@article{HagedornSerthMeinel2023, author = {Hagedorn, Christiane and Serth, Sebastian and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {The mysterious adventures of Detective Duke}, series = {Frontiers in education}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in education}, publisher = {Frontiers Media}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {2504-284X}, doi = {10.3389/feduc.2022.1016401}, pages = {22}, year = {2023}, abstract = {About 15 years ago, the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) appeared and revolutionized online education with more interactive and engaging course designs. Yet, keeping learners motivated and ensuring high satisfaction is one of the challenges today's course designers face. Therefore, many MOOC providers employed gamification elements that only boost extrinsic motivation briefly and are limited to platform support. In this article, we introduce and evaluate a gameful learning design we used in several iterations on computer science education courses. For each of the courses on the fundamentals of the Java programming language, we developed a self-contained, continuous story that accompanies learners through their learning journey and helps visualize key concepts. Furthermore, we share our approach to creating the surrounding story in our MOOCs and provide a guideline for educators to develop their own stories. Our data and the long-term evaluation spanning over four Java courses between 2017 and 2021 indicates the openness of learners toward storified programming courses in general and highlights those elements that had the highest impact. While only a few learners did not like the story at all, most learners consumed the additional story elements we provided. However, learners' interest in influencing the story through majority voting was negligible and did not show a considerable positive impact, so we continued with a fixed story instead. We did not find evidence that learners just participated in the narrative because they worked on all materials. Instead, for 10-16\% of learners, the story was their main course motivation. We also investigated differences in the presentation format and concluded that several longer audio-book style videos were most preferred by learners in comparison to animated videos or different textual formats. Surprisingly, the availability of a coherent story embedding examples and providing a context for the practical programming exercises also led to a slightly higher ranking in the perceived quality of the learning material (by 4\%). With our research in the context of storified MOOCs, we advance gameful learning designs, foster learner engagement and satisfaction in online courses, and help educators ease knowledge transfer for their learners.}, language = {en} } @article{Schlosser2020, author = {Schlosser, Rainer}, title = {Scalable relaxation techniques to solve stochastic dynamic multi-product pricing problems with substitution effects}, series = {Journal of revenue and pricing management}, volume = {20}, journal = {Journal of revenue and pricing management}, number = {1}, publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan}, address = {Basingstoke}, issn = {1476-6930}, doi = {10.1057/s41272-020-00249-z}, pages = {54 -- 65}, year = {2020}, abstract = {In many businesses, firms are selling different types of products, which share mutual substitution effects in demand. To compute effective pricing strategies is challenging as the sales probabilities of each of a firm's products can also be affected by the prices of potential substitutes. In this paper, we analyze stochastic dynamic multi-product pricing models for the sale of perishable goods. To circumvent the limitations of time-consuming optimal solutions for highly complex models, we propose different relaxation techniques, which allow to reduce the size of critical model components, such as the state space, the action space, or the set of potential sales events. Our heuristics are able to decrease the size of those components by forming corresponding clusters and using subsets of representative elements. Using numerical examples, we verify that our heuristics make it possible to dramatically reduce the computation time while still obtaining close-to-optimal expected profits. Further, we show that our heuristics are (i) flexible, (ii) scalable, and (iii) can be arbitrarily combined in a mutually supportive way.}, language = {en} } @article{SchmidlPapenbrock2022, author = {Schmidl, Sebastian and Papenbrock, Thorsten}, title = {Efficient distributed discovery of bidirectional order dependencies}, series = {The VLDB journal}, volume = {31}, journal = {The VLDB journal}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Berlin ; Heidelberg ; New York}, issn = {1066-8888}, doi = {10.1007/s00778-021-00683-4}, pages = {49 -- 74}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Bidirectional order dependencies (bODs) capture order relationships between lists of attributes in a relational table. They can express that, for example, sorting books by publication date in ascending order also sorts them by age in descending order. The knowledge about order relationships is useful for many data management tasks, such as query optimization, data cleaning, or consistency checking. Because the bODs of a specific dataset are usually not explicitly given, they need to be discovered. The discovery of all minimal bODs (in set-based canonical form) is a task with exponential complexity in the number of attributes, though, which is why existing bOD discovery algorithms cannot process datasets of practically relevant size in a reasonable time. In this paper, we propose the distributed bOD discovery algorithm DISTOD, whose execution time scales with the available hardware. DISTOD is a scalable, robust, and elastic bOD discovery approach that combines efficient pruning techniques for bOD candidates in set-based canonical form with a novel, reactive, and distributed search strategy. Our evaluation on various datasets shows that DISTOD outperforms both single-threaded and distributed state-of-the-art bOD discovery algorithms by up to orders of magnitude; it can, in particular, process much larger datasets.