The proposed project, sCool, is an adaptive game-based learning experience designed for STEM education. In this work, we present a new iteration of sCool in efforts to further examine contributing factors of engagement, usability, and comprehension. The newly developed game experience for acquiring object-oriented programming skills is divided into two parts: concept learning and practical challenge. The concept learning part teaches students theoretical lessons of programming through fun gameplay. The practical challenge part allows students to practice programming by completing tasks. This project presents several new game types for both the concept learning and practical challenge parts. The development of these game types spreads across two phases. The first phase introduces two new game types and focuses on extending sCool to support learning object-oriented programming and improve student’s learning comprehension. The second phase builds off of the first phase, introducing another new game type to improve the object-oriented programming learning experience and the game’s overall usability and engagement. During the first phase, three experiments were conducted in a classroom setting with a computer science teacher. Conducting a study involving a total of 39 school students and three teachers, we are able to successfully display an enhanced understanding of different programming concepts. During the second phase, a single experiment was held remotely among a wide group of people, and the participants were self-guided by an instruction document and the sCool application. Conducting a study with 25 participants, we are able to show a significant improvement in the game’s usability and engagement. For future works, further evaluations in-classroom and over a longer course will be useful in assessing the new game type’s effectiveness in teaching object oriented programming. Furthermore, the game should be expanded to support learning more complex concepts in object oriented programming.

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By taking human perception into account in computer graphics, time and processing power may be utilised more efficiently when modelling and rendering scenes. Exploring possibilities for reducing the complexity of forest scenes is particularly interesting because of the geometric complexity of trees, the effects of which are compounded by dense, large-scale forests. Most studies of rendering simplifications for forests concern level-of-detail methods, simplifying scenes in areas where simplifications are less perceptible to the viewer. The present study instead approaches the topic by considering that humans, to certain extents, are insensitive to the exact composition of objects in aggregates. In forest scenes that use a variety of geometrically different trees, this can be utilised to favour the geometrically simpler tree. A perceptual study was conducted to explore how perceptive viewers are to the ratio between trees, in forest scenes that feature two geometrically different tree models. Specifically, the tree models varied in leaf and branch density. The impacts of forest density, layout and camera angle were studied. Overall, it was found that density and layout had significant effects on thresholds measured for participants’ perceptiveness of ratio, while camera angle had little impact. The results indicate that the ratio between two different tree models can be skewed considerably in favour of the geometrically simpler model, without participants detecting changes. These findings provide some guidelines for reducing polygon count in forest scenes while preserving appearance. Motivated by these findings, the educational part of this study considers the role of perceptual topics in computer graphics courses. Specifically, the study focuses on the inclusion of perceptual topics in introductory computer graphics courses at Swedish universities, as well as the attitudes of computer graphics educators toward teaching perception. 22 course syllabuses at 12 Swedish universities were collected and analysed. Interviews were conducted with three computer graphics educators, while 13 educators responded to an online survey. The results present a diverse set of approaches and attitudes toward perception among educators, signifying that the role of perception in computer graphics education is uncertain. Perceptual topics were included in about half of the surveyed courses, with teaching approaches ranging from marginally including perceptual topics, to fully dedicated lectures, though perception was rarely mentioned in the intended learning outcomes of courses. Overall, approaches seemed influenced mainly by the background of the student group, educators’ own biases and experiences, as well as challenges posed by needing to address foundational skills such as programming. By investigating perceptual thresholds through a psychophysical experiment and exploring pedagogical practices in relation to perceptual topics in computer graphics courses, this study links empirical research with pedagogy, highlighting the role of perception in computer graphics from different perspectives. / Genom att ta hänsyn till mänsklig perception i datorgrafik kan tid och processorkraft utnyttjas mer effektivt vid modellering och rendering av scener. Att utforska möjligheter för att minska komplexiteten i skogsscener är särskilt intressant, på grund av den geometriska komplexiteten hos träd, vars effekt förvärras av täta, storskaliga skogar. De flesta studier av renderingsförenklingar för skogar rör