I and my colleagues are interested in investigating the use of Problem based learning approach in our department - The Department of Computer Science. We would be most grateful for any information on the use of PBL in Computing. We welcome any advice on the use of this approach

By now most programmes must include a module or two on web development/technologies for e-business. I am curious to know what technologies and languages are used for this, and how successful they are. Some popular choices are probably: PHP and LAMP Java Enterprise (JSP/servlets) and MySQL Microsoft .NET (using VB.NET or C#?) and SQL Server Ruby on Rails Perl/CGI Other: .... My own experience has been that setting up and supporting Java Enterprise and .NET has been hard work compared to PHP and LAMP. On the other hand, checking out the job adverts suggests that C# and Java are more common in industry than VB.NET or PHP.

I would like to know if anyone has a list of those institutions in the UK who teach computer ethics as a separate module on their ICS courses.

We have had an enquiry from Liverpool John Moores University, regarding CASE tools, and how they are being used as teaching tools within higher education. In answering this question, I would like to present as broad a view as possible and I would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes answering the following questions: Does your institution use a CASE tool - if so, which one? Which modules/courses make use of the CASE tool? What do you use them for?

Can anybody suggest a CASE tool for use on Systems Analysis and Design courses that we could purchase that is cheap, easy to use, covers different notations e.g. for DFDs, ERMs, ELHs, state charts etc., UML diagrams would be useful but not essential, and ideally that the students can legally download?

Is analysis dying out and prototyping and extreme programming becoming the norm?

Any materials on the following topics would be very helpful: 1. Fundamentals of Computer systems, Basic computer architecture, Processor architecture, Fetch/execute cycle Assembly level program operation 2. Data storage and I/O devices, Including floppy disks, hard disks, CD ROMs, Bernoulli drive and raids.Also busses, serial and parallel ports, modems, LAN interfaces, etc. Various printers and displays - raster scan CRT and LCD.

We are currently reviewing our assessment criteria and procedures relating to the formal assessment of the technical element of final year computing science undergraduate dissertations. I would greatly appreciate advice, guidance and commentary on how other academics and institutions formally assess the technical element of CS projects. We are particularly interested in the development of suitably rigorous assessment criteria which can accurately assess the level and value of the students contribution and their level of technical understanding.

What ways do you assess programming with large numbers of students?  Next year our level 2 ‘C’ programming course will be taught to both Computer Science and Engineering students therefore the class size could be up to 200 students.  How do other people go about summatively assessing such large numbers of students? 

Thanks,

Sarah 

We are interested in hearing from colleagues about their approach to the assessement of placement.

Two specific questions are:

1. How detailed is assessment? Is it just pass/fail or are marks/grades awarded with the possibility of a 'commendation' or 'distinction'?

2.  If a 'commendation' or 'distinction' can be awarded, roughly what percentage of students are expected to achieve at this level?

I am interested to learn if any colleagues have created/use MCQ questions in the area of legal and professional issues I am thinking particularly of threshold level questions covering basic aspects of the range of laws which the IT professional might encounter in the course of their employment for example topics such as intellectual property, data protection, computer misuse, whistle-blowing.

Thanks Su

We have been asked to survey our community of practice to ascertain the practice operating across HEIs in modifying exam papers to facilitate students with disabilities. In particular, does your institution operate the practice of translating papers into "plain English" to facilitate students who use British sign language, a possible consequence of which might be a suggestion to remove technical terms such as "QUERY" and replace with "ASK" in a database exam?

Does any body have some good examples of using work based learning in the curriculum for IT and Computing Students? At the moment we are promoting the one year placement programme, but I would be interested togather some examples of how practical work at levels 4, 5 and 6 can be assessed and used to develop teaching and learning?

The Higher Education Academy subject centre for Information and Computer Sciences have had a query from an Academic at Loughborough University about Multiple Choice Questions for teaching / assessing Micrsoft Access. Next year he has a huge class and enquired if any of our contacts had come across any good MCQ's.

