Proceedings CSERC '11 April 7 and 8, 2011 Computer Science Education Research Conference Heerlen, the Netherlands Editors: Gerrit van der Veer Peter Sloep Marko van Eekelen CSERC '11 is organised in cooperation with the Special Interest Group Computer Science Education In-Cooperation 1
Productie Open Universiteit Basisvormgeving Eden design, Amsterdam Omslag Team Visuele Communicatie, Open Universiteit Druk en bindwerk OCÉ business services 2011 Open Universiteit, Heerlen Behoudens uitzonderingen door de Wet gesteld mag zonder schriftelijke toestemming van de rechthebbende(n) op het auteursrecht niets uit deze uitgave worden verveelvoudigd en/of openbaar gemaakt door middel van druk, fotokopie, microfilm of anderszins, hetgeen ook van toepassing is op de gehele of gedeeltelijke bewerking. Save exceptions stated by the law no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm or other means, included a complete or partial transcription, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978 90 358 1987 0
Volume Editors Gerrit van der Veer Open Universiteit, School of Computer Science, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen The Netherlands Email: gerrit.vanderveer@ou.nl Peter Sloep Open Universiteit, Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands Email: peter.sloep@ou.nl Marko van Eekelen Open Universiteit, School of Computer Science, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands & Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Institute for Computing and Information Sciences, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands Email: marko.vaneekelen@ou.nl 3
Organization CSERC '11 is organised in cooperation with the Special Interest Group Computer Science Education Executive Committee Programme chairs Gerrit van der Veer, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands Peter Sloep, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands Marko van Eekelen, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands Organizing Committee Evert van de Vrie, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands Mieke Haemers, Open Universiteit, The Netherlands Programme Committee Erik Barendsen, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, The Netherlands Jos Beishuizen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands Mordechai Ben Ari, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Anders Berglund, Uppsala University, Sweden Adriana Berlanga, Open University, the Netherlands Paul de Bra, Technical University Eindhoven, The Netherlands Patrick Brézillon, Université Paris, France Licia Calvi, University of Leuven, Belgium Michael Caspersen, Aarhus University, Denmark Martyn Clark, University of Leeds, United Kingdom Nell Dale, University of Texas, United States of America Mats Daniels, Uppsala University, Sweden Hendrik Drachsler, Open University, the Netherlands Jon Dron, Athabasca University, Canada Sally Fincher, University of Kent, United Kingdom Ralf Klamma, RWTH Aachen University, Germany Andrew Luxton-Reilly, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Arnold Pears, Uppsala University, Sweden Simos Retalis, University of Piraeus, Greece Guido Rößling, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany Ingrid Russell, Hartford University, United States of America Henry Walker, Grinell College, USA Mary Webb, Kings College London, United Kingdom Bert Zwaneveld, Open University, the Netherlands
Proceedings CSERC '11 Gerrit van der Veer Preface 7 Peter Sloep Marko van Eekelen Linda Marshall Developing a Computer Science Curriculum in the South African Context 9 Henry Walker A Lab-based Approach for Introductory Computing that Emphasizes Collaboration 21 Jurriaan Hage Plagiarism detection for Java: a tool comparison 33 Peter Rademaker Nikè van Vugt Hanneke Potters Peer Production & Peer Support at the Free Technology Academy 49 Adriana Berlanga Lex Bijlsma Vreda Pieterse Student discussion forums: What is in it for them? 59 Isabel van Rooyen Laura Benvenuti Sciences, Computing, Informatics: who is the keeper of the Real Faith? 73 Paul van der Vet Gerrit van der Veer Birgit Schmitz Game Based Learning for Computer Science Education 81 André Czauderna Roland Klemke Jens Haag A Distributed Virtual Computer Security Lab with Central Authority 89 Tobias Horsmann Stefan Karsch Harald Vranken 5
Preface Computer Science is a young discipline. Many of today s Computer Science teachers have their disciplinary roots still elsewhere. Consequently, curricula differ dramatically, certainly between countries, and there is little if any agreement on what the fundaments of this discipline ought to be. Even if international organisations such as IFIP, IEEE, and ACM are putting considerable effort in developing curriculum guidelines, these do not rise above the tentative, and their application as well as their validity in different parts of the world is a matter of trial and error. An additional problem is the lack of international standards for establishing a specific educational level: university or academic turn out to allow for widely different interpretations and, consequently, levels of expected achievement. So far, international Computer Science conferences on education or with education tracks have mainly featured examples of curricula and experience reports. Valuable though these are, the time is ripe for reports on systematic research on computer science learning and education. What are the fundaments of the domain? How best to structure it? How to incorporate traditional as well as novel techniques for teaching and learning? How to design suitable learning environments? These are not only novel questions for this just emerging discipline, they also very much need to be addressed as education in this young discipline certainly is not a trivial matter, the more so since it itself is still evolving at an unprecedented speed. Our conference is an early effort to stimulate and coordinate this type of educational research by creating a stage for its dissemination. We aim at an international audience, and intend to create a truly global community of research. We will all benefit from each others early attempts, from the different types of issues that seem relevant, from the different research backgrounds that contribute their flavours to the concepts and frameworks that infuse and enrich our research. We hope to discover both common ground and an inspiring variety of approaches. Research on Computer Science Education stands to profit from that. Managing quality at the start of a new research community implies bootstrapping. We were happy to cooperate with ACM s Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) in identifying reliable and expert reviewers, and to spread the call for submissions. This volume contains the first harvest from an exciting new field. We hope it serves its goals: helping to set the tone and to define the research domain, as well as stimulating the development of an international research community. We thank our hosts, NIOC, the Open University of The Netherlands, and the Zuyd University for their support and for providing the logistics to our meeting. We hope these proceedings increase awareness among the international world of Computer Science education researchers and stimulate discussion and collaboration. Heerlen, The Netherlands, 7th April, 2011 Gerrit van der Veer Peter Sloep Marko van Eekelen 7
Developing a Computer Science Curriculum in the South African Context Linda Marshall 8
A Lab-based Approach for Introductory Computing that Emphasizes Collaboration Henry Walker 20
Plagiarism detection for Java: a tool comparison Jurriaan Hage Peter Rademaker Nikè van Vugt 32
Peer Production & Peer Support at the Free Technology Academy Hanneke Potters Adriana Berlanga Lex Bijlsma 48
Student discussion forums: What is in it for them? Vreda Pieterse Isabel van Rooyen 58
Sciences, Computing, Informatics: who is the keeper of the Real Faith? Laura Benvenuti Paul van der Vet Gerrit van der Veer 72
Game Based Learning for Computer Science Education Birgit Schmitz André Czauderna Roland Klemke 80
A Distributed Virtual Computer Security Lab with Central Authority Jens Haag Tobias Horsmann Stefan Karsch Harald Vranken 88