Enhancing Computing Student Employability Skills Through Partnership Working in STEM Outreach

Enhancing Computing Student Employability Skills Through Partnership Working in STEM Outreach - Springer:


Scott Turner
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-29166-6_10


Published in Software Engineering Education Going Agile Part of the series Progress in IS pp 67-71

Abstract

Student volunteering is growing in the UK and elsewhere, and there is an ongoing debate about whether it is really “self-evidently a ‘good thing’” or there is a greater need for reflection to determine whether this statement is true (Holdsworth and Quinn, Studies in Higher Education, 35(1), 113–127, 2010). This paper presents a personal reflection of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) volunteering as a potential route to increasing Computing student’s employability.

References

1.

STEMNet (2015) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network [online] Available at: http:// www. stemnet. org. uk/  Accessed on: 24thJanuary 2015

2.

Sinclair J, Allen A, Davis L, Goodchild T, Messenger J, Turner S (2014) "Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach; the University of Northampton approach " HEA STEM Annual Teaching and Learning Conference 2013: Enhancing the STEM Student Journey, University of Edinburgh, 30th April-1st May 2014

3.

Holdsworth, C., and Quinn, J. (2010). Student volunteering in English higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 35(1), 113–127.CrossRef

4.

Brewis, G., Russell, J., and Holdsworth, C. (2010). Bursting the bubble: Students, volunteering and the community. Research Summary.

5.

Junkbots (2015) Junkbots [online] Available at: http:// junkbots. blogspot. co. uk/  Accessed on: 24th January 2015.

All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

Two papers recently presented at the 11th China-Europe International Symposium of Software Engineering Education

Two papers were recently presented at the 11th China-Europe International Symposium of Software Engineering Education, 29-30 April 2015, Zwickau, Germany http://whz-cms-10.zw.fh-zwickau.de/bo/index_CEISEE.html by two members of staff from the School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton.









Paper 1

Review of a problems-first approach to first year undergraduate programming

Gary J. Hill

(Head of Department, Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton, Northampton, NN2 6JB, UK)

 

ABSTRACT

This paper, predominantly discusses the teaching of programming and problem solving to undergraduate first year computing students, using robots/robot simulators and visual programming to emulate the robot tasks. The needs to focus initial programming education on problem solving, prior to the teaching of programming syntax and software design methodology is also considered. The main vehicle for this approach is a robot/robot simulation programmed in Java, followed by the programming of a visual representation/simulation to develop programming skills. Problem solving is not trivial (Beaumont & Fox, 2003) and is an important skill, central to computing and engineering. The paper aims to summarise the authors earlier research on a problems-first approach to programming (Hill & Turner, 2011, 2014  to further emphasise the importance of problem solving, problem-based learning/project-based learning and the benefits of both physical and visual solutions.

The importance of linking the problem-solving robot activity and the programming assignment, whilst maintaining the visual nature of the problem, will be discussed, together with the comparison of this work with similar work reported by other authors relating to teaching programming using robots (Williams, 2003, Burbaitė et al., 2013).

The approaches discussed have been disseminated to colleagues, not only within the author’s University, but also in Europe and internationally (Kariyawasam, Turner & Hill, 2012, Hill & Turner, 2011, 2014) . Development funding support has also been received from the Higher Education Academy (HEA) – Information & Computer Sciences (ICS) Development Fund (2015a) and the HEA-ICS/Microsoft Innovative Teaching Fund (2015b).

References

Adams, J., Turner, S., Kaczmarczyk, S., Picton, P., & Demian, P. (2008). Problem solving and creativity for undergraduate engineers: Findings of an action research project involving robots. Paper presented at the International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEE 2008), Budapest, Hungary.

Adams J. P., & Turner, S. J., (2008) Problem Solving and Creativity for Undergraduate Engineers: process or product? International Conference on Innovation, Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education July 14-16, 2008, Loughborough, England, Higher Education Academy. 9781904804659.

Burbaitė, R., Damaševičius, R., Štuikys, V., (2013) Teaching of Computer Science Topics Using Meta-Programming-Based GLOs and LEGO Robots, Informatics in Education - An International Journal (Vol12_1), pp125-142.

Beaumont, C., & Fox, C. (2003). Learning programming: Enhancing quality through problem-based learning. In proceeding of 4th Annual Conference of the subject centre for Information and Computer Sciences of the Higher Education Academy (pp. 90-95). Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland: Higher Education Academy.