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Teusner2021, author = {Teusner, Ralf}, title = {Situational interventions and peer feedback in massive open online courses}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-50758}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-507587}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {178}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) open up new opportunities to learn a wide variety of skills online and are thus well suited for individual education, especially where proffcient teachers are not available locally. At the same time, modern society is undergoing a digital transformation, requiring the training of large numbers of current and future employees. Abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and the need to formulate instructions for computers are becoming increasingly relevant. A holistic way to train these skills is to learn how to program. Programming, in addition to being a mental discipline, is also considered a craft, and practical training is required to achieve mastery. In order to effectively convey programming skills in MOOCs, practical exercises are incorporated into the course curriculum to offer students the necessary hands-on experience to reach an in-depth understanding of the programming concepts presented. Our preliminary analysis showed that while being an integral and rewarding part of courses, practical exercises bear the risk of overburdening students who are struggling with conceptual misunderstandings and unknown syntax. In this thesis, we develop, implement, and evaluate different interventions with the aim to improve the learning experience, sustainability, and success of online programming courses. Data from four programming MOOCs, with a total of over 60,000 participants, are employed to determine criteria for practical programming exercises best suited for a given audience. Based on over five million executions and scoring runs from students' task submissions, we deduce exercise difficulties, students' patterns in approaching the exercises, and potential flaws in exercise descriptions as well as preparatory videos. The primary issue in online learning is that students face a social gap caused by their isolated physical situation. Each individual student usually learns alone in front of a computer and suffers from the absence of a pre-determined time structure as provided in traditional school classes. Furthermore, online learning usually presses students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum, which presents the same content to all students, regardless of their individual needs and learning styles. Any means of a personalization of content or individual feedback regarding problems they encounter are mostly ruled out by the discrepancy between the number of learners and the number of instructors. This results in a high demand for self-motivation and determination of MOOC participants. Social distance exists between individual students as well as between students and course instructors. It decreases engagement and poses a threat to learning success. Within this research, we approach the identified issues within MOOCs and suggest scalable technical solutions, improving social interaction and balancing content difficulty. Our contributions include situational interventions, approaches for personalizing educational content as well as concepts for fostering collaborative problem-solving. With these approaches, we reduce counterproductive struggles and create a universal improvement for future programming MOOCs. We evaluate our approaches and methods in detail to improve programming courses for students as well as instructors and to advance the state of knowledge in online education. Data gathered from our experiments show that receiving peer feedback on one's programming problems improves overall course scores by up to 17\%. Merely the act of phrasing a question about one's problem improved overall scores by about 14\%. The rate of students reaching out for help was significantly improved by situational just-in-time interventions. Request for Comment interventions increased the share of students asking for help by up to 158\%. Data from our four MOOCs further provide detailed insight into the learning behavior of students. We outline additional significant findings with regard to student behavior and demographic factors. Our approaches, the technical infrastructure, the numerous educational resources developed, and the data collected provide a solid foundation for future research.