A friendly online C compiler to improve programming skills based on student self-assessment

This paper presents an online C compiler designed so that students can program their practical assignments in Programming courses. What is really innovative is the self-assessment of the exercises based on black-box tests and train students’ skill to test software. Moreover, this tool lets instructors, not only proposing and classifying practical exercises, but also evaluating automatically the efforts dedicated and the results obtained by the students. The system has been applied to the 1st-year students at the Industrial Engineering specialization at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. Results show that the students obtained better academic performance, reducing the failure rate in the practical exam considerably with respect to previous years, in addition that an anonymous survey proved that students are satisfied with the system because they get instant feedback about their programs.

The Museum/School Partnership: A New Role for Art Museums in K-5 Art Education

For nearly thirty years, the arts have been poorly represented in public school classrooms due to tight budgets, state mandates, and a belief that the arts are not essential to education. In this paper, I will investigate the absence of focused art education curriculum in K-5 classrooms across the United States’ public school system, explain the advantages of reinstating art as a basic subject in the classroom curriculum, and advocate for a more active art museum role in public school elementary art education. The art museum may be in the ideal position to help develop and facilitate programming in K-5 classrooms. By placing teams of art museum professionals in public school classrooms, art museums can establish a prominent role in the museum/school relationship and can help ensure that children have adequate access to art education. The outcome would be children who have greater academic and personal successes throughout their lives.

Broadening the Scope of Ethnic Identity: A Social Sustainability Solution for Pan African Communities through Ethnically Relevant Educational Programming

This conceptual study explores ethnic identity development theory in order to argue that ethnic identity development education is a means of developing broad senses of community in the African Diaspora that expand beyond a tribal, local, familial level. This study suggests that the broadening of community understanding would contribute to establishing social sustainability on regional, national and international levels within the Pan African community. Establishing such social sustainability would have direct effects on the areas of economic and environmental sustainability. One of the goals of this project is to offer suggestions for ethnically relevant education that can develop social sustainability in several places throughout the Diaspora, such as in Nigeria where ethnic conflicts are a contemporary concern.

The design of an economically viable large-scale computer based education system /

"February, 1969"

An integrated multiple criteria decision making approach for resource allocation in higher education

Resource allocation is one of the major decision problems arising in higher education. Resources must be allocated optimally in such a way that the performance of universities can be improved. This paper applies an integrated multiple criteria decision making approach to the resource allocation problem. In the approach, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is first used to determine the priority or relative importance of proposed projects with respect to the goals of the universities. Then, the Goal Programming (GP) model incorporating the constraints of AHP priority, system, and resource is formulated for selecting the best set of projects without exceeding the limited available resources. The projects include 'hardware' (tangible university's infrastructures), and 'software' (intangible effects that can be beneficial to the university, its members, and its students). In this paper, two commercial packages are used: Expert Choice for determining the AHP priority ranking of the projects, and LINDO for solving the GP model. Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A quest for helpful feedback to programming coursework

The 2011 National Student Survey (NSS) revealed that 40% of full-time students in England did not think that the feedback on their work has been helpful, even though 66% of these students agreed that the feedback was detailed and 62% of them agreed that the feedback has been prompt. Detailed feedback that is not considered helpful by students means a waste of tutors' time while students continue to struggle with their learning. What do students consider as helpful feedback? What are the qualities of helpful feedback? What are the preferred forms of feedback? How should tutors write feedback so that students will find it helpful? Can ICT help to improve the quality of feedback? In our ongoing search for answers to the above questions, we have trialled the use of a novel Internet application, called eCAF, to assess programming coursework from Engineering, Mathematics and Computing students and have collected their views on the feedback received through a survey. The survey reveals that most students prefer electronic feedback as given through eCAF, with verbal feedback ranked second and hand-written feedback ranked even lower. The survey also indicates that the feedback from some tutors is considered more helpful than others. We report on the detailed findings of the survey. By comparing the kinds of feedback given by each tutor who took part in the trial, we explore ways to improve the helpfulness of feedback on programming coursework in a bid to promote learning amongst engineering students.

