Teaching programming efficiently to students in the first year of computer science education is challenging. It is especially cumbersome to retain the interest of both groups, when the student group consists of novice (i.e., those who have never programmed before) and expert programmers in the same crowd. Thus, individualized teaching cannot be…

Many introductory computer science (CS) courses are intended to address the increased demand for computer literacy and the development of cross-cutting concepts and practices of computational thinking (CT). Colleges and universities offer introductory CS courses every semester toward this end. The issue is centered on how to support CT learning in…

In course design, topic outline organization encompasses the structuring and sequencing of topics to be delivered in a learning environment. Recent studies in topic outline optimization revolve around massive open online courses (MOOCs) due to their abundance but not much has been studied on the traditional courses. This study investigates the…

One approach to teaching game design to students with a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds is through team game projects that span multiple weeks, up to an entire term. However, open-ended, creative projects introduce a gamut of challenges to novice programmers. My goal is to assist game design students with the planning stage of their…

All engineering careers require some level of programming proficiency. However, beginning programming classes are challenging for many students. Difficulties have been well-documented and contribute to high drop-out rates which prevent students from pursuing engineering. While many approaches have been tried to improve the performance of students…

Assessment plays an important role in education and can both guide and motivate learning. Assessment can, however, be carried out with different aims: providing the students with feedback that supports the learning (formative assessment) and judging to which degree the students have fulfilled the intended learning outcomes (summative assessment).…