Introduction to the special issue on concurrent and parallel programming

Abstract

Much of computing education research is devoted to introductory computer science. The articles in this special issue look at the other end of the spectrum: learning advanced subjects, here, concurrent, parallel and distributed computation. The articles present four approaches for teaching these subjects using infra-structure that is feasible for educational institutions to acquire: MapReduce in a cloud, remote computing on a multicore system, a network of gaming consoles, and software modeling using formal specification.

Evaluation of parallel programming teaching methodologies: On‐campus versus online methodologies

“…There are some homework tasks proposed in each lesson by means of tests with question-related to the lesson and assignments that actually are programming exercises in a specific programming language. 1 It is worth mentioning that students are enrolled in a modality exclusively. Indeed, the students' characteristics are rather different between modalities and this may affect their learning methodology and final results.…”

“…In fact, some works have described experiences teaching advanced undergraduate or graduate parallel programming courses. We refer the reader to for insights. In particular, it is a great challenge to analyze the user's activity in learning management systems (LMS) with the purpose to detect difficulties and deficiencies in online methodologies .…”