Informatics in Education

The misalignment between the skills learned in tertiary education and the skills demanded by industry is well documented. One of the ways this misalignment can be reduced is through the introduction of an internship phase in degrees. This article identifies the perceived benefits and challenges that internship programmes offer academic staff in a tertiary educational facility. It also determines how feedback from the industry helps shape the curriculum of the degree. A qualitative case study is employed through interviews with various staff working at a tertiary education institution. The data generated is analysed using a thematic approach. The results show that internships not only place value on soft skills but also build a communication channel between the mentors that visit students whilst out on placement and the industry staff that oversee the students during the work-based phase. This mutually beneficial interaction between the industry and the education institution helps the mentors maintain familiarity with the latest technologies adopted in the industry and allows the industry to influence the curriculum of the degrees. Internships were shown to offer a means of advertising the skills gained in academia to the audience that would eventually employ the graduates.

Object-oriented programming distinguishes between instance attributes and methods and class attributes and methods, annotated by the static modifier. Novices encounter difficulty understanding the means and implications of static attributes and methods. The paper has two outcomes: (a) a detailed classification of aspects of understanding static, and (b) a collection of questions designed to serve as a learning/practice/diagnostic tool to address those aspects. Providing answers requires learners to apply higher-order cognitive skills and, hence, to advance their understanding of the essential meaning of the concept. Each question is analyzed according to three characteristics: (a) the static aspects that the question examines according to a detailed classification the paper provides; (b) identification of the question according: to Bloom’s revised taxonomy, to the Structure of Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy; and to the problem-solving keywords used in the question's formulation. Several recommendations for teaching are presented.

The current study investigates the attitudes of teachers towards Computer-Assisted Education (CAE) and their knowledge of technology, pedagogy and content via TPACK model that assesses the competencies for developing and implementing successful teaching. There were 280 participants in the study. The results of the study indicate that teachers' attitudes towards CAE scores are much higher than their TPACK scores. There is a low level positive correlation between their TPACK competencies and their attitudes towards CAE. Particularly, teachers' competencies of Technology Knowledge (TK) and Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) have much higher relationship with their attitude towards CAE when compared to other competencies. Attitude toward CAE is observed to differ by gender. As for TPACK competencies, TK and Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) differ by gender. The TPACK framework explains 20% of attitudes towards CAE. TK is the construct having the highest effect in explaining the attitude towards using CAE.

This paper presents results of a questionnaire focused on investigating students' confidence and behavioral intention in the area of programming, particularly that of structures, problem solving, and programming commands (Conditional - Loop). Responses from 116 1st year students regarding informatics were used. The results indicate that the engagement with programming logic yields a positive impact on students' confidence and acceptance. In addition, all the measured factors are related relatively strongly. Our findings demonstrate that students' prior direction (at Lyceum) has a significant impact on their Confidence for using Programming Commands (CPC) and Confidence for using Data Structures (CDS); however, prior direction does not have any impact on learners Problem Solving Confidence (PSC) and Behavioral Intention (BI) for programming. In the conclusion, several issues regarding the courses of programming are discussed.

Over the last decade there is an intensive discussion within the Information Systems (IS) and Informatics community about the characteristics and identity of the discipline. Simultaneously with the discussion, there is an ongoing debate on essential skills and capabilities of IS and Business Informatics graduates as well as the profile of IS programs. With this paper we recognize the need for different IS perspectives resulting in diverse study profiles. We developed a framework for structuring information systems study programs and characterized some of the differences in study programs. The results from this study are based on a survey and workshops with domain exerts, both from academia and practice. The descriptive results from the survey are presented, and show the diversity of study programs, both on master and bachelor level. As an example for an IS profile we summarize a reference structure for Business Informatics study programs, which aims to provide guidance for curriculum development and to stimulate further debate on IS curriculum development.