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1. STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES, PAIR PROGRAMMING AND SITUATIONAL MOTIVATION

   Pribesh, S.; He, W.; Watson, S.; Major, D.; Xu, L.; Li, L.; Tian, X.; Gorkhali, A.; He, Y. (March 2019, Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   SITE (Ed.)

   Persons with learning disabilities (LD) are underrepresented in computer science and information technology fields despite the explosion of related career opportunities and interest. In this study, we examine the use of pair programming as a collaborative intervention in with computer programming and compare students with learning disabilities to students who do not have learning disabilities. We concentrate on situational motivation constructs which tap into the desire to meet goals and acquire skills. We find that students with LD and similar students without LD fare the same. For the both groups, three of the four situational motivation subscales increase after the introduction of pair programming. The use of pair programming holds promise as an educational intervention for all students including those with learning disabilities. 

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2. Identifying Gaps in the Secure Programming Knowledge and Skills of Students

   Lam, Jessica; Fang, Elias; Almansoori, Majed; Chatterjee, Rahul; Soosai Raj, Adalbert Gerald (March 2022, In Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education)

   Often, security topics are only taught in advanced computer science (CS) courses. However, most US R1 universities do not require students to take these courses to complete an undergraduate CS degree. As a result, students can graduate without learning about computer security and secure programming practices. To gauge students’ knowledge and skills of secure programming, we conducted a coding interview with 21 students from two R1 universities in the United States. All the students in our study had at least taken Computer Systems or an equivalent course. We then analyzed the students’ approach to safe programming practices, such as avoiding unsafe functions like gets and strcpy, and basic security knowledge, such as writing code that assumes user inputs can be malicious. Our results suggest that students lack the key fundamental skills to write secure programs. For example, students rarely pay attention to details, such as compiler warnings, and often do not read programming language documentation with care. Moreover, some students’ understanding of memory layout is cursory, which is crucial for writing secure programs. We also found that some students are struggling with even the basics of C programming, even though it is the main language taught in Computer Systems courses. 

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3. Pair Programming: Leveling the Field for Students with Learning Disabilities

   Watson, S.; Li, L.; Xu, L.; He, W.; Pribesh, S.; Major, D. (March 2021, Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference)

   SITE (Ed.)

   This paper is the report on the findings of a three-year study conducted in undergraduate computer science courses. It also describes the changes made to deal with COVID-19 during the summer and fall of 2020. We collected data on over 800 students with approximately 35 students identified as having learning disabilities (LD). These students were not professional programmers in a computer science department; rather, they were students from a Business College. Our preliminary results show that pair programming improved (a) teamwork and communication between the pairs; (b) confidence in students; and (c) comprehension and learning for all students. Thus, our preliminary results indicate that pair programming improved everyone’s performance. Educators should consider the importance of collaboration with other disciplines when creating inclusive environments for students with disabilities. 

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4. Fundamental Defensive Programming Practicec with Secure Coding Modules

   Yang, Jeong; Lodgher, Akhtar (January 2019, International Conference on Security and Management)

   While many vulnerabilities are often related to computing and network systems, there has been a growing number of vulnerabilities and attacks in software systems. They are generally caused by careless software design and implementations, and not putting sufficient effort into eliminating defects and flaws in the software itself. When it comes to building reliable and secure software, it is critical that security must be considered throughout the software development process. This paper presents a series of modules that are designed to introduce security concepts in beginners programming courses. The modules have been developed to teach the fundamental concepts of defensive programming from the freshman year, to ensure that the programming concepts are taught to beginning programmers from a security perspective. These modules are intended to build a strong cybersecurity foundation, which will then be enhanced further in the advanced courses, such as Secure Applications Programming and Secure Software Engineering courses. Both instructors and students can practice defensive programming with these modules in their classroom. The study plans to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of the modules associated with the Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), an evidence-based teaching and learning methodology. 

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5. From 'Use' to 'Choose': Scaffolding CT Curricula and Exploring Student Choices while Programming (Practical Report)

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3361721.3362110  

   Lytle, Nicholas; Catete, Veronica; Isvik, Amy; Boulden, Danielle; Dong, Yihuan; Wiebe, Eric; Barnes, Tiffany (April 2019, Proceedings of the 14th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education)

   As computing skills become necessary for 21st-century students, infused computational thinking (CT) lessons must be created for core courses to truly provide computing education for all. This will bring challenges as students will have widely varying experience and programming ability. Additionally, STEM teachers might have little experience teaching CT and instructing using unfamiliar technology might create discomfort. We present a design pattern for infused CT assignments that scaffold students and teachers into block-based programming environments. Beginning with existing code, students and teachers work together 'Using' and comprehending code before 'Modifying' it together to fix their programs. The activity ends with students 'Choosing' their own extensions from a pre-set list. We present a comparison of two implementations of a simulation activity, one ending with student choosing how to extend their models and one having all students create the same option. Through triangulating data from classroom observations, student feedback, teacher interviews, and programming interaction logs, we present support for student and teacher preference of the 'Student-Choice' model. We end with recommended strategies for developing curricula that follow our design model. 

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