TY - JOUR A1 - Przybylla, Mareen A1 - Romeike, Ralf T1 - Empowering learners with tools in CS education BT - physical computing in secondary schools JF - it - Information Technology N2 - In computer science, computer systems are both, objects of investigation and tools that enable creative learning and design. Tools for learning have a long tradition in computer science education. Already in the late 1960s, Papert developed a concept which had an immense impact on the development of informal education in the following years: his theory of constructionism understands learning as a creative process of knowledge construction that is most effective when learners create something purposeful that they can try out, show around, discuss, analyse and receive praise for. By now, there are numerous learning and programming environments that are based on the constructionist ideas. Modern tools offer opportunities for students to learn in motivating ways and gain impressive results in programming games, animations, implementing 3D models or developing interactive objects. This article gives an overview of computer science education research related to tools and media to be used in educational settings. We analyse different types of tools with a special focus on the categorization and development of tools for student adequate physical computing activities in the classroom. Research around the development and evaluation of tools and learning resources in the domain of physical computing is illustrated with the example of "My Interactive Garden", a constructionist learning and programming environment. It is explained how the results from empirical studies are integrated in the continuous development of the learning material. KW - tools KW - media KW - resources KW - computer science education KW - physical computing Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/itit-2017-0032 SN - 1611-2776 SN - 2196-7032 VL - 60 IS - 2 SP - 91 EP - 101 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - GEN A1 - Renz, Jan A1 - Meinel, Christoph T1 - The "Bachelor Project" BT - Project Based Computer Science Education T2 - 2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) N2 - One of the challenges of educating the next generation of computer scientists is to teach them to become team players, that are able to communicate and interact not only with different IT systems, but also with coworkers and customers with a non-it background. The “bachelor project” is a project based on team work and a close collaboration with selected industry partners. The authors hosted some of the teams since spring term 2014/15. In the paper at hand we explain and discuss this concept and evaluate its success based on students' evaluation and reports. Furthermore, the technology-stack that has been used by the teams is evaluated to understand how self-organized students in IT-related projects work. We will show that and why the bachelor is the most successful educational format in the perception of the students and how this positive results can be improved by the mentors. KW - computer science education KW - project based learning KW - bachelor project Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-1-5386-9506-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2019.8725140 SN - 2165-9567 SP - 580 EP - 587 PB - IEEE CY - New York ER - TY - THES A1 - Al-Saffar, Loay Talib Ahmed T1 - Analysing prerequisites, expectations, apprehensions, and attitudes of university students studying Computer science T1 - Analyse von Voraussetzungen, Erwartungen, Haltungen, Einstellungen und Befürchtungen von Bachelor-Studierenden der Informatik N2 - The main objective of this dissertation is to analyse prerequisites, expectations, apprehensions, and attitudes of students studying computer science, who are willing to gain a bachelor degree. The research will also investigate in the students’ learning style according to the Felder-Silverman model. These investigations fall in the attempt to make an impact on reducing the “dropout”/shrinkage rate among students, and to suggest a better learning environment. The first investigation starts with a survey that has been made at the computer science department at the University of Baghdad to investigate the attitudes of computer science students in an environment dominated by women, showing the differences in attitudes between male and female students in different study years. Students are accepted to university studies via a centrally controlled admission procedure depending mainly on their final score at school. This leads to a high percentage of students studying subjects they do not want. Our analysis shows that 75% of the female students do not regret studying computer science although it was not their first choice. And according to statistics over previous years, women manage to succeed in their study and often graduate on top of their class. We finish with a comparison of attitudes between the freshman students of two different cultures and two different university enrolment procedures (University of Baghdad, in Iraq, and the University of Potsdam, in Germany) both with opposite gender majority. The second step of investigation took place at the department of computer science at the University of Potsdam in Germany and analyzes the learning styles of students studying the three major fields of study offered by the department (computer science, business informatics, and computer science teaching). Investigating the differences in learning styles between the students of those study fields who usually take some joint courses is important to be aware of which changes are necessary to be adopted in the teaching methods to address those different students. It was a two stage