Colleagues, We have received a query from a colleague from the University of Manchester who raised a few very good questions and I am hoping you can share your institutions experiences with the Higher Education Academy - ICS. This was the extent to which depts are currently relying, or plan to rely, on the use of student laptops for lab work rather than rooms full of desktops. These laptops may be student provided, university provided, or university subsidised. A related issue is the level of technical support given to students using laptops.

Colleagues, We have received this query from Nottingham Trent University and I would appreciate it if you could forward your views. Do you know of anywhere we can find out the staff student ratios of other computing depts across the UK? Our senior management are using this as a key performance indicator. We are keen therefore to get some sector-wide figures to avoid being compared to non-technical disciplines. I recognise the potentially sensitive nature of this data and would not wish this to go out as a general request for that reason, but thought you might know if such data was already collected by a central body. I look forward to your reply.

Colleagues, We have recieved this request for information regarding teaching neuroscience from our counterparts in the Psychology Subject Network. Many psychology courses now involve a significant amount of neuroscience tuition. The Higher Education Academy Psychology Network is therefore currently considering the extent to which psychology (and related) lecturers may benefit from networks, workshops, or other activities specifically focused on teaching neuroscience. We are still in the very early stages of thinking about this, and we are wondering whether the Centre for Information and Computer Sceinces can provide us with information about any existing activities or resources in this area that psychologists may find useful. We ask this not only to avoid 're-inventing the wheel' but also, and more importantly, to avoid beginning our own work in an area in which other subject centres have already developed well-researched practices and procedures from which our members could benefit. We are more than willing to provide members of our community with information concerning neuroscience-related activities and resources that are available from other subject centres, should these exist. We would also be interested to hear about the extent to which you feel there may be a demand within your subject community, or within higher education more generally, for activities focused on the teaching of neuroscience to undergraduates. If you have any information that would be useful to the Psychology Network Centre please respond

I am trying to gather information about marking practices for MSc projects / Dissertations. Presently we allocate two markers who are independent from the student's supervisor. However, I have discovered a number of institutions where the supervisor is one of the markers. I would be interested to find out if these practices are widespread or indeed if other practices are used.

I have had an enquiry about the consequences of failure in final year for intermediate level awards (i.e. HND, associate bachelors etc.) In our institution the consequences of failure for such awards are exactly the same as those for Honours programmes i.e: In the final year the consequences of failure which is not condoned shall normally be as follows: Failure in modules with an overall value up to and including 40 credit points - Repeat once only specified examination(s) and / or coursework in the failed modules (examinations August). Failure in modules with an overall value of more than 40 credit points - Withdraw from the programme. A number of Externals have commented that they felt that this was particularly harsh for intermediate level awards, as we are treating 2nd year students in the same way as 4th years. We would be keen to hear more about practice in other institutions regarding regulations relating to final year intermediate-level awards. Do the same rules apply to intermediate level and honours awards? If not, how do they differ? With the introduction of foundation degrees (especially where these are being offered in institutions which previously did not offer intermediate level awards) this is likely to be a topic of much debate. As always, responses will be collated and posted to the FAQ section of the website. Thank you in advance for your contributions to this debate.

I have had an enquiry looking for suggestions of software to support the teaching of project management above and beyond microsoft project, maybe something to support Prince 2 or risk analysis etc. Brief details of any tools currently in use to support such a scenario would be greatly appreciated.

I would like to ask about the "presentation software" that people use in lectures. The default seems to be Powerpoint, but it's rather static and I'm looking for something that will allow me to display materials and change them on the fly during the lecture (like you can with a white board). I have been using Word for this which works quite well. But ideally I'd like to be able to put up some slides with bullet points, say, and then click on each point and have it expand in the same sort of way that Windows Explorer can expand folders when you click on them.

John Colvin from University College Worcester is hoping that others will contribute their views/experiences/practices on the issue of improving how students locate and retrieve information to support their learning and evaluate the information that they retrieve. At Worcester a collaborative approach between academic and library staff is adopted which is embedded in the curriculum and assessment related. John is specifically interested in what procedures colleagues go through in terms of checking, monitoring and improving these skill levels for students on Foundation, HND, undergraduate and Masters level courses.