detaljnivåmetoder (eng: level-of-detail), förenklingar av scener i områden där ändringar är mindre märkbara för betraktaren. Denna studie närmar sig istället ämnet genom att ta hänsyn till att människor, i viss utsträckning, är okänsliga för den exakta sammansättningen av objekt i aggregat. I skogsscener som använder en mängd geometriskt olika träd kan detta utnyttjas för att gynna det geometriskt enklare trädet. En perceptuell studie genomfördes för att undersöka hur medvetna personer är om förhållandet mellan träd i virtuella skogsscener betraktat ovanifrån, där två geometriskt olika trädmodeller använts. Specifikt studerades effekterna av skogstäthet, trädplacering och kameravinkel på uppfattningsförmåga. Det visade sig att täthet och placering hade betydande effekter på tröskelvärden som mättes för deltagarnas uppfattning om förhållandet, medan kameravinkeln hade liten inverkan. Resultaten indikerar att förhållandet kan förskjutas avsevärt till förmån för den geometriskt enklare trädmodellen, utan att deltagarna upptäcker förändringar. Sammantaget erbjuder dessa resultat några riktlinjer för att minska antalet polygoner i storskaliga skogsscener sett från luften, samtidigt som scenernas utseenden bevaras. Motiverad av dessa fynd överväger den pedagogiska delen av denna studie rollen av perceptuella ämnen i datorgrafikkurser. Specifikt fokuserar studien på inkluderingen av perceptuella ämnen i kurser på introduktionsnivå vid svenska universitet, samt attityder till att undervisa om perception bland lärare som undervisar om datorgrafik. 22 kursplaner vid 12 svenska universitet samlades in och analyserades. Intervjuer genomfördes med tre pedagoger, medan 13 pedagoger svarade på en enkät. Resultaten presenterar en mångsidig uppsättning tillvägagångssätt och attityder till perception bland lärare, vilket indikerar att perceptionens roll i datorgrafikutbildning är vag. Perceptuella ämnen inkluderades i ungefär hälften av de undersökta kurserna, även om perception sällan nämns i kursernas lärandemål. Undervisningsmetoderna innefattande perception sträckte sig från marginell inkludering, till dedikerade föreläsningar. Sammantaget verkade tillvägagångssätten främst påverkas av studenternas bakgrund, lärares egna fördomar och erfarenheter, såväl som utmaningar som uppstår genom att behöva ägna tid åt grundläggande färdigheter som programmering.

Ethiopia has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. The main reason for this isthe low accessibility of educational content regarding healthcare in the rural regions. In this thesis weinvestigate the possibility to address this issue through a serious game, something that has proven efficientas a tool for learning in many situations. By designing and creating a game for rural Ethiopians, we aim tointerest them in learning about healthcare and nutrition by playing a game that reflects their culture andlife. In order to validate our solution we conducted a field study in Ethiopia, where we organized andcarried out a usability test with Ethiopian mothers. Our findings suggest that educational games has apotential in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to analyze which behaviors are or are not helpful for debugging when a novice is in a state of unproductive persistence. Further, this project will exploratorily use a variety of analytical techniques -- including association rule mining, process mining, frequent sequence mining, and machine learning-- in order to determine which approaches are useful for data analysis. For the study, programming process data from hundreds of novice programmers were analyzed to determine which behaviors were more or less likely to be correlated with escaping a state of unproductive persistence. Of these events, only three had a statistically significant difference in their rates of occurrence and large effect sizes: file, edit, and compile events. While the data set cannot reveal a user's motivation for a file event, the most logical explanation of these events is that the user is tracing the code. Thus, a higher rate of file events suggests that code tracing (with the goal of code comprehension) is a key behavior correlated with a student's ability to escape a state of unproductive persistence. On the other hand, editing events are far more common in unproductive states that are not escaped. A content analysis suggests that there are more trivial edits for users in an unescaped state of unproductive persistence. An important finding of this study is that an unproductive persistence is not just a phenomenon of the worst-performing students; rather, a third of users who completed the assignment had at least one unproductive state. This study also lends support to the idea that tinkering combined with code tracing is correlated with positive outcomes, but that less systematic tinkering is not effective behavior. Further, association rule mining and frequent sequence mining were effective tools for data analysis in this study. The findings from this study have two main practical implications for curriculum designers and instructors: (1) the need to normalize struggle and (2) possibilities for curriculum and tool development. This work is particularly important given that debugging is not normally a process evident to instructors, curriculum designers, tool developers, and computer science education researchers, either because it happens outside of class time and/or because it is a process and these stakeholders usually only see the end result; this project attempts to make the process of debugging more transparent.

