| CSE 101
Publications and Presentations Last update: 09/24/02 |
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| This page links to papers, conference submissions and
PowerPoint slides from presentations about CSE 101 and designing instruction for
non-Computer Science students. For further information, see our main Web page or send us E-mail: |
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Urban-Lurain Conference Paper Presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
Session 33.48 |
Persons who are Fluent with
Information Technology (FIT) move beyond "training" to a deeper level of
conceptual understanding that allows them to apply their knowledge of information
technology to solving new problems in new domains and to learn to use new software as it
becomes available. This paper summarizes how in the Department of Computer Science and
Engineering at Michigan State University attempts to teach FITness and presents the
results of analyses that suggest the approach is very successful. This paper has been revised for a chapter in a forthcoming book:
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Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank PowerPoint Slides Presented at Explorations in Instructional Technology: A Discussion Series |
Instructional uses of technology fall
into three categories: 1) delivery of content; 2) communication; and 3) feedback and
monitoring. Many discussions of instructional technology focus on the first two.
This presentation discusses how we use technology to gather and analyze data to
improve formative evaluation for students and the instructional design of an introductory
computer science course for non-CS majors. (Note: This link will download the PowerPoint file. You will need PowerPoint 97 or higher to view it. There are several hyperlinked "drill-down" slides in the presentation. While viewing the presentation, when your cursor changes to a "hand," click on those areas of the slide to jump to the correct slide in the series.) |
| Mark
Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank Conference Paper Presented at the Frontiers in Education conference Honorable Mention: October 19, 2000 |
Should non-CS majors learn to
program? While the 1999 National Academy of Sciences report Being Fluent with
Information Technology advocates teaching programming as part of the CS-0 experience,
we challenge the assumptions upon which this recommendation rests. Our extensive review of
the NECC and SIGCSE conference proceedings from 1979 to 1998 clearly shows a decline in
the number of articles in which programming is taught in CS-0 courses. Furthermore, based
upon learning theory literature, we argue that conceptual understanding of computing can
be acquired without learning to program. Finally, we describe our criterion-referenced,
mastery-model course that prepares 1800 students per semester for a computing future that
is constantly changing.
For a more detailed presentation of the analysis of this data, see:
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Attendance and outcomes in a large, collaborative learning, performance assessment course |
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Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank Conference Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Association,
Division J |
Several studies of large, lecture-based courses have examined the relationship between class attendance and final course grades. This study examines the effects of attendance on performance in a large, lab-based, introduction to computing course in which grades are determined solely on criterion-referenced, performance-based assessments.The strongest predictor of student performance is overall class attendance. |
Computing concepts and competencies. |
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| Mark
Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank Interactive Learning:
Vignettes from America's Most Wired Campuses |
Designing instruction to provide
"computing literacy" for non-Computer Science students is a challenge faced by
computer science departments in many colleges and universities. To meet this challenge, we
created a fixed course structure with continuously evolving course content. The structure
provides feedback for assessing students and revising the course content to meet the
changing demands of client departments, changing student experience, and changing hardware
and software environments. See the PowerPoint slides from the Computer Enhanced Teaching at 50 Colleges Conference associated with this book. |
Mastering Computing Technology: A New Approach for Non-Computer Science Majors |
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Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank Conference Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Association,
Division C, Section 7 |
Performance-based assessments can offer a richer means of evaluation than traditional objective, machine-scored tests. However, evaluating them is very time consuming. We discuss the performance-based, modified mastery-model assessments we designed for a large-enrollment (1800 students per semester) introductory Computer Science course for non-Computer Science majors. |
I Do and I Understand: Mastery Model Learning for a Large Non-Major Course |
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Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank Conference Paper Presented at the Association of Computing Machinery SIGCSE 99 Technical
Symposium |
We describe the infrastructure we
have created for a large enrollment (1800 / semester) non-major course. The course
combines collaborative, lab-based problem-solving instruction with modified
mastery-learning assessment. The infrastructure supports continuous improvement to respond
to client department needs, incoming student experience, course design flaws and computing
platform upgrades.
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Urban-Lurain Don Weinshank PowerPoint Slides Presented at the Computer
Enhanced Teaching at 50 Colleges Conference |
Designing instruction to provide "computing literacy" for non-Computer Science students is a challenge faced by computer science departments in many colleges and universities. We created a fixed course structure with continuously evolving course content. The structure provides feedback for assessing students and revising the course content to meet the changing demands of client departments, changing student experience, and changing hardware and software environments. |
Evolution of Introductory Computer Science Courses for Non-CS Majors |
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PowerPoint Slides Spring, 1998 |
A review of the ACM SIGCSE literature on designing introductory Computer Science instruction for non-Computer Science students in the context of selectionist theory. What are the variations in these courses? What are the selective retention factors? A classification taxonomy is proposed and the distribution of the articles within that taxonomy is presented. |
An Instructional Theory for Introductory Computer Science for Non-Computer Science Students |
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Paper Spring, 1997 |
A formally specified instructional theory for a course that addresses computing concepts and principles for non-computer science students at the university level. A key component of this theory is the assessment, a modified mastery model in which students must demonstrate their ability to solve problems from a range of disciplines using a variety of computer software. |
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Paper Spring, 1996 |
Until very recently, workers in the AI community have performed the majority of work on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) with little interaction with educational researchers. Although there was great enthusiasm for the prospects of ITS throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's, this excitement has recently waned. Some consider ITS an embarrassing reminder of the naive enthusiasm both disciplines had, preferring to concentrate on issues such as the use of standard computer software as cognitive tools in the classroom. Others suspect that ITS advocates want to replace teachers. However, it may be premature to dismiss ITS as an educational dead end. |