I am undertaking research into assessed discussions/seminars in HE and would like to compare and contrast the approaches taken by different disciplines/ departments in order to evaluate contemporary practice. I realise that the assessment of classroom based discussion is not prevalent in ICS but with an increased emphasis being placed on the need to find innovative assessment methods and a similar increase in group working and problem-based learning activities I'd be interested ho hear of any novel approaches in this area, including any small scale developments. Thank you for your help.

In the School of Design, Engineering & Computing at Bournemouth University we are working collaboratively with staff and students to develop strategies for inclusive assessment to enable students from a diverse background including students with physical disability to gain the most from their learning experiences with us. We would be interested to hear of any initiatives that are looking into inclusivity in assessment with the possibility of working collaboratively with others to take this forward, especially in terms of providing advice and guidance to academics in developing appropriate assessment that provides for this diversity.

We have been carrying out some research into teaching a second year Systems unit on a Businesss Information Technology degree. The unit consists of a number of modelling techniques. We introduced a reflective assignment, following a pilot last year, aimed at allowing the student to explore the suitability of a range of modelling techniques to address a particular problem given to them in a case study. This has led to some quite interesting outcomes. We would be interested to hear from anyone else working in a similar way to share experiences and perhaps collaborate with us.

I have recently received a query regarding the type and balance of summative and formative assessments which are presented to students. As formative assessment and student feedback has recognised benefits for both staff and students, there are a few questions where I would value your input...... Does your School have a policy on the type and balance of summative assessments that are presented to students e.g. covering % weighting of exams and coursework by module and/or level, number of concurrent group activities, or similar constraints? What type of formative assessments do you use? Do you gather student feedback? If so, when do you gather feedback, how do you collect it and what do you gather feedback about? How do you audit current practice? In order to drive forward the quality enhancement agenda, co-ordination at departmental or faculty level is often necessary to identify gaps in provision, areas for action, student expectations and our ability to respond to them etc. Do you have standardised feedback mechanisms across the institution/faculty? Feedback of data should be followed by analysis and interpretation which must be set in context by a clear understanding of the purpose of the module/course in question and the resource implications - how do you achieve this?

The LTSN Generic Centre are currently investigating the role of, and support for, Graduate Teaching Assistants in HE. With the changes in resourcing, student numbers and the funding of research and teaching, it's likely that the pressures on the use of GTAs (and on GTAs themselves) will increase. Issues include: the nature of work done by GTAs; training (generic or discipline-specific); professional development; nature of contracts and remuneration; support. Each centre has been asked to do a preliminary trawl for "intelligence" in this area. I would therefore appreciate a very brief response to each of the following questions. 1. Are there any specific activities which you would like to see LTSN-ICS undertake with respect to supporting GTAs? e.g. should LTSN-ICS develop a dedicated electronic support list (JISCmail) for GTAs within the ICS disciplines. Should LTSN-ICS organise an annual event/workshop for this important group? 2. What problems or issues do you consider to be most critical to the use of GTAs in the ICS disciplines?

As a lecturer of statistics at Huddersfield University I am interested in multimedia applications. Do any of the list members know of any multimedia based CBL resources available for teaching statistics (in particular simulation) that would be suitable for undergraduate students, please?

As students are now allowed access to exam scripts we find that here at Ulster we are receiving an increasing number of requests to do so. In light of this, I thought it would be useful to see if similar trends are occuring elsewhere and indeed how you deal with this. Do you charge students a fee for the privilege? If so, how much? Do they get to see the original or just a photocopy? Is this inspection carried out under supervision? If so, is there an academic member of staff present? How long does the session last? Do they get to see any annotations/comments you may have made during the marking process? Can they retain a photocopy of the script? Can any student request to see a copy of their script or just those who are resit candidates or who are on borderline classifications? How is the process administered - centrally, at School/Faculty level or by directly approaching the academic responsible?

We have had a query from a colleague wanting to know of any multimedia based CBL tutorials / resources available that might assist in the teaching of Sorting particularly at 'A' Level Computing.

