Empowering Learners for Life in the Digital Age

Based on a thorough literature review and on personal expertise in different areas of computer science (education) fields, we reflect and debate on computational thinking from different perspectives. One is that of an Austrian teacher who is confronted with a curriculum for a new subject called ‘Basic Digital Education’, with computational thinking as an explicit part of it. The other view is that from a reflective software engineer with a holistic perspective on computational thinking and concrete ideas about its limitations. The debate concludes with an agreement on computational thinking as a cultural technique and a mutual approach to a refined working definition.

Computational thinking has grown in importance in recent years as an important key competence of the 21^st century [1]. In order to equip students for life in the digital age, it is necessary to enable them to acquire competences in this area. In this context, there are a number of concepts of computational thinking; and the curricular embedding of these competences in schools has progressed to varying extents in educational systems [2]. What is therefore required is a large-scale study that compares students’ competences in computational thinking and the underlying conditions of acquisition at an international level, as provided by the International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2018 (ICILS 2018). In addition, to draw on well-proven problem-solving theories and facilitate access for non-computer scientists, it is important to compare these competences with students’ problem-solving skills [3]. This will be accomplished through a German national extension to ICILS 2018 which, on a representative basis at the national level, will enable comprehensive analysis of this relationship. The purpose of the present paper is to introduce computational thinking and problem-solving in the context of ICILS 2018. This study should then provide a starting point for empowering students for life in the digital age.

After summarising the research context regarding defining, cultivating, and assessing computational thinking (CT), this theoretical paper examines data modelling using interactive displays, a CT practice that may be cultivated across several school subjects. Although working with data is not explicitly mentioned in some CT definitions, this work may activate different CT components, such as abstraction, decomposition, and pattern recognition. Furthermore, interactive displays, which are primarily a means for visualising data, can also be tools for modelling purposes if used within a modelling cycle. Focusing on this modelling in secondary education, we first consider main activities and their underlying skills, and outline what kind of support should be given to modellers, especially novices, in assisting them to complete this as easily as possible. We then consider what computational environment to use, which learning path to follow, and what assessment of learning to apply. Implications for teacher professional development are included.

Teaching and learning programming is a challenge. Although several learning and programming environments have been proposed for classes, there seems to be more dissent than consensus as to which tools are preferable over others. This paper investigates teachers’ perspectives on popular learning and programming environments used in secondary computer science education in Germany. The environments investigated are: BlueJ, Scratch, Greenfoot, Eclipse, MIT App Inventor, Processing IDE, and Alice. Based on prior research, a catalogue of environment features supporting the learning processes of students was constructed. Using these criteria, an online-survey was conducted with computer science teachers in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the survey, the participating teachers evaluated the selected tools’ adequacy for teaching object-oriented programming. The findings support the results of prior research conducted with students, stressing the importance of a simple and user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) as well as the option to visualise classes and objects. Contrary to prior studies, the results show that teachers do not see the editor as equally important, as students do, and that there is no consensus about the role of the area of application for choosing an integrated development environment (IDE). Student-friendly debugging messages as well as a step-by-step execution of programs were identified as important features. Although no tool excelled for every criterion, the clear favourite was BlueJ.

Towards the establishment of an evaluation platform for computational thinking (CT), in this paper, we use the “Bebras Challenge” coined by Dr. Dagienė as a measurement tool of CT skills. This paper presents a “triangle examination” which includes three kinds of testing methods (programming testing, traditional paper testing, and Bebras Challenges). Approximately one hundred and fifty non-computer science (CS) undergraduate students participated in the examination as a part of an introductory programming course. The result indicated a weak but positive correlation (.38–.45) between the three methods. Additional qualitative analysis for each task in Bebras showed that requirements of algorithm creation and interpretation, and explicitness of the description, are two critical factors to determine a high correlation between other testing methods. We conclude our research by showing a clear correlation between the Bebras Challenge and actual programming.

In our attempt to support Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) learning for beginners, we designed a novel microworld called PrOgO. It is based on a three-dimensional (3D) constructive game metaphor for describing OOP basic concepts and their implementation. In this paper, we describe a study about the use of PrOgO by beginners to investigate their behaviours when interacting with the programming microworld. The study is based on the collection, analysis and reporting of data about players (playing analytics). The data analysis allows the identification and the characterisation of different behaviours. From an educational perspective, the expected behaviour has been confirmed for a limited number of students. This enabled us to conclude that the design of the game needs to be improved. In addition, behaviours triggered by most students might have other educational values, which could be confirmed by other similar studies.

