Ursula Fuller

Developing a computer science-specific learning taxonomy

Blooms taxonomy of the cognitive domain and the SOLO taxonomy are being increasingly widely used in the design and assessment of courses, but there are some drawbacks to their use in computer science. This paper reviews the literature on educational taxonomies and their use in computer science education, identifies some of the problems that arise, proposes a new taxonomy and discusses how this can be used in application-oriented courses such as programming.

Facilitating student learning through study abroad and international projects

Computer science is inherently international but its effective application depends on an understanding of the local culture in which it is being used. Students and faculty need to be prepared to operate in this global environment. This ITiCSE working group report discusses why an international dimension is an important component of a computer science, students education. It describes ways to add an international dimension to student learning and provides several case studies as examples. Barriers to international study are identified, and recommendations for how to do more to expand the international opportunities of computer science students are discussed.

A computing perspective on the Bologna process

The Bologna process is intended to culminate in the formation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. Its aim is to facilitate the mobility of people, the transparency and recognition of qualifications, quality and development of a European dimension to higher education, and the attractiveness of European institutions for third country students.This paper provides an overview of progress towards implementation in EHEA member states using official documents and interview data from faculty teaching computing in countries represented at the ITiCSE 2006 meeting. The key areas where the structures established by the Bologna process are problematic for computing education arise from the rapidly changing nature of the curriculum. It seems that the maturity and capability criteria, as well as the manner in which learning outcomes are specified, being developed within the Bologna process are too general. This endangers the properties of transparency and mobility that the process intends to promote.Progression and prerequisite knowledge in computing degrees can be very specific. For instance, generic learning outcomes for an introductory programming course quite rightly will not specify the programming language, or languages, used to implement algorithms. However, suppose a student intends to study an advanced algorithms and data structures course in which Java is the language of implementation which has an introductory course in programming as a prerequisite. If the introductory course language was Standard ML it is not clear that the prerequisite course actually provides the student with a suitable background. These types of complexities are typical of computing, where early subject curricula are not standardised nationally or internationally, and create significant hurdles for realising the Bologna objectives.

Perspectives on developing and assessing professional values in computing

This paper discusses how to ensure that students attain professional values important to the workplace by integrating them into computing curricula. It describes a survey of the attitudes of students, faculty and professionals in computing towards the teaching and assessment of such values. The results show that these groups share a set of professional values, though students are less convinced of their importance in the work environment. There is broad consensus on the specific behaviors and attitudes reflective of these values to be developed in the curriculum. The groups differed in their opinions of whether these attitudes and behaviors could be workably assessed.

Teaching with electronic collaborative learning groups: report of the ITiCSE'99 working group on creative teaching of electronic collaborative learning groups

The integration of technology and collaborative groups has seen the development of electronic collaborative learning groups.Technology supports collaborative learning by allowing collaboration between distributed participants replacing face-to-face meetings. Technology also provides access to supporting tools and methods such as libraries, chat-rooms, and meeting protocols.One major benefit of using electronic collaborative learning groups is the ability to provide for the uniqueness of each student in a group. However, managing electronic collaborative learning groups is not simple, and the role of the teacher changes from knowledge provider to facilitator. This has implications for the amount of technical support that the teacher may require.

Virtual seminars—real networked results? (poster)

Networks have become increasingly important in the CS curriculum in recent years. Students need to learn not only technical issues in distributed systems but also how to communicate and to work in groups. We describe an experiment in the use of email discussion to support first year learning in an Information Systems module. The educational aims were four-fold: to give students an insight into the applications of communications technology, to link better their practical experience to theoretical knowledge of the topic, to introduce further student-driven learning into the first year, and to enhance students’ communication and team working skills