Publications by Ms Janet Carter

The ACM, the AIS, and the IEEE Computer Society have jointly defined five computing disciplines: computer engineering, computer science, information systems, information technology, and software engineering. These terms and many others are used as the names of educational programmes. Across the world, the same name may be used for quite different programmes and different names for similar programmes. This makes it difficult for potential students, employers, and educators to determine the nature of a particular programme and how it compares to others. Because computing is global, greater clarity in terminology is required. We have surveyed academics and literature internationally to determine the scale of the nomenclature issue across the globe. A consistent naming scheme would be ideal, but the different terminologies are now entrenched in different countries, so this paper provides the next best option, a taxonomy of the principal terms and their meanings.

Significant attention has been paid in recent years to student attrition, and rightly so, since rates are rising and need diagnosing. Little attention seems to have been paid to the converse--the successful student. It is widely believed among academics that high school grades--in the UK, A-levels--are poor indicators of final performance, although we persist in using them as entry criteria in the absence of any other index into a student's potential. This study, conducted in parallel in two traditional (pre-1992) UK universities, focuses on one discipline that has peculiar characteristics in intake, student expectation and entry criteria. We confirm some widely held beliefs, and scotch some others. As with all such studies, the number of confounding factors is large, but we draw conclusions where possible that are of relevance to all disciplines, and discuss how we mean to proceed

Information Technology (IT) is a subject that is distinct from Computer Science (CS), but is often taught by CS faculty; there is a large overlap between the content of curricula for the two subjects. In this pa-per, we discuss some of the issues and problems experienced within CS that are also of relevance to the IT educator. We discuss the effects of student and faculty expectations along with curricular issues, and we conclude that setting student expectations and aligning them with our own at as early a stage as pos-sible is crucial to success.

International students are an important and desirable constituent in most computer science programs, bringing new perspectives into the classroom, diversifying the student population, globalizing the curriculum, broadening the perspective of domestic students, and often generating revenue for the host institution. Each of these characteristics is desirable and increasingly important in today's highly connected world and job market. Most institutions invest resources in attracting international students and providing support and orientation sessions for them on arrival to help acclimate them to the new environment and to introduce them to other students. Student clubs often provide support groups and social functions to help them meet and make friends with domestic students. However, challenges for international students, and for the faculty teaching them, persist at many institutions despite these efforts to help international students deal with culture shock, differing academic expectations and teaching methods, and different attitudes toward issues such as academic honesty. In this paper, the authors examine the challenges faced by international students in integrating into computer science programs at various institutions, and explores these challenges and identifies differences in student and faculty perceptions. Asurveyofover200international students studying in four counties was conducted to gain insight into student perceptions of their educational experience.

In this pilot study we look at the UK based weeklong Festival of Code, which is organized by Young Rewired State, and has for the last five years, and explore what impact this has had on the 7-18 year old attendees and their subsequent development. This team based coding exercise for children has grown from 50 to 1000 participants and will have important lessons about how we address computational thinking and teaching computing science to the next generation, as well as what lessons can be learned from these informal events.

Finding effective means of meeting students' varied needs during introductory programming classes is a perpetual challenge. Maintaining motivation and a sufficient level of engagement across an undergraduate group with diverse prior experience is not a simple task. Claims for successful approaches include forms of differentiated teaching and paired programming. Competitions run by professional bodies and the software industry are often used to provide further external motivation. This paper presents the outcomes of a collaborative initiative across four universities which drew on aspects of both these approaches. Academics in the partner institutions had already implemented specific practice to accommodate the variety of student needs. The TOPS project was designed to involve and extend students through the processes of devising and competing in an inter-university challenge. Analysis of the outcomes has enabled the development of further understanding and good practice in this important area.

This paper presents the findings of an interactive poster of the same name that was displayed at two Computer Science Education conferences during the summer of 2001. Delegates were presented with fragments of code written by first year Computer Science undergraduates and were asked to determine whether the code authors were male or female. The findings suggest that not only is it not possible to determine the gender of the author, but that the gender stereotyped 'clues' relied upon as a basis for the determination are unreliable predictors.