Bloom, B. S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook I: Cognitive domain. White Plains, NY: Longman.

Chickering, A. W., Gamson. Z., F. (1987) "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." AAHE Bulletin 39:3-7. ED 282 491.6 pp. MF-01; PC-01.

Computing Curricula. (2001) IEEE CS, ACM Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula, IEEE Computer Society Press and ACM Press. Retrieved January 22, 2015 from http://www.acm.org/education/curricula.html.

Gallopoulos E, Houstis E, Rice JR (1994) Computer as Thinker/Doer: Problem-Solving Environments for Computational Science IEEE Computational Science and Engineering pp 11-23 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/99.326669

Gold. N., (2010) Motivating Students in Software Engineering Group Projects: An Experience Report. Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences 9(1), 10-19. DOI: 10.11120/ital.2010.09010010 http://dx.doi.org/10.11120/ital.2010.09010010

Greenfoot (2013) Teach and Learn Java Programming. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from http://www.greenfoot.org/

HEA-ICS Development Fund (2015a) HEA-ICS Development Fund [online] Available from: http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/development-fund/index.php [Accessed February 2015].

HEA-ICS/Microsoft Innovative Teaching Fund (2015b) "Developing problem-solving teaching materials based upon Microsoft Robotics Studio" [online] Available from: http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/development-fund/fund_details.php?id=88 [Accessed February 2015].

Hill, G. and Turner, S. J. (2014) Problems first, second and third. International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education (IJQAETE). 3(3), pp. 88-109. 2155-496X.

Hill G. J., Turner S. (2011) "Chapter 7: Problems First", Software Industry-Oriented Education Practices and Curriculum Development: Experiences and Lessons, M Hussey, X Xu & B Wu (Eds.), IGI Global, USA, pp 110-126, ISBN: 978-1-60960-797-5.

Houghton, W., (2004) How can Learning and Teaching Theory assist Engineering Academics? [online]. School of Engineering - University of Exeter. Available from: http://www.engsc.ac.uk/er/theory/problemsolving.asp [Accessed November 2007].

JICC5 (2001) Java & the Internet in the Computing Curriculum, Higher Education Academy (HEA) – Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) Conference, South Bank University, London, 22nd Jan, (http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/events/displayevent.php?id=127).

Kariyawasam K., A., Turner S., Hill G. (2012) "Is it Visual? The importance of a Problem Solving Module within a Computing course", Computer Education, Volume 10, Issue 166, May 2012, pp. 5-7, ISSN: 1672-5913.

Microsoft. (2006). Microsoft robotics studio. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/aa731520.aspx

Savin-Baden, M. & Wilkie, K. (2004) (eds) Challenging Research in Problem-based Learning. Maidenhead: Open University Press/SRHE.

Turner S., Hill G. J., (2010) Innovative Use of Robots and Graphical Programming in Software Education, Computer Education, Volume 9, May 2010, pp. 54-6, ISSN: 1672-5913.

Turner S., Hill G. J., (2008) Robots within the teaching of Problem-Solving, ITALICS, HEA-ICS, Volume 7 Issue 1, June 2008, pp. 108-119, ISSN: 1473-7507. http://dx.doi.org/10.11120/ital.2008.07010108

Turner S., Hill G. J., (2007) Robots in Problem-Solving and Programming 8th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, 28th - 30th August 2007, pp 82-85 ISBN 0-978-0-9552005-7-1

Turner S., Hill G. J., (2006) The Inclusion of Robots Within The Teaching OF Problem Solving: Preliminary Results, 7th Annual Conference of the ICS HE Academy, Trinity College, Dublin, 29th - 31st August 2006, Proceedings pg 241-242 ISBN 0-9552005-3-9

Wing, J. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, 49(3), 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1118178.1118215

Gary is also on the International Programme committee (http://whz-cms-10.zw.fh-zwickau.de/bo/CEISEE_ProgComm.html)  and was a panel member of the discussion of Software Engineering Education and Industry



Paper 2

Enhancing computing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach.