Computer science related curricula, standards and frameworks are designed and implemented in many countries to incorporate informatics education in schools, already starting with kindergarten and primary education. A recurring point of discussion addresses the focus of those educational models concerning the different fields of computer science - the topics related to the scientific subject of computer science, or digital literacy (the set of skills and competencies needed in everyday life in the digital age). In this paper, we present a semi-automated approach to categorise learning outcomes of computer science related curricula into one of those two categories. Categorisation is performed with linguistic metrics computed for nouns and verbs of representative curricula of each category. The categorisation is compared against classifications of nine experts of computer science teaching and research. The results show a matching categorisation for 70% of all learning outcomes and 90% of learning outcomes uniformly classified by the experts.

The myth of the “digital native”, pedagogical beliefs about ICT and its place in education, and the reality of a teacher as an ICT role model each contribute to the attitudes school students develop about ICT. All Australian teachers, regardless of discipline, are required to incorporate ICT in their lessons. The way pre-service teachers (PSTs) are educated has a direct impact on their ability and desire to teach digital competence to school students. Using 482 first year PSTs’ experiences and expectations as a lens, teaching degrees at an Australian university were investigated, using a mixed methods approach, to find out whether the ICT content was appropriate to prepare graduate teachers to implement the national curriculum. Findings indicated that the teaching degrees did not meet all PSTs’ needs. PSTs wanted more explicit instruction in the practical and pedagogical implications of using ICT in the classroom, and some even wanted training to navigate the university’s online systems. These findings indicate that assumptions implicit in universities about digital competence may be invalid. Recommendations include suggestions that universities review their expectations of PST digital competence and consider including both embedded and explicit methods of teaching ICT in teaching degrees.

Due to the shortage of IT teachers in Italian schools, the teaching of computational thinking is carried out by in-service K-12 teachers from scientific areas not specialised and by novices in computer science (CS). It is crucial to investigate not only the training of teachers in digital skills, but also how their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours can affect, in detail, their implementation in the classroom. From these premises, the present exploratory study investigates the self-efficacy beliefs, intrinsic motivation and perceived effort of a group of 46 teachers who, on a voluntary basis, engaged in a 20-h workshop on CS teaching. The results show a significant improvement in self-efficacy, despite their perception of strong effort to master the subject.

In this paper, we report work in designing a decision-making system that aims to support teachers in appropriating to their practice innovative scenarios that employ uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning. To this end, we break down educational scenarios into micro-activities, and connect them to required and alternative infrastructure. We argue that micro-activities is a unit of analysis of educational scenarios that is compatible with the role of teachers as designers who select, decompose, combine, enact and revise different pieces of resources. This paper offers a reflective viewpoint on integrating ICT in existing scenarios and investigates how teaching objectives make use, or not, of the potential of digital technologies.

Although the research literature on online courses, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), has proliferated, surprisingly few studies have explored the organisational approach to a generic institutional strategy for supporting educators when developing online courses in higher education (HE). The goal of this paper is therefore to describe and conceptualise the outline of an infrastructure for organising the production of online courses in continuous and further education. Central to the infrastructure is the Educational Action Task Force (EATF), a network consisting of employees with complementary competences (c.f. technical, pedagogical and multimedia) that can coach, mentor and support educators through the entire online course production process in designated teams. In this article, we outline the design of the online course production process in the EATF teams. The design is stepwise and collaborative, and aims to contribute to a seamless and quality-assured strategy that caters for the various goals that content creators may have within the scope of the strategic goals in the organisation.

The lack of standards to objectively assess the quality of teaching opened a new path of research. Teaching involves a lot of different tasks and activities that should be explored, so, consequently, when talking about quality of teaching, it makes sense to look at teaching as a process and to assess its maturity. This contribution briefly looks at existing approaches, and introduces the idea of a teaching maturity model (TeaM) for school and university teachers. Such a framework, even though it proves helpful from a measurement perspective, might not be acceptable by teachers, so this paper presents the results of a study for testing the TeaM model in respect to its usability and acceptability with informatics lecturers at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. The results show the interest of our teachers in the model, but also some of the impediments that have to be dealt with when applying the model on a larger scale.

