Related papers: Code vs. Context: STEM Students' Resistance to Non…
This work introduces a novel framework for evaluating LLMs' capacity to balance instruction-following with critical reasoning when presented with multiple-choice questions containing no valid answers. Through systematic evaluation across…
Task switching and interruptions are a daily reality in software development projects: developers switch between Requirements Engineering (RE), coding, testing, daily meetings, and other tasks. Task switching may increase productivity…
Integrating computation into physics teaching is a curricular move that, at present, has been predominately studied for its cognitive impacts. However, if this modality of instruction shifts how students engage with physics, we argue there…
Context: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) leads to various issues in the everyday life of autistic individuals, often resulting in unemployment and mental health problems. To improve the inclusion of autistic adults, existing studies have…
Instructors and students alike are often focused on the grade in programming assignments as a key measure of how well a student is mastering the material and whether a student is struggling. This can be, however, misleading. Especially when…
Software testing is an essential knowledge area required by industry for software engineers. However, software engineering students often consider testing less appealing than designing or coding. Consequently, it is difficult to engage…
As more and more face-to-face classes move to online environments, it becomes increasingly important to explore any emerging barriers to students' learning. This work focuses on characterizing student barriers to active learning in…
We have found that non-STEM majors taking either a conceptual physics or astronomy course at two regional comprehensive institutions score significantly lower pre-instruction on the Lawson's Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) in…
Student experiences in large undergraduate Computer Science courses are increasingly impacted by automated systems. Bots, or agents of software automation, are useful for efficiently grading and generating feedback. Current efforts at…
Prior research has raised concerns about students' over-reliance on large language models (LLMs) in higher education. This paper examines how Computer Science students and instructors engage with LLMs across five scenarios: "Writing",…
Background: Despite the potential benefits of software modelling, developers have shown a considerable reluctance towards its application. There is substantial existing research studying industrial use and technical challenges of modelling.…
Software engineering is a human activity. Despite this, human aspects are under-represented in technical debt research, perhaps because they are challenging to evaluate. This study's objective was to investigate the relationship between…
When a computer system schedules jobs there is typically a significant cost associated with preempting a job during execution. This cost can be from the expensive task of saving the memory's state and loading data into and out of memory. It…
This experience report explores the effects of ungraded assignments on the learning experience of students in an introductory computing course. Our study examines the impact of ungraded assignments on student engagement, understanding, and…
Students' high school decisions will always impact efforts to achieve gender parity in STEM at the university level and beyond. Without a comprehensive understanding of gendered disparities in high school course selection, it will be…
Effort estimation is a complex area in decision-making, and is influenced by a diversity of factors that could increase the estimation error. The effects on effort estimation accuracy of having obsolete requirements in specifications have…
K-12 computing teachers must navigate complex trade-offs when selecting programming languages and instructional materials for classrooms with emergent bilingual students. While they aim to foster an inclusive learning environment by…
Conversational AI tools have been rapidly adopted by students and are becoming part of their learning routines. To understand what drives this adoption, we draw on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and examine how perceived usefulness…
Since computer science is still mainly male dominated, academia, industry and education jointly seek ways to motivate and inspire girls, for example by introducing them to programming at an early age. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced…
The representation of Spanish-speaking students in STEM identity literature, particularly in physics identity, is conspicuously minimal. This study addresses this gap with a two-pronged approach. First, a physics identity instrument was…