Informatics in Education

We live in a digital age, not least accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is all the more important in our society that students learn and master the key competence of algorithmic thinking to understand the informatics concepts behind every digital phenomena and thus is able to actively shape the future. For this to be successful, concepts must be identified that can convey this key competence to all students in such a way that algorithmic thinking is integrated in the subject of informatics - beyond a pure programming course. Furthermore, based on the Legitimation Code Theory, semantic waves provide a way to develop and review lesson plans. Therefore, we planned a workshop, that follow the phases of a semantic wave addressing algorithmic problems using a blockbased programming language. Considering this, we suggest the so-called SWAT concept (Semantic Wave Algorithmic Thinking concept), which is carried out and analyzed in a workshop with students. The workshop was carried out in online format in an 8th grade of a high school during a coronavirus lockdown. The level of algorithmic thinking was measured using a pretest and posttest both in the treatment group and in a control group and with the help of the approximate adjusted fractional Bayes factors for testing informative hypotheses statistically and through a reductive, qualitative content analysis of the students’ work results (worksheets and created programs) evaluated. The semantic wave concept was measured using several cognitive load ratings of the students during the workshop and also statistically evaluated with the approximate adjusted fractional Bayes factors for testing informative hypotheses, as well as a qualitative content analysis of the worksheets. Results of this pilot study provide first insights, that the SWAT-concept can be used in combination of unplugged and plugged parts.

Nowadays, SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) have been used as complementary methods to support classroom teaching. SPOCs are courses that apply the usage of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), combining classroom with online education, making them an exciting alternative for contexts such as emergency remote teaching. Although SPOCs have been continuously proposed in the software engineering teaching area, it is crucial to assess their practical applicability via measuring the effectiveness of this resource in the teaching-learning process. In this context, this paper aims to present an experimental evaluation to investigate the applicability of a SPOC in a Verification, Validation, and Software Testing course taught during the period of emergency remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Therefore, we conducted a controlled experiment comparing alternative teaching through the application of a SPOC with teaching carried out via lectures. The comparison between the teaching methods is made by analyzing the students’ performance during the solving of practical activities and essay questions on the content covered. In addition, we used questionnaires to analyze students’ motivation during the course. Study results indicate an improvement in both motivation and performance of students participating in SPOC, which corroborates its applicability to the software testing teaching area.

Nowadays, few professionals understand the techniques and testing criteria to systematize the software testing activity in the software industry. Towards shedding some light on such problems and promoting software testing, professors in the area have established Massive Open Online Courses as educational initiatives. However, the main limitation is the professor’s lack of supervision of students. A conversation agent called TOB-STT has been defined in trying to avoid the problem. A previous study introduced TOB-STT; however, it did not analyze its efficacy. This article addresses a controlled experiment that analyzed its efficacy and revealed it was not expressive in its current version. Therefore, we conducted an in-depth analysis to find what caused this result and provided a detailed discussion. The findings contribute to the TOB-STT since the experimental results show that improvements need to be made in the conversational agent before we use it in Massive Open Online Courses.

Industry 4.0 technologies are being applied in the teaching and learning process, called Education 4.0. However, there is no specification of what is being considered when developing technologies for education in the 4.0 context. Therefore, we performed a Systematic Mapping Study to investigate the information and communication technologies (ICTs) proposed to Education 4.0. From a search in four search engines, 81 articles had data extracted. The results elucidated aspects considered as Education 4.0, such as contextualized learning and student-centered learning. Besides, some applied ICTs are not in agreement with the ICTs considered as 4.0 in the literature, the focus on ICTs to engineering education and to be applied to higher education. As implications of the results obtained, it is necessary to understand why some ICTs are not aligned with 4.0 literature and apply these ICTs in knowledge areas beyond STEM.