This paper describes innovation platform development for co-creation of serious games. Innovation platforms offer modes of collaboration for schools, universities, citizens, and companies. The main actors of this project are three universities and two science centres in Finland. Several modes for collaboration have been tried in order to discover permanent structures that would benefit various stakeholders. Interests of different stakeholders have been analysed in order to find conditions for successful co-creation. Problems that prevent efficient collaboration have been identified, which are predominantly financial issues. Moreover, some more game-specific issues have been discovered: the understanding of use of games in education and pedagogical goals and methods are not necessarily shared between game developers and educators. Game developers seek to create games that are entertaining, whereas educators want tools that support curriculum goals and enhance learning. However, the idea of collaborative design practices in learning has been welcomed by all stakeholders. In particular, the co-creation in science centres has started successfully, bringing small start-up companies and school students together around educational application development where science centres act as facilitators. Recommendations for best practices in universities are drafted in order to find efficient ways of implementation.

This paper deals with a preliminary empirical study carried out during a museum school visit. The study aims to understand the influence of a game on students’ conduct in the museum. We address the use of digital games for personalising experiences in museums and for fostering visitors’ interactions with the museum exhibition. The paper describes the design-based methodology and the collaborative design and testing of a digital game dedicated to help young museum visitors address the consequences of their relationships with nature and to understand the concept of anthropocene. Students were videotaped and the data collected enabled the identification of different conducts and situations depending on the gameplay performed by students.

Classcraft is a digital role-playing game dedicated to classroom management. Teachers can create teams and assign an avatar to students, as well as points and ‘powers’ as rewards for desired behaviour. We conducted a study in 4 classrooms from Switzerland. The study aimed at assessing to what extent the game fosters the social component of students’ engagement. The detection of socially-engaged behaviours is based on the monitoring of players’ behaviours. We collected and analysed players’ digital traces with kTBS4LA, a platform dedicated to playing analytics. The data collected shows that social engagement varies across time or gender. This variation seems to be linked to specific features of the game and also depends on how the game is played.

As technology changes, learning games are adapted to target audience and available devices. Analytics methods must keep up with keeping the learner in focus. This work presents the Multi-Touch Learning Game (MTLG) framework, designed to implement cross platform educational games with support for cooperative, collaborative and competitive settings. It shows adaption of a user-centred learning analytics data model, the learning data context model, to fit circumstantial requirements of multi-user settings on a shared device in games implemented using the MTLG framework. A first field study has been conducted, and the results, challenges and lessons learned are discussed.

This is a case study of a specific learning environment in the Intensive English Language Program, characterised by technical, spatial, temporal, and motivational restrictions that impede students’ progress. Activity Theory was used to describe the situation, and to design an intervention in the form of a new activity system. A dubbing project was designed and implemented in the Listening and Speaking Course. It utilised students’ mobile devices in an anywhere, anytime type of learning, and their native language and cultural background as a starting point to engage them in a collaborative effort that led to the production of eight dubbed videos. The resulting videos were entered in an internally-organised video competition which added a further motivational element to the project. To evaluate the project’s effect on students’ perceptions and motivation, data were collected using 5 focus group interviews. Results show high levels of motivation, increased learning, increased confidence and sense of achievement and pride in the resulting work.

By sharing experiences from the process of making Massive Open Online Courses (MooCs) in second language at NTNU, this paper aims to raise awareness about the need for improved technology solutions with a critical look at how course developers can build more innovative and interactive language MooCs within the frame of self-instructed courses using new convergent technologies such as Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC).

This paper reports on a study which investigated whether the addition of haptics (virtual touch) to a three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality (VR) simulation promotes learning of key concepts in biology for students aged 12 to 13 years. We developed a virtual model of a section of the cell membrane and a haptic-enabled interface that allows students to interact with the model and to manipulate objects in the model. Students, in two schools in England, worked collaboratively on activities, in pairs, designed to support learning of key difficult concepts. These concepts included the dynamic nature of the cell membrane, passive diffusion and facilitated diffusion. Findings from observation of the activities and student interviews revealed that students were very positive about using the system and believed that being able to feel structures and movements within the model assisted their learning. Results of pre- and post-tests of conceptual knowledge showed significant knowledge gains but there were no significant differences between the haptic and non-haptic condition.

Extensive research confirms the benefits of group work in various educational and business domains. There has, however, been little consideration to rigorous formation of groups, especially project teams, in software engineering disciplines to improve the outcomes of these groups. Previous studies show that the outcome of groups will be affected by a number of different factors, such as the context in which these groups interact, the characteristics and the behaviour of each individual and the group composition. This research evaluates the extent to which it is possible to enhance the group outcomes by systematically reconstructing the groups of students and hence improve the performances and raise the overall outcome level of a software engineering lecture at two universities, the Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt and the Technical University of Košice. An empirical experiment has been carried out involving 69 groups and 140 individuals. The results of this experiment were then compared with historical data of 961 groups (approximately 2,400 students) on group outcomes over a period of 12 years. The findings show statistically significant improvements of the outcomes for those groups that were systematically constructed. These results could enable business leaders and educators to systematically form their groups for improving the outcomes of these groups.