I teach an "Internetworking" module which uses practical sessions to look at the practical skills of setting up an IPv4 intranet from first principles (i.e. subnetting, static address allocation, configuration of static routing tables, troubleshooting, installation of network applications) The issue here is that setting up a network of anything close to realistic complexity is expensive in resources - for example, you need a 4 computers (2 configured as dual-homed routers) and 3 hubs to have even a very simple routing table) So the problem is that I want to assess the students in their ability to set up and troubleshoot a realistic network. Student numbers of about 175 don't really let me do that, and I currently require them to do a paper design of a network in an exam. Can anyone else tell me how they provide (a) formative assessment and (b) valid summative assessment for a similar learning outcome. I am aware of Staffordshire's "Cisco Networking Academy", but I don't have anything like their resources Thanks, in advance, for any thoughts

There are an increasing number of MRes, MPhil and DPhils in the Information & Computer Science disciplines which include taught Research Methods which is not traditionally covered in the Undergraduate curriculum. Teaching Research Methods to this group is a common problem for many departments. What is typically taught on such syllabi, how is it assessed and what tools are used to support the process?

We have recently received an enquiry about the extent to which we as CS academics, use the technology about which we teach in order to enhance the quality of the teaching/learning experience.The special relationship which exists between the computer as an educational tool and the subject of computing itself clearly provides opportunities for enhancing the learning process which are peculiar to this discipline alone. On the other hand, it seems that this same relationship has sometimes fostered a myopic tendency to overlook the possibility of harnessing the power of technology to teach computing. Little is known about the real uptake of the impact of ICT to support Computer Science education. To what extent is ICT used within your department? Do you make use of WWW, VLEs, CAA Computer Mediated Communications? In terms of CAL materials, to what extent are these employed for the transfer of factual information program/algorithm animation, simulations etc.?

We're thinking about 'employing' out more talented students to act as teaching assistants in programming labs. Do you know of any other universitiess or HE colleges that use undergraduates in this way, paid on an hourly basis? If the answer is yes, how is it generally done? A colleague of mine is keen to use 2nd level students to help out 1st level students. I guess that's the more common model. However, I'm keen to try using the best 1st level students, who because of the student-centred approach we have, may have completed the semester's work by week 7. I was thinking to keep them occupied and in beer money that it might be an idea to use them instead. Ever heard of this happening?

Has anyone had experience in using problem based learning

Does anyone know of any work done on assessing posters used for final year projects in science and engineering?

I'm very keen to avoid reinventing the wheel, and am looking for a reliable web-based coursework submission system. Do you know whether such a thing exists? And if so, where?

At Newcastle a number of programmes (CS, Engineering, etc.) have moved to block teaching (where, for example, this might mean teaching of a single module in one week, followed by a week for coursework to be completed related to that module) as opposed to linear teaching (where, for example, a module is taught across a semester in parallel with other modules). This is mostly at MSc and final year MEng (i.e. level 7). To what extent is block teaching used elsewhere (not restricted to CS)? What models of block teaching are employed? What are the perceived advantages and disadvantages (for students and staff). Do you have problems with students taking both block and linear modules at the same time, and if so how do you resolve them? What do you do if a student (or lecturer) is absent (e.g. because of illness ) for a whole block?

In our department we are planning to set up what would traditionally be called a 'student computer club' - in our case it will be a Windows-Mac-Linux User Group for students.  I'm interested to know what experience other institutions might have in running such 'clubs'.  Are they 'physical' or 'virtual' or both?  Are they led mainly by staff or students?  What sort of activities do they offer?  Do's and Don'ts?  Lessons learned?  Thanks 

I'm interested in the particular needs of students who stay at home during their time at University. At Birmingham, we  have a relatively high number of students living with parents and commuting from the West Midlands and research suggests that such "stay at home" students are often more likely  to drop out of their studies. I was wondering if anybody has experience of providing additional support for such students or insights into the particular problems & issues such students face.