Scott Turner, Associate Professor, Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton, Northampton, NN2 6JB, UK

Abstract

Student volunteering is growing in the UK and elsewhere, and there is an ongoing debate about whether it is really “self-evidently a ‘good thing’” or there is a greater need for reflection to determine whether this statement is true (Holdsworth and Quinn, 2010).  This paper presents a personal reflection of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) volunteering as a potential route to increasing Computing student’s employability.

This paper looks at an approach at the University of Northampton that involves:

• ·         Linking but not combining a local STEM volunteering scheme to the National STEM Volunteers (STEMNet 2015)
• ·         Creation of a STEM Steering Group that has representation across all parts of the university.

Enhancing computing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach. - CEISEE 2015 from Scott Turner

Three brief case studies of computing student volunteers at different stages will be presented and culminate with a personal reflection based on observations over a ten year period.

References

Brewis, G., Russell, J., & Holdsworth, C. (2010). Bursting the bubble: Students, volunteering and the community. Research Summary.

Holdsworth, C., & Quinn, J. (2010). Student volunteering in English higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 35(1), 113-127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070903019856

Junkbots (2015) Junkbots [online] Available at: http://junkbots.blogspot.co.uk/ Accessed on: 24th January 2015.

Sinclair J, Allen A, Davis L, Goodchild T, Messenger J, Turner S (2014) "Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach; the University of Northampton approach " HEA STEM Annual Teaching and Learning Conference 2013: Enhancing the STEM Student Journey, University of Edinburgh, 30th April-1st May 2014

STEMNet (2015) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network [online] Available at: http://www.stemnet.org.uk/ Accessed on: 24th January 2015.

Scott is also on the International Programme committee (http://whz-cms-10.zw.fh-zwickau.de/bo/CEISEE_ProgComm.html)  and was a session chair for a paper session.

All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

student employability skills through STEM outreach

Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach. from Scott Turner

A recent paper was presented by John Sinclair and co-authored by Stuart Allen, Linda Davis-Sinclair, Trish Goodchild, Julie Messenger, and Scott Turner at Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference 2014- Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success about STEM outreach and employability.

Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach

John Sinclair, Stuart Allen, Linda Davis, Trish Goodchild, Julie Messenger, Scott Turner

Contact details:

john.sinclair@northampton.ac.uk

Abstract:

For over a decade, University of Northampton staff and students have delivered successful STEM outreach activities, master classes and co-working opportunities to learners in schools and FE colleges.  In addition, the University works with the local STEMNET contract holder to gain national recognition for staff and students STEM Ambassadors and recognises STEM Ambassadors through awards (staff and student) as part of its annual celebration of volunteer achievement.  Both developments derive from a culture of empowering students as partners and enhancing the student journey.

The University has developed a co-ordinated programme of training and events to empower students and staff to engage with school and community outreach.  A cross-University STEM Steering Group (SSG) which features both management and grass roots-level representation from the across the University (Science and Technology, Health, Education, the Arts and its Centre for Employability and Engagement) manages the activities, including recruiting representation from the student body.  As such, SSG is uniquely well-placed to champion STEM activities across the University and to make these available to the wider community.  Local schools are able to access inspirational science activities, whilst University students gain employability-related skills in leadership, communication, project-delivery and self-motivation and staff gain valuable CPD.  Students also identify more strongly with the University.  The total package plays a major role in contributing to University aspirations in widening participation and is hugely popular with participants.  This paper will outline the project and will showcase the positive enhancements which it offers to University of Northampton students and school participants.

Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working outreach; the University of Northampton approach

A paper has recently been present at HEA STEM Annual Teaching and Learning Conference 2013: Enhancing the STEM Student Journey, University of Edinburgh, 30th April-1st May 2014

Enhancing student employability skills through partnership working in STEM outreach; the University of Northampton approach.

John Sinclair*, Stuart Allen†, Linda Davis, Trish Goodchild, Julie Messenger#, Scott Turner

University of Northampton, St George’s Avenue, Northampton, NN3 3AF.

†University of Northampton, Boughton Green Road, Northampton.  NN2 7AL.

# Leicester Educational Business Company, Ashcroft House, Ervington Court,  Meridian Business Park. Leicester LE19 1WL

*author for correspondence

Abstract.

For over a decade, University of Northampton staff and students have delivered successful STEM outreach activities, master classes and co-working opportunities to learners in schools and FE colleges.  In addition, the University works with the local STEMNET contract holder to gain national recognition for staff and students STEM Ambassadors and recognises STEM Ambassadors through awards (staff and student) as part of its annual celebration of volunteer achievement.  Both developments derive from a culture of empowering students as partners and enhancing the student journey.

