Syllabus

This course will cover an overview of how to conduct computing education research (CER) with a greater depth on topics within my (Prof. Stephens-Martinez’s) expertise in the field. The overview will provide the history of CER, theories, and methods. The depth will focus on quantitative and mixed methods using data from courses of 80 or more students.

Course Learning Goals

1. Build a knowledge base of the foundations of CER and in one subarea of their interest.
2. Know the common methodologies used in CER.
3. Build practical experience in CER by applying research methods to a CER research project.

General Grading Rubric

This course will use alternative grading where all grades use a 4-level scale. It will mainly be specifications grading.

• E (Exemplary) – Work that meets all requirements and displays full mastery of all learning goals and material.
• S (Satisfactory) – Work that meets all requirements and displays at least partial mastery of all learning goals and full mastery of core learning goals.
• N (Not yet) – Work that does not meet some requirements and/or displays developing or incomplete mastery of at least some learning goals and material.
• U (Unassessable) – Work that is missing, does not demonstrate meaningful effort, or does not provide enough evidence to determine a level of mastery.

To achieve an A, all your work must be at the Satisfactory level or above. If a level below is received, you and I will discuss what a resubmission looks like. To achieve an A+, a substantial amount of your work must be at the Exemplary level.

Course Components

Leading Class Meetings

In groups of 2-3, you will lead a class meeting to discuss the readings. You will:

1. Create a document that provides the top 3-5 concepts from the readings.
2. Prepare discussion questions.
3. Take notes in the document to summarize the class meeting.

More details on the class post on leading a class meeting.

QQC Doc

The Question, Quote, or Comment (QQC) document will be your personal bibliography of all the things we read.

Bring Your Own Paper (BYOPaper)

BYOPaper is where you get to find a paper of your choice from a specified venue. After reading it you contribute a entry to the course wiki with a summary about that paper.

Project

Instead of a final exam, this course has an open-ended collaborative project. In groups of two or three, you will choose a CER data analysis project. You may choose from the data offered by the course or bring your own data set. With the guidance of the instructor, you will formulate a research question and perform your own data cleaning, analysis, and modeling to answer the research question. There must be at least one research question per person in the group, and it must be clear who is the lead on each research question.

The deliverables are as follows:

1. Collaboration plan: 1-2 pages
2. Writing Deliverable 1 Partial Outline: 2-3 pages
3. Writing Deliverable 2 Partial text + more partial outline: 3-4 pages
4. Writing Deliverable 3 More partial text + more partial outline: 4-5 pages
5. Writing Deliverable 4 Full research paper: 6-7 pages not counting references
6. Final Presentation: Given during the final exam period

More details will be provided about each deliverable closer to their due dates. If you are dissatisfied with your grade for any deliverable except the presentation, you will have 1 week to resubmit. If the second attempt is a U or N, we will discuss what a third attempt will look like.

Grades

To earn a particular grade, you must do the following:

Grade to earn	What you must do
A	1. Earn a Satisfactory when leading at least all class meetings. 2. Earn a Satisfactory on your QQC doc by the end of the semester. 3. Earn a Satisfactory on all N BYOPaper entries. 4. Earn a Satisfactory on all 6 project deliverables.
B	1. Earn a Satisfactory when leading at least N-1 class meetings. 2. Earn a Satisfactory on at least 2 QQC doc checkpoints. 3. Earn a Satisfactory on all N-1 BYOPaper entries. 4. Earn a Satisfactory on 5 project deliverables.
C	1. Earn a Satisfactory when leading at least N-2 class meetings. 2. Earn a Satisfactory on at least 1 QQC doc checkpoint. 3. Earn a Satisfactory on all N-2 BYOPaper entries. 4. Earn a Satisfactory on 4 project deliverables.
D	1. Lead at least 1 class meeting. 2. Earn a Satisfactory on at least 1 QQC doc checkpoint. 3. Earn a Satisfactory on all N-3 BYOPaper entries. 4. Earn a Satisfactory on 3 project deliverables.

An A+ may be earned if:

1. All QQC doc checkpoints are an S or E.
2. A significant portion of your other grades are an E.