"Students sometimes complain that they receive too many e-mails from the institution. Institutions generally have a communictions policy which covers aspects such as confidentiality, acceptable use and so on, but do not generally provide practical guidance on what communication media should be used for certain message types to students particularly. For example, job opportunities for potential graduates could be an RSS feed whereas lecture postponement could be SMS, and bulletins could be sent by e-mail.

Questions:

1. Where/what is your institution's communication policy to students?
2. Does your institution provide practical guidance on what media to use for different message types?"
3. Does your institution encourage a limit on the number of e-mails that should be sent to students by a dept. in a day?

At my University we have recently changed our Academic Regulations which define many things, including the requirements for students to be able to progress through their degree course. I know retention is a concern on many undergrad Computing degrees and wonder how our requirements compare with others. (If any such cross-Institution comparison has already been compiled I'd be very grateful to hear of it.) The regulation we now operate is that, to progress from Stage 1 to Stage 2 (essentially to progress to year 2), students must have passed at least 100 credits (of the 120 credits which they studied). Additionally, they must have passed the specific modules which are pre-requisites for their Stage 2 modules - typically about 80 credits. At the end of their degree they can be 'condoned' in the failed credits, provided it was a 'near miss' fail. (Over their whole degree they can be condoned in 20 credits of failure at each of levels 1 and 2.) There is no compensation mechanism. We do usually allow students who don't progress to remain 'on course', on Stage 1, taking a mix of modules, so students who don't progress don't necessarily have to leave. I'd be very interested to know the rules operated by other institutions, especially as apply to students on Computing and related degrees.

a) is ethical hacking an appropriate degree title for universities to use if yes - why and if not why not b) should we be teaching ethical hacking if yes why and if not why not c) what should the role of professional bodies be in subjects such as ethical hacking

We have had an enquiry relating to student "fees payable during sandwich placement" I am not aware of any national/regional "policy" in respect of this - although you may of course know differently? What is the policy in your institution/department?

I am currently attempting to persuade my institution to **STOP** fire alarm testing during normal working hours. (i.e. having an 80db noise occuuring at random intervals for random durations any number of times during a 20 to 30 min period.) My argument is that although it is recommeded best practice it is having a hugely disproportionate effect upon the conduct of taught classes. I would be most interested to learn of practice at other institutions, particularly where testing takes place outside normal teaching hours. Thanks, Fintan Culwin London South Bank University

I would like to find out whether there are any existing courses/modules that involve teaching computing science undergraduates communication skills for a lay of audiences (rather than professional communication, and whether there are any existing courses/modules that involves higher level students mentoring first year students?

An Academic is on the planning committee for a new lecture block that is being built on our Campus and is concerned especially about the specification for AV and Computing equipment. Someone else on the planning committee has come up with the idea of having "Webstreaming and Archiving" installed (at a cost of about £46,000). Our contact is far from convinced that this is the best use of the money. If it is installed then £46,000 gets cut from the budget. We would like to know if any institutions have it (and use it) and is it worth it?

At Coventry I've been trying to introduce some sustainability content into our Computing courses. I've encountered real resistance on many students' part and am having trouble 'selling' its relevance to them as future IT professionals. They're okay with 'energy usage' issues (buying power-efficient kit) and with reuse/recycling (PCs, valuable metals, paper). It's other things which are more difficult: the society and broader economic sustainability issues which are more problematic to sell and make relevant and yet remain broadly apolitical. I'd be really grateful to hear, via this list, of what other people have achieved in this area

What are your views concerning the new proposals? Is there a role for LTSN in helping external examiners, or HE lecturers who would like to become an external examiner, to acquire and develop the necessary skills and capabilities to fulfill this important role? What activities (if any) should LTSN-ICS get involved in with respect to external examining? Any comments which you would like to make to inform our thinking on this topic?

At Thames Valley University we run 2 conversion postgraduate degrees in IS and IS with Management i.e. offering IS at postgraduate level to graduates in other disciplines. Do you know of any views concerning the currency of such degrees in terms of, for exampe, the IS industry and wider bodies such as the QAA and the European Community?