study using two questionnaires; the main one is based on the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire of B. A. Solomon and R. M. Felder, and the second questionnaire was an investigation on the students’ attitudes towards the findings of their personal first questionnaire. Our analysis shows differences in the preferences of learning style between male and female students of the different study fields, as well as differences between students with the different specialties (computer science, business informatics, and computer science teaching). The third investigation looks closely into the difficulties, issues, apprehensions and expectations of freshman students studying computer science. The study took place at the computer science department at the University of Potsdam with a volunteer sample of students. The goal is to determine and discuss the difficulties and issues that they are facing in their study that may lead them to think in dropping-out, changing the study field, or changing the university. The research continued with the same sample of students (with business informatics students being the majority) through more than three semesters. Difficulties and issues during the study were documented, as well as students’ attitudes, apprehensions, and expectations. Some of the professors and lecturers opinions and solutions to some students’ problems were also documented. Many participants had apprehensions and difficulties, especially towards informatics subjects. Some business informatics participants began to think of changing the university, in particular when they reached their third semester, others thought about changing their field of study. Till the end of this research, most of the participants continued in their studies (the study they have started with or the new study they have changed to) without leaving the higher education system. N2 - Thema der Dissertation ist die Untersuchung von Voraussetzungen, Erwartungen, Haltungen, Einstellungen und Befürchtungen von Bachelor Studierenden der Informatik. Darüber hinaus werden in der vorliegenden Analyse anhand des Solomon/Felder-Modells Lerntypen unter den Informatik-Studierenden untersucht mit dem Ziel, mittels einer vorteilhafter gestalteten Lernumgebung zur Lernwirksamkeit und zur Reduktion der Abbrecherquote beizutragen. Zunächst werden anhand einer Vergleichsstudie zwischen Informatik-Studierenden an der Universität Bagdad und an der Universität Potsdam sowie jeweils zwischen männlichen und weiblichen Studierenden Unterschiede in der Wahrnehmung des Fachs herausgearbeitet. Hierzu trägt insbesondere das irakische Studienplatzvergabeverfahren bei, das den Studierenden nur wenig Freiheiten lässt, ein Studienfach zu wählen mit dem Ergebnis, dass viele Studierende, darunter überwiegend weibliche Studierende, gegen ihre Absicht Informatik studieren. Dennoch arrangieren sich auch die weiblichen Studierenden mit dem Fach und beenden das Studium oft mit Best-Noten. Der zweite Teil der Dissertation analysiert Lernstile von Studierenden des Instituts für Informatik der Universität Potsdam auf der Grundlage des Modells von Solomon/Felder mit dem Ziel, Hinweise für eine verbesserte Gestaltung der Lehrveranstaltungen zu gewinnen, die Lernende in der für sie geeigneten Form anspricht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen die Schwierigkeit, dieses Ziel zu erreichen, denn sowohl männliche und weibliche Studierende als auch Studierende von Informatik, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Lehramt Informatik weisen deutliche Unterschiede in den präferierten Lernstilen auf. In einer dritten qualitativen Studie wurden mit Studierenden von Informatik, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Lehramt Informatik Interviews über einen Zeitraum der ersten drei Studiensemester geführt, um einen detaillierten Einblick in Haltungen, Einstellungen und Erwartungen zum Studium zu gewinnen sowie Probleme zu ermitteln, die möglicherweise zum Abbruch des Studiums oder zum Wechsel des Fachs oder der Universität führen können. KW - computer science education KW - dropout KW - changing the university KW - changing the study field KW - Computer Science KW - business informatics KW - study problems KW - tutorial section KW - higher education KW - teachers KW - professors KW - Informatikvoraussetzungen KW - Studentenerwartungen KW - Studentenhaltungen KW - Universitätseinstellungen KW - Bachelorstudierende der Informatik KW - Abbrecherquote KW - Wirtschaftsinformatik KW - Informatik KW - Universität Potsdam KW - Universität Bagdad KW - Probleme in der Studie KW - Lehrer KW - Professoren KW - Theoretischen Vorlesungen KW - Programmierung KW - Anleitung KW - Hochschulsystem KW - Informatik-Studiengänge KW - Didaktik der Informatik Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-98437 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schiller, Thomas T1 - Teaching Information Security (as Part of Key Competencies) BT - The Situation in Austria JF - KEYCIT 2014 - Key Competencies in Informatics and ICT N2 - The poster and abstract describe the importance of teaching information security in school. After a short description of information security and important aspects, I will show, how information security fits into different guidelines or models for computer science educations and that it is therefore on of the key competencies. Afterwards I will present you a rough insight of teaching information security in Austria. KW - Teaching information security KW - key competencies KW - computer science education KW - Austria Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-82960 SN - 1868-0844 SN - 2191-1940 IS - 7 SP - 401 EP - 404 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER -