AUS-CE

In our first year computer science program we offer an optional first semester Python course to prepare our students for a compulsory second semester Java course. In 2014, we adopted mastery learning as the primary teaching mode for the Python course. ...

Performance and consistency play a large role in learning. Decreasing the effort that one invests into course work may have short-term benefits such as reduced stress. However, as courses progress, neglected work accumulates and may cause challenges ...

In large classes, there is typically a clear separation between content delivery in lectures on the one hand and content deepening in practical exercises on the other hand. This temporal and spatial separation has several disadvantages. In particular, ...

Failure rates in introductory programming courses are notoriously high, and researchers have noted that students struggle with the assessments that we typically use to evaluate programming ability. Current assessment practices in introductory courses ...

Students paying others to do their work is not new, but it has received significant attention recently. Such students are guilty of plagiarism but it is a different form to the common failures of omitted attribution or collusion. These acts are not (...

Understanding that there will always be some students who would rather cheat on their assessments than complete them with integrity, a number of authors have proposed rules of thumb for writing assignments that will reduce the incidence of cheating. ...

Automated grading systems are useful for conveying debugging feedback to students, but the manner in which this feedback is displayed can be problematic for students. Automated systems usually report failures in student code, whether it be the results ...

Ways to encourage self-regulated learning have become a hot topic in higher education. In this research study, we explored users' perceptions regarding the uptake and effective use of an open learner model visualisation prototype tool -- Doubtfire++, in ...

This paper reports on the preliminary results of an ongoing study examining the teaching of new primary school topics based on Computational Thinking in New Zealand. We analyse detailed feedback from 13 teachers participating in the study, who had ...

As disruptive technologies make an impact in the workplace, employers are demanding a broader range of skills that go beyond the capabilities that graduates have developed through their higher education studies. Further, digital literacy is increasingly ...

This paper reports on a survey of introductory programming courses in Australia and New Zealand conducted in the first half of 2016. Such surveys have been conducted a number of times in the past 15 years, and we have access to some of the past data to ...

In this paper, we present an exploration of the values which students consider when selecting their capstone project. The five core values considered were difficulty, experience gained, social value, fun, and topic familiarity. Students were surveyed ...

Teaching software engineering design to large diverse cohorts poses many challenges. Many students lacking object oriented programming skills find UML designs difficult, while large class sizes limit opportunities for interaction. The need to consider ...

Many employers are demanding graduates acquire project experience especially in an agile environment. Final year projects alone cannot equip students adequately unless they have already gained a solid foundation in the underlying principles, ...