Can the LTSN recommend some CAL software for WORD, ACCESS and EXCEL please? It should be networkable, have testing included and be a reasonable price. Probably the same suite from one provider would give a consistency for the students. If anybody is using a suite or set of packages that they have found very useful then please email me and we shall collate the results.

I'm working with a leading agile software developer on teaching at universities and we were wondering what about a few things.

Do people go to developer conferences, hackdays and the like, and meet developers, coaches and those who build software everyday?

Do the practices of full-time developers influence their teaching such as the subjects they cover, or assignments they set?

Many thanks,

Bruce

Many Information & Computer Science academics in the UK and their students are probably doing technology work that has potential for the world's 'developing' regions, this may be technology that is low-power, low-cost, light-weight, robust, low band-width, Open Source or mobile devices.

We are keen to find out which academics are interested in these aspects of Computer Science in order to explore the idea of creating a focus that could foster a greater understanding of the challenges that faced by computing in ‘developing' regions, that could encourage greater synergy, co-operation and mutual support amongst academics and perhaps look at other opportunities such as twinning between universities, staff or students, engaging with academics in ‘developing' regions on shared projects or reciprocal visits.

We are currently running Oracle 8i on an aging Sun Solaris machine and thinking of moving to Oracle 10g on a Microsoft 2003 server. The database is used by students to develop a 'trivial' data warehouse application i.e. it is hardly stressed! Do you think we need to install the 'full' Oracle 10g or could we manage with the free 'Express Edition' (see http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html)

We will shortly be reviewing our BSc Computing courses and I wondered if members of the list would be prepared to contact me with information about their first year programming units (syllabus, examples of assignments, teaching schemes, languages used)?

I am looking for a databank of multiple choice questions in the theoretical side of information science (e.g., bibliometrics, information seeking behaviour, recall and precision, evaluation of information retrieval systems, growth of the literature, citation studies...). There maybe a US University or two that has created such databanks? Does anyone have any ideas on this? I know LTSN-ICS are working on developing a question bank in LIS, but my need is rather too urgent to wait for that I suspect.

We are introducing Java as a programming language to 2nd year Information Systems students. They will be using Windows 2000 platform. Can colleagues please recommend a good Java IDE? We are also looking to purchase a CASE tool to be used in conjunction with Java. Have you any recommendations? We have used Poseidon this year, students found it extremely slow (even on P4 2GHz machines) and experienced numerous crashes. Students have already experience of Visual Basic from year 1 ( though it is likely we may move to Delphi - any comments welcome).

Here at the University of Ulster, we currently teach Java as the first programming language to students on our MSc Conversion programme. As in other institutions the language of choice is a topic of considerable debate. If you currently offer an MSc conversion programme what language do you teach? We would also be interested to hear how you approach coursework and assessment with this cohort.

We have had a query regarding online resources for introductory programming in Prolog. Does anyone who has experience in this area know of any useful web based resources, tutorials or useful material?

We have received this request for advice from Dr Andrew Adams at the Universtiy of Reading.  He was hoping that you might be able to offer him some urgent advice with a tricky special needs case.

"We have a student taking a computing degree who was diagnosed with dyslexia after his final exams had been completed. While we can re-mark his exams and coursework to ignore spelling and grammar errors, we cannot retroactively allow him the extra time in exams that students with dyslexia would ordinarily get. If anyone else in a computing subject has had to deal with a similar circumstance of post-hoc allowances for disability in this way, could they let me know, please?"  

Could I please ask that you respond by Friday 13th June 2008.

Colleagues We have received a local query regarding penalties for late submission of coursework and I wondered if we might share best practice on this one. The idea being aired here at Ulster is to have a graded penalty scale (eg -5% for each day late) rather than a zero mark for any late work. This would avoid staff having to listen to excuses which would not fall within genuine extenuating circumstances and/or accepting work outside the regulations. It would also reduce module failures due to failed (late) coursework, the need for setting remedial coursework etc. We would be keen to hear more about practice in other institutions regarding penalties for late coursework. Do you use a sliding scale or a fixed absolute deadline? If a sliding scale is known the details would also be helpful.