Multiple criteria decision-making techniques in higher education

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the literature which focuses on four major higher education decision problems. These are: resource allocation; performance measurement; budgeting; and scheduling. Design/methodology/approach: Related articles appearing in the international journals from 1996 to 2005 are gathered and analyzed so that the following three questions can be answered: "What kind of decision problems were paid most attention to?"; "Were the multiple criteria decision-making techniques prevalently adopted?"; and "What are the inadequacies of these approaches?" Findings: Based on the inadequacies, some improvements and possible future work are recommended, and a comprehensive resource allocation model is developed taking account of these factors. Finally, a new knowledge-based goal programming technique which integrates some operations of analytic hierarchy process is proposed to tackle the model intelligently. Originality/value: Higher education has faced the problem of budget cuts or constrained budgets for the past 30 years. Managing the process of the higher education system is, therefore, a crucial and urgent task for the decision makers of universities in order to improve their performance or competitiveness. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A quest for helpful feedback to programming coursework

The 2011 National Student Survey (NSS) revealed that 40% of full-time students in England do not think that the feedback on their work has been helpful, even though 66% of these students agreed that the feedback was detailed and 62% of them agreed that the feedback has been prompt. Detailed feedback that is not considered helpful by students means a waste of tutors' time while students continue to struggle with their learning. What do students consider as helpful feedback? What are the qualities of helpful feedback? What are the preferred forms of feedback? How should tutors write feedback so that students will find it helpful? Can ICT help to improve the quality of feedback? In our ongoing search for answers to the above questions, we have trialled the use of a novel online application (eCAF) to assess programming coursework from engineering, mathematics and computing students and, through a survey, have collected their views on the feedback received. The survey reveals that most students prefer electronic feedback as given through eCAF, with verbal feedback ranked second and hand-written feedback ranked even lower. The survey also indicates that the feedback from some tutors is considered more helpful than others. We report on the detailed findings of the survey. By comparing the kinds of feedback given by each tutor who took part in the trial, we explore ways to improve the helpfulness of feedback on programming coursework in a bid to promote learning amongst engineering students.

The Automation of Adaptive Processes in the System of Distance Education and Knowledge Control

The article reveals a new technological approach to the creation of adaptive systems of distance learning and knowledge control. The use of the given technology helps to automate the learning process with the help of adaptive system. Developed with the help of the quantum approach of knowledge setting, a programming module-controller guarantees the support of students’ attention and the adaptation of the object language, and this helps to provide the effective interaction between learners and the learning system and to reach good results in the intensification of learning process.

A Software Platform for Teaching Programming with Grading Systems

Красимир Манев, Милослав Средков, Петър Армянов - Състезателните системи (СС) са незаменимо средство за организация на състезания по програмиране. Напоследък СС се използват и в обучението по програмиране. В статията е предложена платформа, която да интегрира възможностите на СС, създадени или използвани от авторите. Целта е изграждането на проста и ефективна среда за обучение по програмиране, подпомагаща учебния процес. Специфицирани са основните елементи на платформата, като резултат от предходно изследване, и една нейна възможна архитектура.

CORE: A Multi-Purpose Programming Contest Repository System

Яни Чаушев, Милослав Средков, Красимир Манев - Всяко състезание по програмиране използва множество софтуерни инструменти за управление на процесите по време на състезанието. Въпреки че тези инструменти обикновено покриват спецификите на конкретния вид състезание задоволително, те рядко адресират трудностите на дългосрочното съхранение на данни и оперативната съвместимост. В тази статия е представен един софтуерен инструмент адресиращ тези проблеми. Вместо комплексна система, касаеща всички аспекти на състезанието, CORE е централизирано хранилище за съхраняване и поддържане на необходимите за различни състезания данни. Представени са основните му елементи, текущото състояние на реализацията и перспективите за развитие на системата.