Multimedia for Computer Science: from CS0 to Grades 7-12

1. Multimedia for Computer Science: from CS0 to Grades 7-12 Glenn D. Blank, William M. Pottenger, Shreeram Sahasrabudhe, Shenzhi Li and Fang Wei Computer Science and Engineering Department and Henry Odi, Director of Academic Outreach and Governmental Affairs Lehigh University

2. National Trends in Computer Science & Engineering Education • The pipeline for women and minorities entering computer science (CS) and information technology (IT) is shrinking, at a time when the projected demand for IT professionals is growing • Camp, 1997, 1999, Cohoon, 2002 • “We must take direct action to attract and retain more women to computing at all points in the pipeline (i.e., K-12, undergraduate, graduate, faculty and industry)” • Camp 1999

3. National Trends in Computer Science & Engineering Education Cohoon, 2002

4. National Trends in Computer Science & Engineering Education • CS teachers in middle and high schools confirm what we believe are national trends • Teachers are not well prepared to teach Computer Science • Teachers typically have taken only one or two college courses in CS or information technology • Women and under-represented minority students quickly lose interest in the subject • One high school reports having just one girl out of 125 students in computer science elective courses

5. National Trends in Computer Science & Engineering Education • Feedback from our survey of local middle and high school CS teachers also shows • There is a lack of awareness among K-12 educators about what computer scientists actually do • “It’s just nerds looking at screens, it’s just programming, it’s about hardware not people….” • There is considerable interest in using multimedia to enhance awareness

6. Where We’re Headed • We plan to take direct action at many points in the pipeline using a combination of • Multimedia e-learning and • One-on-one mentoring to • Widen the pipeline from G7-12 through first year undergraduate Computer Science courses

7. Where We’re Coming From • CIMEL: Constructive, collaborative Inquiry-based Multimedia E-learning • NSF Combined Research and Curriculum Development grant to Computer Science and Engineering faculty at Lehigh University • S.T.A.R. Academies • Outreach to women and under-represented minority at-risk students in the Lehigh Valley

8. Where We’re Coming From: S.T.A.R. Academies • S.T.A.R.  Students That Are Ready • The Lehigh University S.T.A.R. Academies • Are comprehensive academic initiatives designed to prepare diverse group of students for college • Meet needs of students from academically, economically, socially disadvantaged and/or at-risk backgrounds • After almost 15 years of intervention, enrollment in S.T.A.R. Academies is now one hundred forty (140) students representing twenty-seven (27) middle and high schools from Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton and surrounding communities

9. S.T.A.R. Academies:Successful Intervention • S.T.A.R. boasts better than 86% retention rate of students, faculty and tutors • Of students that stay with the Academies, all graduate from high school • 98% have gone on to colleges or universities • Through consistent follow-up and interaction, a full 100% of S.T.A.R. college students have graduated within five years of entrance • Several of S.T.A.R. college graduates currently work for Pennsylvania companies

10. What’s up with Multimedia:The CIMEL System Constructive, collaborative, Inquiry-based, Multimedia E-Learning *Funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. EIA-0087977)Combined Research and Curriculum Development (CRCD) program

11. The CIMEL User Interface TRACK LISTprovides menu of chapters, sections and screens, plus progress (check marks) and current screen (in red). JUST THE FACTSlets users view non-interactive text and graphic content as HTML (no personae, sound, animation). COLLABORATEtools include chat and remote control “show me”sessions, plus searchable archive of previous sessions. EXPLORE invokes a browser or a text mining emerging trends detection tool to support inquiry-based learning exercises. FINDlets user search for text-based content in the multimedia and Just The Facts HTML pages. Personae (graphics and audio) model a diverse communityof professors, TAs, librarian, and students learning together. PREFERENCES pane lets users adapt user interface according to their learning styles (audio or text off, auto-advance, …).

12. Multimedia for CS0 and CS1 The Universal Computer: Introducing Computer Science with Multimedia Glenn D. Blank, Robert F. Barnes and Edwin J. Kay (McGraw-Hill/Primis, 2003) • Covers breadth of Computer Science (CS0) • Introducing the Universal Computer, Programming languages, • Software engineering, Computer architecture, Operating systems and networks, Usability and web design, • Artificial intelligence, Social and ethical issues. • Multimedia presents content parallel to textbook + Java

13. Introducing Java “Objects First” with BlueJ

14. 76 first yearundergraduatesparticipating Experimental Evaluation Introduction to Computer Science (CS1)(about 55 potential majors/minors, 35 non-majors) First chapter of Objects First With Java* Multimediaonly 1. Web-based objective pre-test & post-test Addmultimedia Addchapter 2.Programming assignment (modify BlueJ Picture project) *David Barnes and Michael Kölling, Objects First With Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ, (Prentice Hall, 2003).

15. Students learn Java objects-first from both textbook and multimedia(t=-8.967,df =19,p<.001), more from multimedia (t=-3.337,df=76,p<.001) Results (Pre-test/Post-test) Textbookonly Multimedia only Pre-Test (20 questions) Post-test (20 questions) 5.05 12.64 5.05 14.50 AddMultimedia Multimedia Lecture 15.40 15.13 Conclusions: “Objects first with Java” can work. Multimedia helps. Multimedia adds to learning from text (t=-6.527,df=34,p<.001),but adding text to multimedia is not significant (t=-.993,df = 29,p=.329). Students report that multimedia interactivity helps them learn.

16. 26 S.T.A.R. students (grades 10-12) Will it work in high schools? (a second, smaller experiment) 1. Web-based objective pre-test & post-test First chapter of Objects First With Java* Multimediaonly 2.Programming assignment (modify BlueJ Picture project) *David Barnes and Michael Kölling, Objects First With Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ, (Prentice Hall, 2003).

17. S.T.A.R. students learned from the multimedia (t=-6.619,df =12,p<.001) and they learned more from multimedia than textbook (t=-3.317,df=24,p=.004) Results Textbookonly Multimedia only Pre-Test (20 questions) Post-test (20 questions) 5.31 7.62 3.23 9.08 Conclusions: multimedia improves learning…but the final scores are lower than for college students. Experimenters observed differences in maturityand motivation (S.T.A.R. experiment was not part of a CS1 course) High school students probably need more guided practice exercises.

18. Strategies: E-Learning Needs Context • Need to integrate multimedia into existing grades 7-12 curricula • Need to overcome common misconceptions about computer science • Need to motivate students with role models and mentoring • Need new approaches to engineering education that impact the affective domain of learning • Need to effectively communicate our concern for students through the instructional technology!!

19. The Big Picture:NSF Teaching Fellows Grant • NSF GK-12 is an initiative to establish Teaching Fellows in STEM classrooms for grades K-12 • In our project, Teaching Fellows serve as resource in grades 7-12 STEM classrooms • Computer science Teach Fellows will help adapt multimedia and help teach middle school students: • Video editing, Flash, and user interface design • Spreadsheets with applications in science • Misconceptions about what computer scientists do

20. Give God the Glory!!! In Yeshua’s Name, Amen

21. References Camp, T. (1997). The incredible shrinking pipeline, Communications of the ACM, vol. 40, no. 10, pp. 103-110, Oct. 1997. Online at www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/cacm/paper.html Camp, T. (1999). The incredible shrinking pipeline unlikely to reverse. ACM’s Committee on Women in Computing. Online at www.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/new-study/new-study.html Cohoon, J. M. (2002). Women in CS and Biology. In Proceedings of the 33 SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Northern Kentucky, February 2002, 82-86.