5th SPLICE Workshop Proceedings
Proceedings Citation
Brusilovsky, P, T.W. Price, L. Malmi and S. Edwards. Proceedings of SPLICE 2019 workshop Computing Science Education Infrastructure: From Tools to Data at 15th ACM International Computing Education Research Conference, Aug 11, 2019, Toronto, Canada
Organizers:
Peter Brusilovsky, University of Pittsburgh, USA (peterb@pitt.edu)
Thomas Price, North Carolina State University, USA
Lauri Malmi, Aalto University, Finland
Steve Edwards, Virginia Tech, USA
More information is available at the the workshop page.
Peer Reviewed Papers
Title: Runestone Interactive Ebooks: A Research Platform for On-lineComputer Science Learning
Authors: Barbara Ericson, Iman Yeckehzaare and Mark Guzdial
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: The Runestone ebook platform is open source, extensible, and al- ready serves over 25,000 learners a day. The site currently hosts 18 free ebooks for computing courses. Instructors can create a cus- tom course from any of the existing ebooks on the site and can have their students register for that custom course. Instructors can create assignments from the existing material in each ebook, grade assignments, and visualize student progress. Instructors can even create new content for assignments. The Runestone ebooks contain instructional material and a variety of practice problem types with immediate feedback. One of the practice types, Parsons problems, is also adaptive, which means that the difficulty of the problem is based on the learner’s performance. Learner interaction is recorded and can be analyzed. This paper presents the history of Runestone, describes the interactive features, summarizes the previous research studies, and provides detail on the recorded data. Interaction data can be shared with other learning environments through the Learning Tools Interoperability Standard (LTI).
Title: IFS: An educational platform for analyzing course outcomes and student experience
Authors: James Fraser, Judi McCuaig and Dan Gillis
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: This paper introduces IFS, an online discipline agnostic automated feedback system used for a longitudinal study that explores students' characteristics, their online behavior patterns, and the relationship of those characteristics and behaviors to course outcomes. Initially, assessment tools are available for computer programming and English language writing. Students submit snapshots of course work for assessment and are provided automated feedback. IFS incorporates student self-assessment as an essential component of the system. Student self-assessment options include surveys, such as self-efficacy or Grit, and self-assessments related to their perceived skills or performance. The data collected from the students' surveys and their IFS interactions can be used to explore behavioral trends that impacted course performance and overall experience.
Peer Reviewed Lightning Talks
Title: Lightning Talk: Curating Analyses for Programming Log Data
Authors: Thomas Price and Ge Gao
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: In this lightning talk, we will solicit input from the SPLICE community on an effort to collect and curate analyses for programming log data. The talk will explore what a repository of CS educational data mining (CSEDM) tools might look like. It will focus on the challenge presented by the diversity of programming log data, which can vary in granularity, which events are recorded, and programming language features. We will present an initial effort to organize analyzes according to the attributes of data that they require.
Title: Learning Content Integration into an Electronic Textbook for Introductory Programming
Authors: Jordan Barria-Pineda, Kamil Akhuseyinoglu and Peter Brusilovsky
Abstract: In this paper, we describe an initial attempt for integrating multiple smart learning content from different providers into an e-reader platform. We present an integration example for the case of an introductory programming textbook. We show that it is possible to embed different related external content through standardized protocols, including LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability).
Invited Lightning Talks
Title: Identity Atheneum: Combining User Management, Analytics and Gamification in a Multi Tool Hub
Authors: Jun Zheng and Brian Harrington
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: Modern active learning course structures and a desire for enhanced student analytics has given rise to a wide variety of tools and systems to help students read & write code, track student progress, create groups, manage assignments, and gamify course experiences. However, these tools are often developed as siloed systems that require separate authentication and user management, and do not support easy cross-tool data sharing and analysis.
Identity Atheneum (IA) grew out of our desire to reward students for participating in and interacting with the variety of tools we have developed, coupled with our wish to track students progress not only within, but between these tools.