Problems of poor attendance at Year I and II of undergraduate courses We are looking for the most effective way to improve the attendance of students on our computing modules.In particular, we have a number of modules on our undergraduate degrees that are 100% coursework assessed. If a module has 2 or more pieces of coursework, should the later piece(s) be made available to good attendees only or should all the pieces be made available to all students regardless of attendance ? We currently make all the pieces available regardless of attendance figures, but are considering the possible alternatives. By making coursework unavailable to poor attendees it is possible that they will automatically fail as the later pieces of work could count for more of the marks and therefore we are not allowing them to attempt the work. Example for a module: Assessment 1 (15%) - completed in week 6 Assessment 2 (15%) - completed in week 9 Assessment 3 (70%) - completed in week 12 Unless the Assessment 3 is attempted the student will fail as the pass mark is 40%. 1) Do you have problems with poor attendance ? 2) What would you consider as an acceptable level of attendance on a Year I or II module Greater 80% Greater 70% Greater 60% Greater 50% Greater 40% 3) Have you tried to improve attendance by allocating marks that count to the final module total ? 4) Have you ever allocated marks for attendance ? 5) Was it successful ? 6) Some modules have included ‘Tickable Problems' that a student must complete and hand in each week. They do not carry any contribution to the final module total, but are intended to help the students understanding of the topics. They are all checked and if the majority of the problems are not completed the student will be automatically failed in the module. Typically, this approach has been used in programming subjects were it is necessary to practice the art of writing programs. It does cause a workload problem of verifying that the work was undertaken and the timeliness of the feedback given. 7) What are your approaches to improving poor attendance ? 8) Any comments you would like to make to inform our thinking on this topic ?

I'm doing research in Computer Science at the University of Nottingham. We are looking into ways to automate the process of answering student questions for our Java introductory course. Currently we are collecting data (student questions) and we need as many as we can get. I would be most grateful if anyone could donate student questions they have collected (from emails? Bulletin Board Systems?) (with or without answers) for this research work. For more information about this project please visit my web site .

At CS in Birmingham, we ask for student feedback on every module we teach twice a semester using an electronic questionaire where students rate various aspects of the module on a 5 point scale. On the reverse of the form there we also ask for written responses from the students on what is good & bad about the module. One obvious gap in this is that we don't ask students about the module after the exam (i.e. after the major assessment of most modules) and therefore there is no feedback from students on the module as a whole (including assessment) or the exam itself.I'd be interested in knowing what other institution's practices are.

I am interested in the development and support of skills needed by students to assist them in the final year of their undergraduate degree. We have a Year 1 Personal Transferable Skills Module which teaches the students about report writing, communications etc, but we have identified that the students are lacking in skills required at the higher levels of study; such as critical evaluation, research, reflection, self-motivation, project/time management etc. I would be interested to know whether other institutions have identified this as an issue and how it is addressed in their courses. Thanks.

For the past two sessions we have monitored attendance in the first year of our degrees. The process is time-consuming: lists are handed round in lectures, a teaching assistant records the results in a spreadsheet, and reports are available for ad hoc queries. We have found that the information we glean helps us to identify "at risk" students very early in the course, and we have saved a good few who we would otherwise probably have lost. We wonder know what other departments do about attendance. We see a benefit, but there is some debate as to whether the benefit is justified by the evident costs. We would be interested to know: 1. Does your department monitor attendance at lectures? Is this done equally across all years? 2. Is your department required to monitor attendance due to university policy? 3. What is your departmental policy on attendance? 4. Do you have a system in place to monitor attendance in any way (I.T based or non I.T based)? 5. How did you decide on the system if you have one? 6. What problems, if any have you found with your system?

I was wondering if you know if there is are guidelines or a best practice guide available for teaching IT, specifically for supporting disabled students?

