Raina Mason | Southern Cross University (original) (raw)

Papers by Raina Mason

After considering a number of environments for the development of apps for mobile devices, we hav... more After considering a number of environments for the development of apps for mobile devices, we have evaluated five in terms of their suitability for students early in their programing study. For some of the evaluation we devised an evaluation scheme based on the principles of cognitive load theory to assess the relative ease or difficulty of learning and using each environment. After briefly presenting the scheme, we discuss our results, including our findings about which mobile apps development environments appear to show most promise for early-level programming students. .

This paper reports the results of a survey of 38 introductory programming courses in Australian a... more This paper reports the results of a survey of 38 introductory programming courses in Australian and New Zealand universities, conducted in the first half of 2013. Results of this survey are compared with a survey conducted in 2010 on Australian universities and two other previous studies conducted in 2001 and 2003. Trends in student numbers, programming paradigm, programming languages and environment/tools used, as well as the reasons for choice of such are reported. Other aspects of first programming courses such as instructor experience, external delivery of courses and resources given to students are also examined. The results indicate a trend towards the adoption of Python for Introductory Computer Programming courses and that this language is being used in a structured approach for programming. Introductory computer programming courses that focus upon an Object Orientated approach predominantly use Java.

A workshop for teaching introductory programming using Lego Mindstorms NXT presented students wit... more A workshop for teaching introductory programming using Lego Mindstorms NXT presented students with either a 'complete' or 'subset' form of user interface, both of which are pre-packaged with the application. The learning activities presented to all students only made use of the functionality contained within the subset interface and students presented with the complete interface only made use of the functionality associated with the subset version. Despite no reference to, or use being made of, the extended functionality of the complete interface, students undertaking activities in this mode reported higher levels of difficulty associated with learning programming and performed poorly on a test of programming concepts compared to students presented with the subset form of the interface. Results are explained in terms of Cognitive Load Theory, in particular, redundancy of information. Implications to the selection of programming languages and environments for teaching...

This paper reports on an IT Girls Day Outreach program initiative to girls from Year 6 to Year 11... more This paper reports on an IT Girls Day Outreach program initiative to girls from Year 6 to Year 11 in a remote NSW school. The program involved three days of activities based around image manipulation using Adobe Photoshop and programming with both Lego Mindstorms NXT robots, and the Alice 3D programming environment, and information about IT careers, all conducted by female-only presenters. Students had positive shifts in their confidence in programming; increased their knowledge of IT career options, and reported ...

In Australia, one of the sources of loss of females in the IT education pipeline occurs at the TA... more In Australia, one of the sources of loss of females in the IT education pipeline occurs at the TAFE (college) level. Female students comprise the majority of early TAFE IT courses and female completion rates for these courses are similar to males. Despite this early success, most females choose to not continue to Diploma level, and through articulation pathways into university IT courses. A survey was conducted to determine possible differences in experiences between male and female TAFE IT students. It was found that more females than males lived alone or with dependents. Female students had higher employment status, higher previous education, and comparable computer literacy and interest in IT to the male cohort. Despite these advantages, the female students had lower confidence in their ability to study, and their abilities in IT, and many female students did not intend to study or work in IT. Possible reasons are discussed. .

This paper reports the results of mental effort measures and comments collected as part of a stud... more This paper reports the results of mental effort measures and comments collected as part of a study of 44 introductory programming courses in 28 Australian universities, conducted in the latter months of 2010. Academic staff were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the mental effort that is required by themselves, an average student, and a low-performance student while attempting to solve and learn from a novice programming problem. Qualitative responses were also gathered from academics to gain insight into the ...

