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opencert / workshop-2019

Working repository of the "9th International Workshop on Open Community approaches to Education, Research and Technology" *** towards "Open community approaches" CERTification processes *** Porto, Portugal, 8 October 2019, Co-located with FM 2019
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Submission 7 (Project/Short) #7

Open opencert opened 5 years ago

opencert commented 5 years ago

Title: Open and Interactive Learning Resources for Algorithmic Problem Solving

Abstract: Algorithmic problem solving is a way of approaching and solving problems by using the advances that have been made in the principles of correct-by-construction algorithm design. The approach has been taught at first-year undergraduate level since September 2003 and, since then, a substantial amount of learning materials have been developed. However, the existing materials are distributed in a conventional and static way (e.g. as a textbook and as several documents in PDF format available online), not leveraging the capabilities provided by modern collaborative and open-source platforms. In this paper, we propose the creation of an online, open-source repository of interactive learning materials on algorithmic problem solving. We show how the existing framework Mathigon can be used to support such a repository. By being open and hosted on a platform such as GitHub, the repository enables collaboration and anyone can create and submit new material. Furthermore, by making the material interactive, we hope to encourage engagement with and a better understanding of the materials. OpenCERT_2019_paper_7.pdf

milpaolo commented 5 years ago

I will review this paper Paolo Milazzo

paddykrishnan commented 5 years ago

I can also review this paper. Paddy Krishnan

stever00 commented 5 years ago

I will review this paper Steve Reeves

mhmartinho commented 5 years ago

I will review this paper. M. Helena Martinho

opencert commented 5 years ago

Assigned PC members:

stever00 commented 5 years ago

I don't think you said int he paper whether there is yet any data on: (1) how effective your ideas have turned out so far; (2) how acceptable students find this approach; (3) how well-used this approach is (or might be). Can you say anything about these aspects?

jff commented 5 years ago

Hi Steve, thanks for reading the paper and for the questions. We are unsure whether you are referring to the interactive learning material or to the more general approach of teaching APS.

Regarding the interactive learning material, we had many teaching sessions where we presented these topics and we had some quizzes during some sessions. What we are proposing to create is based on those experiences. However, we have not yet tested these "Mathigon-based online interactive materials" with students.

Our submission is a project paper (short paper). It describes a new open community project, whose ideas are at an early stage of development and which have not yet been throughly evaluated (the problems, puzzles, techniques, and approach have been evaluated to some extent, but the online Mathigon-based interactive material has not).

The idea came from discussions with colleagues and students and from the observation that what most students enjoy during classes is the interactivity that problem solving offers. When they go through the material on their own, they loose the interactivity --- this project, which is still in its embrionary stage, is a proposal to improve that. Our goal with this submission is to present the idea to the community and obtain feedback so that we can improve what we have planned for the next steps of this project.

Regarding the more general approach of teaching APS:

  1. We would say that it depends on how you measure 'effectiveness'. The approach is effective in the sense that the techniques and methods taught have been used to find new solutions to non-trivial problems (e.g. the material in number theory in [5], and the new class of solitaire games 'Turing Tapes' that is published in MPC'10/SCP'13 and mentioned in [1]). If by effectiveness you mean students becoming better problem solvers, then it's more difficult to answer. In [6], we did a small-scale experiment to try to determine if a cohort of students became better problem solvers. The focus was the calculational method and, generally, they adopted what was taught in the module for solving problems, but their use of the calculational style was not effective. In [9], we discuss an experiment where pre-university students, after being exposed to some material, were able to apply techniques like invariants by themselves.

    1. Our experience is that students appreciate the approach. We have presented some feedback to a session we delivered on analysing an algorithmic card trick in [7]. In [9], feedback from pre-university students can be found --- it shows that the material (or, at least, parts of the material) can even be taught at pre-university level. During some teaching sessions, we have also collected feedback from our students. In general, they appreciate the use of recreational problems and the interactivity that arises from solving those problems.

    2. This material was taught for about 10 years at the University of Nottingham (it started in 2003). It was taught at Teesside University from 2011 to 2018. Thousands of students were exposed to the material. Backhouse's book on APS is used in the course CS2104 at Virginia Tech. We believe that creating an interactive APS book will help and increase the adoption of this approach to teach APS.

opencert commented 4 years ago

Camera-ready version for the post-proceedings. paper_7.pdf