I am currently researching the implications of the Government's new legislation SENDA, (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001) which came into force last month (Sept. 2002) in conjunction with Dr G. Bellaby (University of Derby) with regards to Universities and their websites. Answers from the following questions will be useful but don't feel bound or limited by them: 1. Does your University have a Disability/Accessibility statement? 2. How do you create 'an even playing field' for all with regard to educational materials on websites? 3. What disabilities are the University website suitable for? 4. What percentage of your students are disabled? 5. If your University website has an Accessibility/Disability link or option, what disability does it mainly cater for? 6. What guidelines are in place for academic staff who place educational material on the web? 7. What web standard does your University website use? 8. Is your website monitored and, if so, how and for what reason? I am grateful to those who have already contributed to this project so far.

I am writing to ascertain current implementation of SENDA (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act, 2002) and the impact that this is having on Computer Science teaching. We have a good track record of dealing with most disabilities, but one particular, completely blind student has raised the SENDA requirements to an somewhat extreme level this year and we are faced with massive, and possibly strategic, changes to our programmes before next year. Whilst most of our efforts to comply will simply(!) require time and resources, we are acutely aware that Computer Science is raising some intractable issues and would welcome input from other CS departments on these. There are a number of elements which we believe are core to our Computer Science programme that seem intrinsically visual in nature making it unclear how these could be made accessible to a totally blind student. The principal examples that we have identified are: - 3D-visualisation (much of the modelling is necessarily geometric and draws heavily on visual representation, the comparison and evaluation of algorithms for the rendering of images is essentially visual. - Virtual Reality and HCI. - Formal methods. It is not so much the textual representation of symbols which can, with some effort, be solved using some sort of pseudo-LaTeX, but rather their meaning. The symbols can represent very abstract mathematical objects which usually require live diagrammatic motivation accompanied by hand gestures to appeal to students intuition when describing higher-order objects that cannot be adequately illustrated in 2 or even 3 dimensions. - Software engineering, the creation and (formal) manipulation of diagrammatic and symbolic representations of (segments of) software artefacts; including program texts. - Computer Systems, to include logic, circuit and schematic diagrams. - Systems theory, to include UML and many other visual modelling methods and tools of communication. - Systems management, to include collaborative working, peer review (maybe particularly difficult for other forms of disability) 2. There are also, of course, the wider issues that, over the years, lecturers have developed very effective visual aids for understanding complex scenarios which utilise the power of the computer in such ways as interactive courseware, animations and, even, film and audio. Removing these materials in order to "level the playing field"is not an option. It will be hugely consumptive of academic time toreproduce many of these tools in none-automated forms. 3. Alongside this is also an observation that Computer Science is assumed to be an obvious career choice in that computers (or more correctly IT) may already have played a significant role in providing accessibility to the student in many other fields of study. This suggests that proportionally more disabled students to apply to study Computer Science than other subjects. We would be grateful to know both of any groups that are working on supporting the particular aspects of CS that we have identified in 1 above and also to discover whether there is any body of opinion that may ultimately be of sufficient legal strength to enable students with specific disabilities to be legitimately excluded from entry to some computer science degrees within the SENDA framework.

On the BSc Hons Computing Science programme at the University of Ulster an 11 month placement is, and always has been, mandatory in year 3. Currently, placement is integral to the learning outcomes of the course. As quality placements become more difficult to secure in sufficient numbers, we are considering the possibility of 'decoupling' placement from the course. The intention is that, technically, placement becomes an option, yet remains something that we would highly recommend and actively promote for ALL students. We are unsure a student cohort would respond to this and would be grateful for the experiences / views of other institutions. In particular: (a) where placement is an OPTIONAL component of an honours computing science programme, typically what percentage of a cohort takes placement? (b) from a course management perspective, should placement be considered a mandatory or optional component of an honours programme in computing science.

Does anyone know of any research/literature on marking schemes such as approaches to marking, allocation of marks/grades, effective formats

I would like to investigate how students feel about lab layouts - do they prefer sitting around the edge of the room where lecturers can see what is on their screen, or do they prefer to be in rows facing the front of the room so that their screens remain private. Also looking at the lecturers preferences, what layout works best for them and why .

Is anyone aware of any institutional facility (that works) that encourages or at least facilitates the use of personal machines, especially laptops, by students? We would like to hear from anyone with experience of this with regards to pros, cons and costs.