developed by the Open University in collaboration with FutureLearn; the other was developed independently by a small team at Northampton University. The different approaches had very different profiles of pedagogic flexibility, cost, development processes, institutional support, and participant numbers. This comparison shows that, even several years after MOOCs came to prominence, there is a range of viable approaches for MOOCs. MOOCs on existing large platforms can reach many thousands of people, but constrain pedagogical choice. Smaller, self-made MOOCs have smaller audiences but can target them more effectively.

Civic crowdfunding: how do offline communities engage online?

Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding whereby citizens contribute to funding community-based projects ranging from physical structures to amenities. Though civic crowdfunding has great potential for impact, it remains a developing field in terms of project success and widespread adoption. To explore how technology shapes interactions and outcomes within civic projects, our research addresses two interrelated questions: how do offline communities engage online across civic crowdfunding projects, and, what purpose does this activity serve both projects and communities? These questions are explored through discussion of types of offline communities and description of online activity across civic crowdfunding projects. We conclude by considering the implications of this knowledge for civic crowdfunding and its continued research.

Summer of code: assisting distance-learning students with open-ended programming tasks

A significant difficulty in teaching programming lies in the transition from novice to intermediate programmer, characterised by the assimilation and use of schemas of standard programming approaches. A significant factor assisting this transition is practice with tasks which develop this schema use. We describe the Summer of Code, a two-week activity for part-time, distance-learning students which gave them some additional programming practice. We analysed their submissions, forum postings, and results of a terminal survey. We found learners were keen to share and discuss their solutions and persevered with individual problems and the challenge overall. 93% respondents rated the activity 3 or better on a 5-point Likert scale (n=58). However, a quarter of participants, mainly those who described themselves as average or poor programmers, felt less confident in their abilities after the activity, though half of these students liked the activity overall. 54% of all participants said the greatest challenge was developing a general approach to the problems, such as selecting appropriate data structures. This is corroborated by forum comments, where students greatly appreciated “think aloud” presentations by faculty tackling the problems. These results strongly suggest that students would benefit from more open-ended practice, where they have to select and design their own solutions to a range of problems.