This paper describes a pilot study that explores students learning how to program via a multi-disciplinary approach. The study participants were eleven 6th grade students who learned programming fundamentals via music activities in a Scratch 3.0 environment. These activities included the programming of familiar melodies and the development of suitable animations or computer games. For that matter, a study unit termed MelodyCode was developed in the spirit of the STEAM education approach and the spiral learning method and included exploration tasks based on individual learning. Via the programming of familiar melodies, they became acquainted with programming concepts such as functions, variables, repetition and control commands, parallel processes, and more. Competitions that win awards were held from time to time, which prompted students to invest efforts in their projects to reach first place and gain the teacher and classmates' appreciation. The study was conducted in the form of action research. The data analysis yielded references to the effect of MelodyCode on common stereotypes students hold regarding programming (masculine profession, necessitates good mathematics knowledge), cognitive aspects (cognitive load, linking music concrete use to abstract programming concepts), and affective aspects (joyful and relaxing class atmosphere, motivation, curiosity, self-efficacy).

This study aims to explore how gamification elements influence the development of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) in an online project-based programming course conducted on Facebook. We formed student groups by using a quasi-experimental design from students studying in the computer science department. While both courses were project-based, the experimental group's project development process was enriched with gamification elements. We collected data from the CoI survey, transcript analysis of online discussions, and interviews with students. The results indicated that the use of gamification elements contributed significantly to students' social, cognitive, and teaching presence development. Besides, while a high level of CoI perception was created in both groups in the online project-based learning environment, the design and organization role of the instructor came to the fore in the gamified environment more.

Source code plagiarism is a common occurrence in undergraduate computer science education. Many source code plagiarism detection tools have been proposed to address this problem. However, most of these tools only measure the similarity between assignment submissions, and do not actually identify which are suspicious of plagiarism. This work presents a semi-automatic approach that enables the indication of suspicious assignment submissions by analysing source code similarity scores among the submissions. The proposed approach seeks the consensus of multiple source code plagiarism detection tools in order to identify program pairs that are consistently evaluated with high similarity. A case study is presented to demonstrate the use of the proposed approach. The results of this case study indicate that it can accurately identify assignment submissions that are suspicious of plagiarism.

The aim of this study was to determine the predispositions of the studied groups of students to work in the IT sector. The basis for predisposition assessment was their voluntary self-assessment of certain preferences, which are related to the theory of multiple intelligences of Professor Gardner. The study was conducted on a reference group of IT sector employees, assuming that they will be the model, to which the results of the study will be related. The method used to obtain data about the students’ predispositions was a test carried out in an auditorium mode or online. More than 500 students from several countries were surveyed and interesting statistical material was obtained allowing for comparison between groups. The most important result was to find a way to sort the students into groups in order from most similar in their aptitude to the market pattern to least. This made it possible to determine the boundary beyond which students could be considered selected for a job in the IT sector. Statistical hypotheses about the similarity of the student groups to the reference group were verified. The results were both positive, confirming that a large percentage of students have predispositions to work in the IT market, and less promising. The authors are convinced that the method can be applied all over the world, as they examined groups in very diverse countries, taking into account, for example, location, education system, culture or religion.

Preparing students for the workforce is a balancing act that involves theory, practice, and assessment. As students navigate an educational experience that is, however, often distant from real-world needs, it is imperative that academia finds a novel way to bridge the gap. As many organizations utilize open challenges to attract ideas and talent, academia can easily create such bridge, leading to greater engagement, greater student preparation, and a potential employment pipeline. This paper describes the experience of our students and faculty advisors who participated to the NASA SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students) Design Challenge. In particular, we review the pedagogical value of the solution that they created and the changes that were implemented in the curriculum of an undergraduate degree program in Information Technology. This open-source, multi-year project is also a flexible platform that can be utilized for engagement in K-12 education as well as graduate research projects.

The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable “Education 4.0 Competency Determination” scale. The study was conducted in two sessions: In the first session, exploratory factor analysis was applied to 308 students, and then a confirmatory factor analysis was applied to another group and conducted with 172 students. As a result, a scale consisting of 21 items and three- factors was obtained. The internal consistency coefficient of the first factor, which is mastery of digital technology, was α = .925 using the Cronbach’s Alpha formula and .921 using the Guttman’s Split-half method; the internal consistency coefficient of the second factor, which is information management, was α = .880 and .884 according to Guttman’s Split-half method while the internal consistency coefficient of the third factor, which is active participation in the process, was α = .802 according to the Cronbach’s Alpha formula and .783 according to the Guttman’s Split-half method.