Overall recruitment into the broad family of UK university Computing programs remains buoyant. However, this should not be the grounds for complacency. Many school leavers continue to reject the opportunity to study computing at higher level, falling foul of a particular stereotypical characterization of ‘computing students’ and popular representations of the work environment and career paths. Those who do proceed to study Computing at university may encounter a significant mismatch between their expectations and the reality of the subject content, especially if their experiences and education to date were drawn from an ICT orientated curriculum compared to a Computer Science focused experience. In the main our undergraduate programs also bear witness to a significant gender imbalance. Reflecting upon their experiences in addressing some of these issues, the first paper we carry in this edition, Computing Science in the Classroom: Experiences of a STEM Ambassador, Gareth Renaud and Karen Renaud (University of Glasgow) report upon some of their efforts to engage with Scottish high school students so as to communicate some of the excitement and satisfying career choices and lifestyles supported by a career in computing, either as a main subject of study or as a valuable complement to other areas. The authors offer a broad spectrum of suggestions to bolster the reputation of Computer Science as distinct from ICT and record some observations on the delivery and assessment of a creative, attractive computing science curriculum within Scottish secondary schools.
Papers by Priska Schoenborn and Terri Rees (Plymouth University) and Neil Gordon, Mike Brayshaw and Simon Grey (University of Hull) in turn present to the reader differing approaches to delivery and assessment with a common focus of encouraging student engagement, promoting self directed learning/exploration, building confidence and striving to excel. A Module Designed with Chaos and Complexity in Mind, (Schoenborn and Rees) records the authors’ experiences and observations undertaking a ‘chaotic learning’ based approach to delivery and task assignment within a second year undergraduate module on Object Orientated Analysis and Design, delivered within their host institution. The authors’ base tenet is that configuring activities and assessment within a module to afford non-linear, exploratory and collaborative learning opportunities better reflects real-life learning and real-world work experiences (when compared to a traditional, artificially paced, didactic lecture and practical series). While acknowledging that students require significant support and encouragement when they first encounter this form of learning, preliminary reviews suggest the students’ overall learning and results profited. Maximising Gain for Minimal Pain: Utilising Natural Game Mechanics, (Gordon, Brayshaw and Grey) asks the reader to consider the application and effectiveness of incorporating game mechanics within a module’s learning activities. Transplanting the familiar gaming scenario wherein a ‘player’ is afforded multiple opportunities to accomplish a task, is rewarded upon completion of said task via a contrived scoring system and offered the opportunity to discuss task scores with other fellow ‘competitors’ into a module’s learning and assessment strategy may be readily identified with, and of some appeal to a significant number of students. The authors’ aim was to examine the impact of game engagement and flow in encouraging and supporting student participation and performance while studying a first year module in Mathematics in support of Computing at the University of Hull. An analysis of student assessment test scores presented within the work record that a number of individuals attempted the tasks more than once. The authors would suggest that this was in an effort to improve their knowledge and skills and have this reflected in their personal score and in their score relative to that returned by their peers (even if such peer-to-peer comparisons took place informally).
Carefully drafted and clearly presented animated visualisations are often created to aid in the presentation and understanding of theoretical models and core concepts across a wide range of topics both within and external to Computing. In An Animated Tutoring System for Interactive Learning of Nonlinear Data Structures, Haiying Wang, Catherine Saunders and Huiru Zheng (University of Ulster) have followed this approach and present an outline of graphical, interactive tutorial systems which they have developed to supplement presentations on the creation and traversal of tree-based data structures as addressed within an Advanced Programming module. The Java-based application permits users to visualise, graphically manipulate and follow the execution sequence of the common traversal algorithms. The system they present here also contains a quiz section wherein pre-defined questions test the user’s knowledge of the basic concepts of data structures and their manipulation. They present an initial user-based evaluation which suggests that it was well received and the authors offer the system as an effective supplement to traditional presentations within data structure modules.
In contributing to the popularly expanding field of Computing Security and Computing Forensics, Liangxiu Han, Jamie Harries and Phillip Brown (Manchester Metropolitan University) in their paper Building a Virtual Constructivist Learning Environment for Learning Computing Security and Forensics report upon their work within their BLOSSOM project (funded by the HEA) which focused upon the creation of a suite of practical, laboratory based computer security and forensic exercises that the authors implemented virtually as a file system image. The inherent portability and standardisation of this approach removes the need for dedicated hardware, and frees both individuals and adopting institutions from the associated financial and technical support overheads. The authors adopted an experiential learning approach within each of the practical exercises, based on real-life security and forensic computing scenarios. The entire suite of activities is freely downloadable from the project website. Preliminary in-house evaluations proved positive and the authors plan to offer the materials to the wider academic and industrial community.
The paper, Elective Course OOP II: Creation and Experiences by Mirjana Ivanović, Dejan Mitrović and Miloš Radovanović (University of Novi Sad, Serbia) outlines the design of a module on Object Oriented Programming in Java which draws upon some of the materials originally crafted for a pan-European project to develop and collate, joint teaching materials on object-oriented programming using Java (2004), sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service. It is of interest to note how this collaboratively derived pool of teaching materials is continuing to be adopted and re-purposed by individual members of the original consortium who in their turn offer the derived and developed module back to the consortium.
The final paper in this edition, Gender Imbalance in Undergraduate IT Programs – A Vietnamese Perspective, Anna Shillabeer and Kevin Jackson (RMIT International, University of Vietnam) discuss the global trends and gender delineated barriers to attaining a gender balance within the computing professions and higher education programs. The primary focus of the paper reveals and explores the particular gender imbalance existing within an undergraduate IT course hosted upon a Vietnamese campus of an Australian university. Within this particular context, the authors outline success factors and derived initiatives by which they hope to redress the imbalance.