research-article

An online platform for teaching upper secondary school computer science

Authors:

Andrea Franceschini,

Mathew Patterson,

James SharkeyAuthors Info & Claims

UKICER '21: Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research

Article No.: 3, Pages 1 - 7

https://doi.org/10.1145/3481282.3481287

Published: 13 September 2021 Publication History

Abstract

The teaching of computing in schools is relatively new, with limited research informing what to teach and how in upper secondary contexts. However, computing education has spawned the development of many tools for use in such education settings.

Isaac Computer Science is a computer science (CS) learning platform aimed at school students in England aged 16 to 19 years old studying for formal A level CS qualifications. Over 34,000 students and over 2,400 teachers have registered on the platform to date, and over 1 million online questions have been attempted. The platform is pre-populated with CS content and questions. Feedback is tailored to respond to common mistakes. Hints and explanation videos accompany questions. Question sets can be assigned to students by teachers. Question types include Parsons problems, drag and drop, multiple-choice and text-matching answers, including Boolean Algebra responses. Students only see content, questions and notation pertinent to their course of study. Isaac CS has a centrally-organised ongoing provision of support, such as teacher professional development and student events.

This tools design paper outlines the development of Isaac CS through a review of design decisions and the effectiveness of its features. The review is informed by literature, platform usage data and teacher and student feedback. The discussion is framed in terms of online learning theories and a knowledge appropriation model. We suggest a new model, a Platform Pedagogy Matrix, which may be of use to other platform developers and researchers.

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Cited By

El-Hamamsy LPellet JRoberts MKovacs HBruno BDehler Zufferey JMondada F(2023)A Research-Practice Partnership to Introduce Computer Science in Secondary School: Lessons from a Pilot ProgramACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/358377923:2(1-31)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3583779
Allison J(2023)Classifying the Characteristics of Effective Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Computer Science Teachers in the 16-18 SectorACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/358227523:2(1-30)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3582275
Blanchard JHott JBerry VCarroll REdmison BGlassey RKarnalim OPlancher BRussell SQuille KAlshaigy BBecker BQuille KLaakso M(2022)Stop Reinventing the Wheel! Promoting Community Software in Computing EducationProceedings of the 2022 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3571785.3574129(261-292)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571785.3574129
Show More Cited By

An online platform for teaching upper secondary school computer science
1. Applied computing
  1. Education
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs

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cover image ACM Other conferences

UKICER '21: Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research

September 2021

69 pages

ISBN:9781450385688

DOI:10.1145/3481282

Editors:
Joseph Maguire
University of Glasgow
,
Quintin Cutts
University of Glasgow

Copyright © 2021 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 13 September 2021

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UKICER '21: United Kingdom and Ireland Computing Education Research conference.

September 2 - 3, 2021

Glasgow, United Kingdom

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El-Hamamsy LPellet JRoberts MKovacs HBruno BDehler Zufferey JMondada F(2023)A Research-Practice Partnership to Introduce Computer Science in Secondary School: Lessons from a Pilot ProgramACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/358377923:2(1-31)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3583779
Allison J(2023)Classifying the Characteristics of Effective Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Computer Science Teachers in the 16-18 SectorACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/358227523:2(1-30)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3582275
Blanchard JHott JBerry VCarroll REdmison BGlassey RKarnalim OPlancher BRussell SQuille KAlshaigy BBecker BQuille KLaakso M(2022)Stop Reinventing the Wheel! Promoting Community Software in Computing EducationProceedings of the 2022 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3571785.3574129(261-292)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571785.3574129
Ericson BDenny PPrather JDuran RHellas ALeinonen JMiller CMorrison BPearce JRodger SQuille KAlshaigy BBecker BQuille KLaakso M(2022)Parsons Problems and BeyondProceedings of the 2022 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3571785.3574127(191-234)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571785.3574127

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