In computer science, students could benefit from exposure to critical programming concepts from multiple perspectives. Peer review is one method to allow students to experience authentic uses of the concepts in a non-programming manner. Peer review provides students with the opportunity to evaluate other people's work and, in doing so, allows for a rich learning experience. While much is known about peer review and it has many uses in other disciplines, the literature, especially in computer science, does not spend much time on the perspective of and benefits to the reviewer. In this work, we examine how to implement the peer review process in early, object-oriented, computer science courses as a way to develop the reviewers' higher-level thinking skills, increase their knowledge of specific programming concepts, and to improve attitudes to help engage them in the activity. Specifically, we explore peer review and its effects on Abstraction, Decomposition, and Encapsulation and how the type of review (students reviewing their peers or reviewing materials from their instructor), influences these effects. We also look at how the students' attitudes relate to their engagement in and the benefits from the reviews. To study these ideas, we used peer review exercises in two CS2 classes at local universities over the course of a semester. We divided the students into three groups where one group reviewed their peers, one group reviewed their instructor, and one group completed small design or coding exercises. We measured the students' attitudes and their conceptual understanding during the semester with surveys, tests, and concept maps. We collected the completed reviews as well. We found that reviewing helped students learn Decomposition, especially those reviewing the instructor's programs. We did not find evidence of improvements to the students' level of thinking over the semester nor were there significant changes in their attitudes. However, the data showed that students assigned to review their peers were less likely to complete the assignments than the other students were. Overall, peer reviews are a valuable method for teaching Decomposition to CS2 students and can be used as an alternative way to learn object-oriented programming concepts. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to better understand the ways that adult learners studying Catholic theology become present to one another, strengthen bonds of community, and contemplate the face of Christ in computer-mediated, text-based distance education. Ten geographically dispersed learners seeking undergraduate or graduate degrees in Catholic theology participated in the study. There was no face-to-face interaction. Through a password protected site specifically designed for the research, participants engaged in eight weeks of text-based, online conversation. They reflected on emergent themes about technology and the ways that it alters time, place, presentation of self, and relationships. Text as sacred, relational, presentational, communal, and transformational was explored, as was the nature and meaning of community, especially the spiritual quest to contemplate the face of Christ in an online community. The study offers a deep understanding of the meaning of presence and the development of community in the context of faith. Serving as the philosophical methodological foundation were the writings of Martin Heidegger (1927/1993), Hans-Georg Gadamer (1960/1999), Gabriel Marcel (1937/1967), John Paul II as Cardinal Carol Wojtyla (1976), and Robert Sokolowski (1993). The phenomenological method of Max van Manen (2003) guided data collection and analysis through the dynamic interplay of six research activities: (a) turning to the phenomenon which seriously interests us and commits us to the world; (b) investigating experience as we live it rather than as we conceptualize it; (c) reflecting on the essential themes which characterize the phenomenon; (d) describing the phenomenon through the art of writing and rewriting; (e) maintaining a strong and oriented pedagogical relation to the phenomenon; (f) balancing the research context by considering parts and whole. Recommendations for practitioners of computer-mediated education are explored; suggestions for future research include longitudinal studies of theology students in fully online programs, ways of introducing transcendent presence in online learning communities, how language bears on learning and presence, and the role of non-text based media and virtual environments on presence and the spiritual quest. / Ph. D.

Computer Science (CS) is among the fastest-growing fields. To fill the abundance of positions in Computer Science, early learning experiences should be implemented to promote interest in the field. This research aims to observe the impact of a design-based computer science treatment on 5th-grade students' interest in computer science careers. The treatment consisted of nine one-hour lessons in which the researcher introduced computer science content to students. At the end of the treatment, participants developed an application to study for a state-wide science assessment. To measure a change in students' career interests following the treatment, an adapted version of the STEM Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS), grounded by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), was implemented using a pre-survey-post-survey design. Qualitative data was collected using focus groups to explain quantitative findings further. The samples' post-survey (39.62) mean was greater than the pre-survey mean (37.17), but the paired t-test was just above the statical significance level of 0.05, t(28)= -2.04, p =.051. There was a statistically significant increase for the survey items that align with the SCCT aspects Interest (t(30)= -2.30, p =.028) and Contextual Support (t(30)= -2.25, p =.032). The researcher identified several themes related to a positive perception toward the treatment and computer science and general during qualitative data analysis. These findings indicate a design-based computer science treatment can increase 5th-grade students' interest in computer science careers. / Doctor of Philosophy / Learning experiences influence an individual's career development. This dissertation observes the impact of a design-based computer science project in a 5th-grade classroom. The researcher implemented a pre-survey-post-survey design to measure change following the treatment. The researcher calculated the difference between survey means and ran a matched paired t-test to determine the statistical significance. The results of the paired t-test were not statistically significant. Still, the survey items that aligned with interest and contextual support had a statistically significant increase following the treatment. Additionally, the researcher conducted focus groups to collect qualitative data to explain quantitative findings further. Content analysis of the qualitative data revealed participants had a positive perception of the treatment and computer science in general. These results imply that a design-based computer science treatment can increase 5th-grade students' interest in computer science careers.