Cognitive load theory is typically used to evaluate and improve learning materials, with the goal... more Cognitive load theory is typically used to evaluate and improve learning materials, with the goal of optimising students' opportunity to acquire new knowledge and understanding. The cognitive load on a student is typically assessed either objectively, by taking physiological measurements while the student is learning, or subjectively, by asking the student to complete an appropriate questionnaire after the learning experience. However, there are circumstances in which a decision on learning materials must be made before those materials are developed and deployed, whereupon it is not helpful to measure the students during learning or to survey them after learning. Such circumstances necessitate a completely different approach, in which the assessment of the likely imposition of cognitive load is made by the instructors and informs the development of the learning materials.

This paper explores such a situation: the choice of a programming language and integrated development environment for an introductory programming course. The paper explains the impracticality of addressing this choice by way of the usual measures of cognitive load. It then presents the approach that was used, flipping the assessment of expected cognitive load from the students to the instructors. The paper explains how this was done, presents the findings, and concludes by suggesting possibilities for future work in the area.

Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference on - ACSW '16, 2016

Reproduction, 2012

This paper reports the results of a study of 44 introductory programming courses in 28 Australian... more This paper reports the results of a study of 44 introductory programming courses in 28 Australian universities, conducted in the latter months of 2010. Results of this study are compared with two censuses previously conducted during 2001 and 2003, to identify trends in student numbers, programming language and environment/tool use and the reasons for choice of these, paradigms taught, instructor experience, text used and time spent on problem solving strategies in lectures and tutorials. Measures of mental effort experienced ...

Computer Science Education, 2013

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a series of introductory programming workshops, initially targetin... more ABSTRACT This paper reports on a series of introductory programming workshops, initially targeting female high school students, which utilised Lego Mindstorms robots. Cognitive load theory (CLT) was applied to the instructional design of the workshops, and a controlled experiment was also conducted investigating aspects of the interface. Results indicated that a truncated interface led to better learning by novice programmers as measured by test performance by participants, as well as enhanced shifts in self-efficacy and lowered perception of difficulty. There was also a transfer effect to another programming environment (Alice). It is argued that the results indicate that for novice programmers, the mere presence on-screen of additional (redundant) entities acts as a form of tacit distraction, thus impeding learning. The utility of CLT to analyse, design and deliver aspects of computer programming environments and instructional materials is discussed.

Reproduction, 2012

Year 6 to Year 11 in a remote NSW school. The program involved three days of activities based aro... more Year 6 to Year 11 in a remote NSW school. The program involved three days of activities based around image manipulation using Adobe Photoshop and programming with both Lego Mindstorms NXT robots, and the Alice 3D programming environment, and information about IT careers, all conducted by female-only presenters. Students had positive shifts in their confidence in programming; increased their knowledge of IT career options, and reported raised aspirations to pursue a career in IT. This demonstrates that outreach programs can be delivered to a remote community, with positive outcomes of raising knowledge, confidence and aspirations in students.

Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference on - ACSW '16, 2016

Reproduction, 2012

Computer Science Education, 2013

Reproduction, 2012

Powerpoint used at the ACE2016 Conference workshop. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) focuses on human... more Powerpoint used at the ACE2016 Conference workshop.

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) focuses on human cognitive architecture; the concepts of long term and working memory and their interplay. CLT has been successfully applied to the design of instructional materials for technical areas, leading to increased student learning.
Principles and techniques derived from CLT are usually applied to individual topics or subtopics of content. Our approach looks at whole-of-course design, as well as examining individual instructional materials.
Participants in the workshop will be taken through a case study; and then introduced to the Cognitive Assistance Factor Evaluation (CAFÉ) toolkit. CAFÉ is a new web-based course evaluation toolkit for use by developers and academics, based on principles and techniques from CLT. The toolkit will assist in identifying potential existing weaknesses and propose interventions that are successfulat improving courses. It also provides relevant links to research on each principle and technique.
This workshop will be particularly suited to those participants who have responsibility for a course which contains novices, or find that some of their students disengage early with the material, “learn” material one day but are unable to do near transfer problems afterwards, or a course that currently has a relatively high attrition or failure rate.