Informatics in Education

As the number of software vulnerabilities discovered increases, the industry is facing difficulties to find specialists to cover the vacancies for security software developers. Considering relevant teaching and learning theories, along with existing approaches in software security education, we present the pedagogic rationale and the concrete implementation of a course on security protocol development that integrates formal methods for security research into the teaching practice. A novelty of the framework is the adoption of a conceptual model aligned with the level of abstraction used for the symbolic (high-level) representation of cryptographic and communication primitives. This is aimed not only at improving skills in secure software development, but also at bridging the gap between the formal representation and the actual implementation, making formal methods and tools more accessible to students and practitioners.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of applications created using a web-based 3D design environment on the spatial visualisation and mental rotation abilities of secondary school students. A total of 63 school students from the sixth grade participated in the study. The researchers applied a mixed research method including both quantitative and qualitative measures. The Spatial Visualisation Test, Mental Rotation Test, and Santa Barbara Solids Test, which concurrently measure spatial orientation and spatial relations, were used as tools to measure the different components of spatial ability prior to and after the treatment application. Following the treatment, a focus group interview using structured questions was conducted. A statistically significant difference showed an increase in all three test scores of the students; also, the students stated that they were satisfied with being able to design and create something new.

This paper presents a systematic literature review of the coordinated use of Learning Analytics and Computational Ontologies to support educators in the process of academic performance evaluation of students. The aim is to provide a general overview for researchers about the current state of this relationship between Learning Analytics and Ontologies, and how they have been applied in a coordinated way. We selected 31 of a total of 1230 studies related to the research questions. The retrieved studies were analyzed from two perspectives: first, we analyzed the approaches where researchers used Learning Analytics and Ontologies in a coordinated way to describe some Taxonomy of Educational Objectives; In the second perspective, we seek to identify which models or methods have been used as an analytical tool for educational data. The results of this review suggest that: 1) few studies consider that student interactions in the Learning Management System can represent students’ learning experiences; 2) most studies use ontologies in the context of learning object assessment to enable learning sequencing; 3) we did not identify methods of evaluation of academic performance guided by Taxonomies of Educational Objectives; and 4) no studies were identified that report the coordinated use of Learning Analytics and Computational Ontologies, in the context of academic performance monitoring. Thus, we identify future directions of research such as the proposal of a new model of evaluation of academic performance.

The paper discusses a certain type of competitions based on distance interaction of a participant with simulation models of concepts from discrete mathematics and computer science. One of them is the “Construct, Test, Explore” (CTE) competition, developed by the authors, the other is the Olympiad in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Informatics (DM&TI). The tasks presented in this paper are generally devoted to the concept of a graph isomorphism. Most of the tasks are verified automatically.

The purpose of this systematic literature review is to explore the area of digital Game-Based Learning (GBL) for students with intellectual disabilities as a tool that enables positive impact on learning and mastering specific skills in order to make recommendations for future research. Twenty-one studies were selected from different databases. The results showed that the most common type of game was serious game, and the most common used technology was PC with additional equipment, but tablets were also often used. In addition, the studies were more focused on the development of cognitive abilities rather than of adaptive skills.

Although Machine Learning (ML) is integrated today into various aspects of our lives, few understand the technology behind it. This presents new challenges to extend computing education early to ML concepts helping students to understand its potential and limits. Thus, in order to obtain an overview of the state of the art on teaching Machine Learning concepts in elementary to high school, we carried out a systematic mapping study. We identified 30 instructional units mostly focusing on ML basics and neural networks. Considering the complexity of ML concepts, several instructional units cover only the most accessible processes, such as data management or present model learning and testing on an abstract level black-boxing some of the underlying ML processes. Results demonstrate that teaching ML in school can increase understanding and interest in this knowledge area as well as contextualize ML concepts through their societal impact.

eLearning is fast progressing scientific field proposing novel and specific approaches in a range of domains. It is well established practice in universities, schools and organizations for delivering interactive, adaptive and flexible training, taking advantage of contemporary and emerging technologies. Informatics is a continuously evolving science presenting its theoretical and practical advances applicable in various research areas, including in eLearning. The paper presents an exploration focused on the symbiotic connection between Informatics and eLearning that leads to contemporary and innovative solutions, facilitating and automating a wide variety of activities at information processing. The term eLearning Informatics is conceptualized and explained as a scientific field outlining the current research achievements and further directions for development. The applied research methodology is based on outlining the main vision in the domain eLearning Informatics through utilization of bibliometric approach and construction of bibliometric networks as well as on detailed examination of topic-related scientific papers.

Connecting theory and practice in teaching is sometimes difficult, as it requires expensive or delicate equipment, thus limiting the teacher to giving demonstrations in which students are passive participants. Numerical mathematics, as an applied discipline, should be taught on real world examples. By using inexpensive Arduino hardware, we can create simple experiments that are easily reproduced by students. Furthermore, the experiments generate tangible data, which can be processed numerically. The choice of the software used for numerical processing is also an important issue. We present several exercises in numerical mathematics that are based on experiments in electrical engineering with Arduino, and show how to turn them into motivational examples. We also present our experiences in teaching using the developed exercises, as well as some important points and conclusions, which stem from discussions with the participating students and teachers.

Control systems are becoming ever more commonly used in everyday life. This is true both in industry and in the domestic domain, in the form of e.g., smart home systems. The quality of such systems can be increased by using formal verification methods, such as the model checking technique, to make sure that the designed system fulfills all user requirements. The requirements are usually written as temporal logic formulas. However, the technical skills of future users or the mathematical background knowledge of the developers are not always sufficient to support the essential stage of verification. In the paper we propose to use the Scratch-based user-friendly approach to define our own scenarios for a control system, in order to avoid focusing on the mathematical notation of temporal requirements. The specified properties can then be transformed into temporal logic formulas and used directly in the model checking process. Hence, the verification phase is simplified and more team members can participate in the engineering of requirements. An empirical study with students has shown that the proposed approach can be used in practice.

This research discusses the use of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality technology applications in the learning process of relevant content to the Computer Science area. This systematic review aims to identify applications that use technologies to represent virtual environments and support the teaching and learning of Computer Science subjects. A protocol was elaborated and executed, resulting in the final selection of 14 papers from four databases, published from 2010 to 2018. The examined papers presented information that categorized technology applications in terms of tools used. Contents addressed to the identification of applied instructional strategies and techniques, and the recognition of effects on the learning process. As a result, we found virtual environments that show potential to teaching basic content in courses related to Computer Science. In addition, the application of virtual environments in this educational scenario has provided positive effects on the learning process, such as increased interactivity, easier content absorption, increased motivation and interest in the subjects, providing greater understanding and improving efficiency in content transmission.