Rather than each tool having its own user and data management back-end, IA can act as a central hub that either integrates with existing learning management systems, or provides a single point of contact for instructors to create, update, and track student accounts. It also provides unified authentication, and allows for a wide variety of gamification protocols, calculating and managing points from multiple tools within a course, and even between multiple courses
Title: Integrating CrowdSorcerer: Lessons Learned
Authors: Nea Pirttinen and Juho Leinonen
Abstract: CrowdSorcerer is a tool for crowdsourcing programming assignments and teaching testing. While originally developed for the introductory Java courses at the University of Helsinki, the tool is currently being integrated into the introductory Python course at the University of Toronto. Our goal is to make CrowdSorcerer easily integrable for multiple types of materials and contexts. This facilitates the crowdsourcing aspect by both increasing the size of the population using the tool as well as diversifying the content that is generated.
Title: Integrated “Caring” IDE: A CS1 Tool
Authors: Mohsen Dorodchi, Aileen Benedict and Erfan Al-Hossami
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: In this work, we explain the design and implementation of a collaborative programming environment capable of (1) collecting various forms of data from students both directly and indirectly, (2) organizing and visualizing that data, and most importantly (3) providing statistical and predictive analytics features. This system integrates with learning management systems (LMS) through various forms of API’s and therefore, helps instructors track students’ progress in introductory programming courses and predict any potential failures early in the semester. The integration of emergent social tools for real-time communication and assessment, such as live chat, blogs, discussion boards, personal response systems, and surveys, would bring new and innovative capabilities to the classroom, especially for active learning models. A cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE) is being integrated and is under final tests that track students' programming patterns both in individual activities as well as group, collaborative ones. The seamless integration with learning management systems can collect a great amount of data about students' study patterns beyond grades as well. All of this data is descriptively visualized in different granular levels. In addition, they are fed into the learning analytics module to determine at-risk students early on. In this paper, we will report on the layout of the system as well as various tools that have been experimented with in our CS1 active learning course fostering students’ engagement and learning. Most parts of the system are currently built and functional. Ultimately, the goal is to expand this infrastructure to different institutions through collaborative research.
Title: Considering theory in the design of CS education infrastructure: Three framings of computational thinking
Authors: Chris Proctor
Abstract: The development of computer science (CS) education infrastructure at the K12 and university level has largely sidestepped theoretical questions, positioning traditional cognitive approaches to computational thinking as unproblematic. This presentation considers how recent work organizing the theory space of computational thinking (into cognitive, situated, and critical computational thinking) might influence the nature of K12 CS education research questions and infrastructure used for teaching and assessing learning. An analysis of Unfold Studio, a platform for middle- and high-school literacy-based computer science education, illustrates how infrastructure could support theoretically-grounded pedagogy and research.
Title: A Peek at the csedresearch.org Dataset: Structuring the Dataset for Usage throughout the CS Education Research Community
Authors: Monica McGill
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: The csedresearch.org dataset currently has two primary sets of data that is being collected--one set of data is manually curated from K-12 computing education articles. This set houses information such as the intervention being studied, the participant demographic data, and the teacher data. The dataset further includes the type of evaluation instrument used in the study, the type of measures examined, the data analysis used/reported, and more. The second set of data includes the evaluation instruments related to computing that can be used by other researchers and evaluators. This includes any evidence of reliability and validity for the instrument, the authors, the year it was published, number and type of questions, and more. All of this data can be found through searches on csedresearch.org and by contacting us for downloads of specific sets of data. In addition, in this brief talk, we'll discuss future plans, including the development of data analytic measures and the collection of raw data from evaluation instruments.
Title: Mastery Grids Platform for Personalized Practice
Authors: Peter Brusilovsky, Kamil Akhuseyinoglu and Jordan Barria-Pineda
Slides: Available Here
Abstract: Mastery Grids is an open source learning platform, which provides access to multiple types of interactive learning content through a personalized interface.