The University has developed a co-ordinated programme of training and events to empower students and staff to engage with school and community outreach.  A cross-University STEM Steering Group (SSG) which features both management and grass roots-level representation from the across the University (Science and Technology, Health, Education, the Arts and its Centre for Employability and Engagement) manages the activities, including recruiting representation from the student body.  As such, SSG is uniquely well-placed to champion STEM activities across the University and to make these available to the wider community.  Local schools are able to access inspirational science activities, whilst University students gain employability-related skills in leadership, communication, project-delivery and self-motivation and staff gain valuable CPD.  Students also identify more strongly with the University.  The total package plays a major role in contributing to University aspirations in widening participation and is hugely popular with participants.  This paper will outline the project and will showcase the positive enhancements which it offers to University of Northampton students and school participants.

Funding for Women in Computing Mentoring

The six-month-long pilot project is being run at the University of Northampton. This a collaboration between Rashmi Dravid (School of Science and Technology) and Catherine Klimes (Head of Careers and Employability) sees female students undertaking Computing degrees at The University of Northampton being mentored by professional women already working in the sector. They will be taking part in seminars, conferences and workshops as part of the project, supported by some of the leading organisations in the computing sector and independent IT consultants

The project also aims to motivate, inspire and mentor younger girls by the university students  supporting career days and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) based events at the University and secondary schools

For more details can be found by the following this link or contact Rashmi Dravid.

Managing work-based learning during economic down turn - implications for students, employers and placement co-ordinators.

A grant has recently been awarded to Daniel Bailey from the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre. The project,  in collaboration with the Northants Engineering Training Partnership (NETP),  looks at the challenging issues around managing work-based learning during an economic down turn.

Summary:

It is widely accepted that student placement opportunities greatly improve the employability or the participants. This study considers the affects of the current downturn is having upon placement activities, in particular it will review the benefits of placement, evaluate the impact of the economic down turn and concerns of those involved, evaluate the activities which have been put in place to support placement activities and explore other coping strategies to assist placement co-ordinators to mitigate any change in placement arrangements.

This is a research project, which will be focused around the impacts of the current difficult trading climate has on the provision of placement opportunities and experiences for undergraduate students.  The aims are:

• To gather further knowledge of the benefits of placement activities
• To better understand the threats to placement opportunities in the current climate
• To develop of a ‘toolkit’ which will provide placement co-ordinators with some guidance on coping strategies to minimise the effect of economic changes.

The key outcomes of the project will be:

• Provide placement managers, Programme Leaders and those new to placement activities with a clearer understanding of the potential threats facing the development of new and continuation of existing placement opportunities
• Provide those involved in offering placement activities with coping strategies to address any change caused by economic change – these strategies will help negate any negative change.
• Adding to the body of knowledge and developing possible best practice for placement management

The above will be delivered through:

• Production of a ‘Toolkit’ for placement co-ordinators, which will outline the key points from the activities mentioned above.

For more details contact: Daniel Bailey (Daniel.bailey@northampton.ac.uk or 01604 893065).

For more details about Northants Engineering Training Partnership (NETP) can be found at: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/200254/northants-engineering-training-partnership

Subject talks and Employability

This is part of the subject talks in computing programme organised by Rashmi Dravid, a recent talkby Dr Iqbal Adjali (Mathematics & Informatics Expertise Team Leader, Unilever R&D Discover) looked at Personalisation Algorithms for Grocery Recommender Systems. 

This informative (and interesting) talk  introduced some of the concepts involved in developing personalisation algorithms for the grocery retail sector, and discussed wider aspects such as the business challenges that have or are likely to be addressed.

  

The talk used the work of Unilever's  Mathematics & Informatics group to illustrate how recommender system work. This group has been investigating various personalisation algorithms, in order to understand how their performance varies according to different data sets and application scenarios. The work of the group was illustrated by examples, the group has been working on, including the Swiss online supermarket LeShop (www.LeShop.ch), in analysing individual shopping basket (cf. loyalty card) data. As part of this collaboration, an on-line personalised retail recommender systems was developed, which also serve as a test-bed to evaluate the performance of their personalisation algorithms.