As teachers within Higher Education we know what we expect from our undergraduate students. At the start of the academic year, when the new undergraduates arrive, we have certain expectations about them; about their understanding of certain concepts and the ways in which they will approach their studies. We don't always know particularly in the current climate of the constantly changing school curriculum, what they initially expect from us, and what past experiences they are drawing upon to form these expectations. The students undoubtedly hold a variety of preconceptions about the courses they have chosen; students choose Computing modules based upon these preconceptions. This paper presents the findings of a small-scale study designed to address this issue.

This paper describes the findings of a small-scale case study concerning the collaborative aspects of student working practices. It is a pilot investigation into the strategies that are employed by students when attempting Object Oriented programming exercises outside the formal classroom setting. Some of the collaborative practices are simple cases of copying, but others, despite falling within the definition of plagiarism, are a beneficial, and possibly useful, means of enhancing the learning process. Although this study only focuses upon a small group of students in one UK University, the practices highlighted are unlikely to be confined to this one setting.

The learning (and teaching) of programming in Higher Education is a perennial problem, and is the subject of much attention and innovation. One way in which the problem can be addressed is for instructors to investigate and thus better understand the ways in Which students learn to program. We present the results of investigations carried out at the Universities of Bent and Leeds into the ways in which gender influences the learning approach of students in programming. The research shows that gender is a significant factor in determining the way in which students approach learning to program. A better understanding of the issues raised would lead to more effective teaching and thus better learning.

In the summer of 2002 the CS department at the University of Kent at Canterbury (ukc) signed up to a guided revision and key skills programme intended to help students pass their first year exams and ease the transition to the second year. The scheme, called VALUE, proved to be extremely popular with CS students and more students applied than could be accommodated. The departmental response was to create a cut-down version of the scheme, called Value-LITE. This paper describes the schemes and explores the impact of the revision phase upon examination results.

This paper presents a comparison of the results of two case studies, both examining different aspects of the interactions between members of one cohort of undergraduate Computer Science students at the University of Kent at Canterbury. These studies were performed simultaneously but independently within two different course modules. The first study uses data gathered from the experimental introduction of email-based seminars in a first-year Information Systems module. The second study examines the collaboration displayed by the same students studying an introductory Programming module. This provided an excellent opportunity for a comparison of the effects of traditional and modern innovative teaching methods upon the learning of one particular cohort of students. The results are complementary; students who became accustomed to working together on Programming tasks have carried their co-working strategies into the email seminars.

Every year the CompEd research group has undertaken a ''summer reading'' project. This year we have undertaken a whole group project which utilises the skills and research techniques relevant to CSEd research. This statistical analysis is the first in a series of technical reports to disseminate our findings. Its main use is to present a numerical picture of the relationship between assessments, examinations, modules, and overall performance that highlights factors requiring a more in-depth, qualitative approach. Part 2 of the report will build upon this information and will also involve an analysis of the different approaches to assessment setting between the CS Part I modules and the desired learning outcomes. Part 3 of the report will draw together the evidence from parts 1 and 2 and will also involve a closer examination of individual students performances tracing their progress both between modules and across different types of assessment. This will be situated within the context of the findings from parts 1 and 2. The overall aim is to create a taxonomy of assessment.

Computing, as a discipline within Higher Education, is a relatively new subject and it has undergone a rapid expansion and growth in popularity in recent years. Despite this rise in popularity the number (not just the proportion) of females studying Computing-related subjects at degree level is decreasing. This decline in the number of female applicants for Computer Science (CS) degree programmes is worrying to say the least. This paper reports the findings of a small research project designed to highlight problems and to suggest a course of action that could improve the situation. This initial investigation has attempted to identify any gender-related problems that female CS students at two traditional UK universities have encountered.

A collection of statistics about the students who entered CS at UKC in October 1996 and graduated in July 1999. This excludes students who dropped out along the way and students taking the ''with a year in industry'' option and are due to graduate in July 2000.

Abstract A collection of statistics about the 1997 entry CS cohort.

In the summer of 2002 the CS department at the University of Kent at Canterbury (ukc) signed up to a guided revision and key skills programme intended to help students pass their first year exams and ease the transition to the second year. The scheme, called VALUE, proved to be extremely popular with CS students and more students applied than could be accommodated. The departmental response was to create a cut-down version of the scheme, called Value-LITE. This paper describes the schemes and explores the impact of the revision phase upon examination results.