The HMIE publication, "External quality arrangements for Scotland's colleges," specifies that HMIE will produce a number of subject aspect reports over the four years 2008-12. These aspect reports complement in a subject-specific context the generic evaluations of learning and teaching in HMIE's reports of external review of colleges.…

Software engineering (SE) is a multidimensional field that involves activities in various areas and disciplines, such as computer science, project management, and system engineering. Though modern SE curricula include designated courses that address these various subjects, an advanced summary course that synthesizes them is still missing. Such a…

The value and the pitfalls of project and group work are well recognized. The principles and elements which apply to projects in general, apply to project-based courses. Thoughtful and detailed planning, understanding of the stakeholders and their needs, a good design, appropriate testing, monitoring and quality control and continual management…

There is an active research community concentrating on visualizations of algorithms taught in CS1 and CS2 courses. These visualizations can help students to create concrete visual images of the algorithms and their underlying concepts. Not only "fundamental algorithms" can be visualized, but also algorithms used in compilers. Visualizations that…

A comprehensive understanding of biological functions requires new systemic perspectives, such as those provided by systems biology. Systems biology approaches are hypothesis-driven and involve iterative rounds of model building, prediction, experimentation, model refinement, and development. Developments in computer science are allowing for ever…

This paper addresses the challenges resulting from the design and implementation of a modular, flexible curriculum of computer science. It is intended to share the processes and structures that are being employed in order to cooperatively approach desired qualities and qualifications. In addition, the paper shares goals, strategies, and…

In tight economic times, the concerns and issues of science, viewed as not having enough practical value, can get pushed aside. But the top science books of 2008 demonstrate how science more often than not pays for itself. What's more practical than food (Tomorrow's Table), health (Our Daily Meds), the environment (The Hot Topics), or even--sex…

This research investigates university students' determinations of credibility of information on Web sites, confidence in their determinations, and perceptions of Web site authors' vested interests. In Study 1, university-level computer science and education students selected Web sites determined to be credible and Web sites that exemplified…

Pedagogical beliefs and attitudes significantly determine the professional skills and practice of teachers. Many professional development programs for teachers aim to the elaboration of the pedagogical knowledge in order to improve teaching quality. This paper presents the study of pedagogical beliefs of computer science teachers in Greece. The…

The career choice model of Adya and Kaiser posits the availability of technology resources as a structural element impacting on career choice. The model distinguishes between accessibility at school and at home. Based on this theoretical point of departure and by arguing a link between choice of major and choice of field of career, this paper…

In the last few decades, analogy, which is considered as a special case for reasoning, has attracted a great deal of attention from cognitive scientists. Although analogy was rarely applied in previous decades, now it is often considered by educators and researchers as a strategy to provide creative solutions and poetic writing (Paris & Glynn,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a hybrid learning approach to deliver a computer science course concerning the Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003 program in comparison to delivering the same course content in the form of traditional lectures. A hundred and seventy-two first year university students were randomly…

This paper assesses textual feedback to support student intrinsic motivation using a collaborative text-based dialogue system. A research model is presented based on research into intrinsic motivation, and the specific construct of feedback provides a framework for the model. A qualitative research methodology is used to validate the model.…

Java Virtual Machine (JVM) education has become essential in training embedded software engineers as well as virtual machine researchers and practitioners. However, due to the lack of suitable instructional tools, it is difficult for students to obtain any kind of hands-on experience and to attain any deep understanding of JVM design. To address…

This paper explores the relationship between electronic social networks, teaching, and learning. Previous studies have shown a strong positive correlation between student engagement and learning. By extending this work to engage instructors and add an electronic component, our study shows possible teaching improvement as well. In particular,…