This programme is an example of the school's on-going activities to improve the student's employability. Another example is the Northampton Engineering Training Partnership, Daniel Bailey has the role of the Northamptonshire Engineering Training Partnership (NETP) Company Liaison Manager

Education and Employability

Rashmi Dravid from the Division of Computing at the University of Northampton has been investigating the application of problem-based learning to an aspect of computing, aiming to enhance the employability of these students. Rashmi has describe this as "The problem-oriented nature of computer networks lends itself to problem-based learning (PBL), which is claimed to integrate many of the requirements stated by graduate recruiters into the learning experiences of students, and therefore aid employability.

The funnel-approach [1] to problem-based learning is used.  The research differs from the existing PBL interventions in the discipline, by using a step-wise induction problem-based learning, using problem-solving learning as a pedestal.

The problems provide the context to relate subject matter content to real-world situations and motivate students to make connections between knowledge and its applications.

The pedagogic framework is implemented for the three computer networking modules on the three-year undergraduate degree programme. It uses traditional lecture-led practical work for the first year module, followed by focused development of problem-solving skills for structured problems for second year module, leading to problem based learning of complex, ill-structured and interdisciplinary problems for the third year module.

The learning environment integrates ‘relate’ - emphasizing team work and ‘create’ - providing creativity and ownership of learning process, for active student engagement and encourages rehearsing wide ranging employability skills in a supervised context. Problem solutions form the portfolio work and are used for formative and summative assessments. Team work using collaborative tools such as blogs, wikis and discussion boards is encouraged. Students’ reflection on their learning, integrated with portfolio development, is reviewed to evaluate and modulate instructional resources and delivery and to create a peer support network.

Evaluation of the approach using student feedback, module survey, student attainment and engagement with the modules has demonstrated positive take-on of this student-centered active learning approach. The students reported real-world connections between concepts and contexts, found their engagement in the context-driven tasks interesting and productive, and identified connected sequences of concepts across the contexts studied.

Lessons learnt from the first run of this approach have brought up issues relating effective use of technology tools such as, blogs, wikis and discussion boards for collaboration outside classroom and would feed into the future delivery of modules."

References

[1]     Savin-Baden, M., Howell Major C., Foundations of Problem-based Learning. Maidenhead, U.K. Open University Press (2004).

Soft skills for scientists: not a soft option

Within the School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton, Rashmi Dravid working with Andrea Duncan from DELTA-E, University of Northampton are looking at the personal and development of the 'soft skills' for Computing students. This builds on some earlier work by Jonathan Adams (School of Science and Technology) and Andrea on developing these soft skills in Engineering students.


The following is taken from the abstract "Soft skills for scientist: not a soft option" by Andrea Duncan

"Engineering and technology sectors have long recognised the importance of softer skills for successful career progression, as indicated in most job vacancy specifications, and in professional competency standards, for example, Engineering Council UK and the new framework of the British Computer Society. HE programmes in these fields however sometimes provide minimal support for the personal and professional development processes which encourage student awareness and articulation of such skills. There can be a tendency to regard reflection and self-analysis as low priority, yet students readily acknowledge their need for support in gaining a clearer understanding of personal strengths and qualities, and presenting themselves more effectively to others.

To facilitate these processes, experience strongly emphasises the use of discipline-specific resources, ideally linked to curriculum tasks. At The University of Northampton the latest in a series of on-line packs funded by several HEA Subject Centres has provided a series of twelve personal development tasks to support engineering students in such activities. A further project to develop and extend these for computing programmes has included initial workshops with levels 5-7, and resulted in positive engagement and feedback. Sessions include prompts to individual thinking and self-questioning, paired conversations, and sharing insights briefly with the wider class group. Such dialogic reflection uncovers new perspectives on different learning experiences, and helps clarify strengths and the transferability of skills, resulting in greater self-awareness and self confidence. "

PDP and Employability

In response to the some of the issues raised at the last School Teaching and Learning  of how to link employability and PDP and how we can use PDP, I have add a new section to the School's Learning and Teaching Page on this area with links to materials. 

URL: http://www.computing.northampton.ac.uk/~landt/school_of_applied_sciences_pdp_a.html

At the moment it is focussed on materials for Computing and Environmental Sciences. 

With help I would like to fill out the other areas as well.