}, language = {en} } @book{BeinBraunDaaseetal.2020, author = {Bein, Leon and Braun, Tom and Daase, Bj{\"o}rn and Emsbach, Elina and Matthes, Leon and Stiede, Maximilian and Taeumel, Marcel and Mattis, Toni and Ramson, Stefan and Rein, Patrick and Hirschfeld, Robert and M{\"o}nig, Jens}, title = {SandBlocks}, number = {132}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-482-1}, issn = {1613-5652}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43926}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-439263}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 212}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Visuelle Programmiersprachen werden heutzutage zugunsten textueller Programmiersprachen nahezu nicht verwendet, obwohl visuelle Programmiersprachen einige Vorteile bieten. Diese reichen von der Vermeidung von Syntaxfehlern, {\"u}ber die Nutzung konkreter dom{\"a}nenspezifischer Notation bis hin zu besserer Lesbarkeit und Wartbarkeit des Programms. Trotzdem greifen professionelle Softwareentwickler nahezu ausschließlich auf textuelle Programmiersprachen zur{\"u}ck. Damit Entwickler diese Vorteile visueller Programmiersprachen nutzen k{\"o}nnen, aber trotzdem nicht auf die ihnen bekannten textuellen Programmiersprachen verzichten m{\"u}ssen, gibt es die Idee, textuelle und visuelle Programmelemente gemeinsam in einer Programmiersprache nutzbar zu machen. Damit ist dem Entwickler {\"u}berlassen wann und wie er visuelle Elemente in seinem Programmcode verwendet. Diese Arbeit stellt das SandBlocks-Framework vor, das diese gemeinsame Nutzung visueller und textueller Programmelemente erm{\"o}glicht. Neben einer Auswertung visueller Programmiersprachen, zeigt es die technische Integration visueller Programmelemente in das Squeak/Smalltalk-System auf, gibt Einblicke in die Umsetzung und Verwendung in Live-Programmiersystemen und diskutiert ihre Verwendung in unterschiedlichen Dom{\"a}nen.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Taeumel2020, author = {Taeumel, Marcel}, title = {Data-driven tool construction in exploratory programming environments}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44428}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-444289}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 299}, year = {2020}, abstract = {This work presents a new design for programming environments that promote the exploration of domain-specific software artifacts and the construction of graphical tools for such program comprehension tasks. In complex software projects, tool building is essential because domain- or task-specific tools can support decision making by representing concerns concisely with low cognitive effort. In contrast, generic tools can only support anticipated scenarios, which usually align with programming language concepts or well-known project domains. However, the creation and modification of interactive tools is expensive because the glue that connects data to graphics is hard to find, change, and test. Even if valuable data is available in a common format and even if promising visualizations could be populated, programmers have to invest many resources to make changes in the programming environment. Consequently, only ideas of predictably high value will be implemented. In the non-graphical, command-line world, the situation looks different and inspiring: programmers can easily build their own tools as shell scripts by configuring and combining filter programs to process data. We propose a new perspective on graphical tools and provide a concept to build and modify such tools with a focus on high quality, low effort, and continuous adaptability. That is, (1) we propose an object-oriented, data-driven, declarative scripting language that reduces the amount of and governs the effects of glue code for view-model specifications, and (2) we propose a scalable UI-design language that promotes short feedback loops in an interactive, graphical environment such as Morphic known from Self or Squeak/Smalltalk systems. We implemented our concept as a tool building environment, which we call VIVIDE, on top of Squeak/Smalltalk and Morphic. We replaced existing code browsing and debugging tools to iterate within our solution more quickly. In several case studies with undergraduate and graduate students, we observed that VIVIDE can be applied to many domains such as live language development, source-code versioning, modular code browsing, and multi-language debugging. Then, we designed a controlled experiment to measure the effect on the time to build tools. Several pilot runs showed that training is crucial and, presumably, takes days or weeks, which implies a need for further research. As a result, programmers as users can directly work with tangible representations of their software artifacts in the VIVIDE environment. Tool builders can write domain-specific scripts to populate views to approach comprehension tasks from different angles. Our novel perspective on graphical tools can inspire the creation of new trade-offs in modularity for both data providers and view designers.}, language = {en} } @article{Weigend2015, author = {Weigend, Michael}, title = {How Things Work}, series = {KEYCIT 2014 - Key Competencies in Informatics and ICT}, journal = {KEYCIT 2014 - Key Competencies in Informatics and ICT}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-82814}, pages = {285 -- 298}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Recognizing and defining functionality is a key competence adopted in all kinds of programming projects. This study investigates how far students without specific informatics training are able to identify and verbalize functions and parameters. It presents observations from classroom activities on functional modeling in high school chemistry lessons with altogether 154 students. Finally it discusses the potential of functional modelling to improve the comprehension of scientific content.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-4677, title = {Selected Papers of the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies (IWST'10) : Barcelona, Spain, September 14, 2010}, editor = {Haupt, Michael and Hirschfeld, Robert}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-106-6}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-48553}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {34}, year = {2010}, abstract = {The goal of the IWST workshop series is to create and foster a forum around advancements of or experience in Smalltalk. The workshop welcomes contributions to all aspects, theoretical as well as practical, of Smalltalk-related topics.}, language = {en} }