Social networks are technology-based applications that enable network members to communicate for mutual benefit. Research evidence has indicated that social networks can serve as learning delivery platforms that contribute to positive student learning. In the present study, three similar groups of students enrolled in an ‘Introduction to Ethics’ course, were exposed to either Facebook-based, WhatsApp-based or Twitter-based delivery of ethical concepts on their smartphones. At the end of the course, students were examined on ethical concepts. They also responded to a questionnaire that examined user-friendliness, learner motivation and learner satisfaction associated with the social networks they experienced. Results indicate that WhatsApp students attained a higher level of achievement than Facebook students who, in turn, attained higher grades than Twitter students. Additional results indicate that WhatsApp and Facebook students held more positive impressions of user-friendliness and learner motivation related to their delivery platforms than Twitter students. WhatsApp students also held more positive impressions of satisfaction with their delivery platform than Facebook students who maintained more positive feelings of satisfaction than Twitter students. Thus, WhatsApp, and to a lesser extent, Facebook, are associated with enhanced achievement and positive feelings toward their delivery platforms with Twitter students lower on academic achievement and affective variables.

Enterprise Social Media Platforms are now commonplace in organisations. They are argued to bring benefits, like simplifying work processes, enhance internal communications and reduce internal organisational barriers. Such benefits can be obtained on the assumption that employees naturally engage on a platform and share knowledge. But how to and what to share on an enterprise platform is not always a straightforward task and is a practice that must be learned through sense-making of sharing. Therefore, this challenges the assumption that sharing on Social Media Enterprise Platforms can bring benefits. Consequently, the paper examines the challenges in making sense of the meaning of the practice of sharing. The paper explores a case study on how a County Authority in a Nordic country implemented an Enterprise Social Media Platform and how a group of employees tried to make sense of the practice of sharing by reflection-on-action. The results show that the employees interpreted sharing as an informing practice, resulting in information-overload and disengaged users.

This paper presents pilot study findings of a research project about the application of anchoring vignettes in the analysis of Czech upper secondary school students’ self-assessment of ICT skills. The pilot study was conducted in December 2017 with 166 respondents from four different types of upper secondary schools. Anchoring vignettes, which are brief texts describing hypothetical people who illustrate a certain level of the trait of interest (e.g. information and communication technology (ICT) skills), is a method implemented to identify response scale differences in survey questions and to adjust self-assessments caused by response scale differences. Methodologically, as there are only a few examples of the application of this method in the self-assessment of ICT skills and also in educational research, this pilot study has enabled the researchers to test how comprehensible a questionnaire with a set of vignettes was for the upper secondary school students. This enhanced research method based on anchoring vignettes will be used for the main study in spring 2018. The pilot study findings confirmed the high variability of the use of scale for respondents’ self-assessments and vignettes.

This study investigated students’ perceptions of a bring-your-own (BYO) laptop based e-Examination system used in trials conducted at an Australian pre-university college in 2016 and 2017. The trials were conducted in two different subjects, in geography and globalisation. Data were gathered using pre-post surveys (n = 128) that comprised qualitative comments and Likert items. Students’ perceptions were gathered relating to the ease of use of the e-Examination system, technical reliability, suitability of the assessment task to computerisation and the logistical aspects of the examination process. Many of the typists were taking a computerised supervised test for the first time. A divergence of opinions between those that typed and those that hand-wrote regarding students’ future use intentions became more prominent following the examination event.

This study examined students’ expressed strategies, habits and preferences with respect to responding to supervised text-based assessments. Two trials of a computerised examination system took place in an Australian pre-university college in 2016 and 2017. Students in several classes studying geography and globalisation completed a sequence of practice and assessed work. Data were collected using pre- and post-surveys about their preferred writing styles, habits and strategies in light of their choice to type or handwrite essay and short answer examinations. Comparisons were made between those that elected to handwrite and those who chose to type the examination, with several areas being significant. The performance (grades), production (word count) of the typists and hand-writers were also correlated and compared.

In order to verify common findings in the literature regarding the conception of e-assessment among students, we carried out a survey based on common findings. Our survey, which has been carried out over several higher education institutes, enhances the already existing findings by adding new facets. The achieved results are promising in that students seem to be open-minded regarding e-assessment, which is in line with the findings in the already existing literature. However, there are some open points that have to be resolved in a reliable way in order to completely convince the students of the opportunities offered by e-assessment.