No abstract

No abstract

Successful software engineering requires experience and acknowledgment of complexity, including that which leads designers to recognize ambiguity within the software design description itself. We report on a study of 21 post-secondary institutions from the USA, UK, Sweden, and New Zealand. First competency and graduating students as well as educators were asked to perform a software design task. We found that as students go from first competency to graduating seniors they tend to recognize ambiguities in under-specified problems. Additionally, participants who recognized ambiguity addressed more requirements of the design.

What measurable effect do the language and paradigm used in early programming classes have on novice programmers' ability to do design? This work investigates the question by using data collected from 136 "first competency" students as part of a multinational, multi-institutional study of students' approach to and attitudes toward design. Analysis of a number of surface characteristics of their designs found strikingly few differences between designs produced by students at schools that teach using objects-early, imperative-early, and functional-early paradigms. A similar lack of difference was found between students at C++-first and Java-first schools. While statistically significant differences are found for three characteristic comparisons across language and paradigm, these results seem to have little meaning for teaching given the complexity of the null hypotheses tested in those three cases. In particular, for the following design characteristics no statistically significant differences across language or paradigm of early instruction were found: attempt to address requirements, type of design produced, number of parts in design, recognition of ambiguity in design, and connectedness of design.

No abstract

No abstract

The SIGCSE 2021 leadership team wants to express support for the movement in the United States and around the world decrying racial inequality. The protests and conversations calling for reform reinforce the need for dramatic change in society.

Call it a surge, call it a bubble, just don't call it business as usual. It is no secret that enrollments in college and university computer science (CS) classes are growing rapidly and faculty are under pressure to teach more classes and significantly larger classes. They need new and creative ways to accommodate as many students as possible while maintaining excellent pedagogy. Not only that, we don't want to repeat history and worsen already poor diversity statistics with enrollment management strategies that shut out or discourage women and other under-represented groups.