| 1. |
- Berglund, Anders, 1956-
(author)
-
Learning computer systems in a distributed project course : The what, why, how and where
- 2005
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Senior university students taking an internationally distributed project course in computer systems find themselves in a complex learning situation. To understand how they experience computer systems and act in their learning situation, the what, the why, the how and the where of their learning have been studied from the students’ perspective. The what aspect concerns the students’ understanding of concepts within computer systems: network protocols. The why aspect concerns the students’ objectives to learn computer systems. The how aspect concerns how the students go about learning. The where aspect concerns the students’ experience of their learning environment. These metaphorical entities are then synthesised to form a whole. The emphasis on the students’ experience of their learning motivates a phenomenographic research approach as the core of a study that is extended with elements of activity theory. The methodological framework that is developed from these research approaches enables the researcher to retain focus on learning, and specifically the learning of computer systems, throughout. By applying the framework, the complexity in the learning is unpacked and conclusions are drawn on the students’ learning of computer systems. The results are structural, qualitative, and empirically derived from interview data. They depict the students’ experience of their learning of computer systems in their experienced learning situation and highlight factors that facilitate learning. The results comprise sets of qualitatively different categories that describe how the students relate to their learning in their experienced learning environment. The sets of categories, grouped after the four components (what, why, how and where), are synthesised to describe the whole of the students’ experience of learning computer systems. This study advances the discussion about learning computer systems and demonstrates how theoretically anchored research contributes to teaching and learning in the field. Its multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary character invites further debate, and thus, advances the field.
|
|
| 2. |
- Berglund, Anders
(author)
-
On the understanding of computer network protocols
- 2002
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- How students learn about network protocols is studied in a project-centred, internationally distributed, university course in computer systems taught jointly by two universities. Insights into students' understanding of basic concepts within computer networks are gained through an empirical phenomenographic research approach.The use of phenomenography as a research approach makes it possible to learn about computer science, as it is experienced by the students. The context in which the research is carried out and issues concerning by whom the context is experienced, are investigated and form a part of the methodological basis.Students' understanding of some protocols that are used within the project, as well as their experience of the general concept of network protocols are investigated, and different ways of experiencing the protocols are discerned. Some aspects that indicate good learning outcomes are identified, such as being capable of understanding a protocol in different ways and of making relevant choices between the ways it could be experienced according to the context in which it appears.Based on these results a discussion on learning and teaching is developed. It is argued that a variation in the context in which the protocol is experienced promotes good learning, since different ways of experiencing a protocol are useful with different tasks to hand. A student with a good understanding of network protocols can choose in a situationally relevant way between different ways of experiencing a protocol.
|
|
| 3. |
- Daniels, Mats, 1956-
(author)
-
Developing and Assessing Professional Competencies: a Pipe Dream? : Experiences from an Open-Ended Group Project Learning Environment
- 2011
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Professional competencies are explicitly identified in the primary learning outcomes for science and engineering degrees at many tertiary institutions. Fulfillment of the requirements to equip our students with these skills, while formally acknowledged as important by all stakeholders, can be hard to demonstrate in practice. Most degree awarding institutions would have difficulties if asked to document where in degree programs such competencies are developed.The work in this thesis addresses the issue of professional competencies from several angles. The Open-Ended Group Project (OEGP) concept is introduced and proposed as an approach to constructing learning environments in which students’ development of professional competencies can be stimulated and assessed. Scholarly, research-based development of the IT in Society course unit (ITiS) is described and analyzed in order to present ideas for tailoring OEGP-based course units towards meeting learning objectives related to professional competence. Work in this thesis includes an examination of both the meanings attributed to the term professional competencies, and methods which can be used to assess the competencies once they are agreed on.The empirical work on developing ITiS is based on a framework for educational research, which has been both refined and extended as an integral part of my research. The action research methodology is presented and concrete examples of implementations of different pedagogical interventions, based on the methodology, are given. The framework provides support for relating a theoretical foundation to studies, or development, of learning environments. The particular theoretical foundation for the examples in this thesis includes, apart from the action research methodology, constructivism, conceptual change, threshold concepts, communities of practice, ill-structured problem solving, the reflective practicum, and problem based learning.The key finding in this thesis is that development and assessment of professional competencies is not a pipe dream. Assessment can be accomplished, and the OEGP concept provides a flexible base for creating an appropriate learning environment for this purpose.
|
|
| 4. |
- Kathiravelu, Thabotharan
(author)
-
Towards content distribution in opportunistic networks
- 2007
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Opportunistic networking is a new communication paradigm. Content Distribution in opportunistic networks is challenging due to intermittent connectivity, short connection durations and a highly dynamic topology. Research is needed to develop new applications and protocols that can distribute content in opportunistic networks. This thesis explores and evaluates approaches to developing mobile P2P systems for content distribution, focusing mainly on the problem of modeling device contacts. Contact duration and patterns of connections influence routing and forwarding strategies.To model device contacts we need to capture the characteristics of the network and be able to model its behavior. Connectivity models capture the aggregated network behavior by modeling the social connectedness of the network. A model of inter-device relationships can be constructed using parameters are extracted from connectivity traces collected in the field using real devices. These traces represent how connectivity might look in an opportunistic network. Altering and fine tuning these parameters enables us to change the stochastic behavior of the network and study the behavior of applications and protocols. Another approach is mobility modeling. There are two major drawbacks to using mobility models. First, in ad hoc networks traces have been collected which estimate the connectivity of the network. Typically traces are then used to model node mobility which in turn generates nodal connectivity during a simulation. This is a wasteful process and as the network size grows it becomes a tedious job. Second, the inter-contact time distribution observed in traces differs greatly from what is generated by popular mobility models.We have developed a connectivity model to generate synthetic device contact traces for opportunistic networks. We present the preliminary validation results from a comparative study of synthetic traces and traces collected in the field.
|
|
| 5. |
- Peters, Anne-Kathrin
(author)
-
The role of students' identity development in higher education in computing
- 2014
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Higher Education Research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) indicates that students are not well supported in the process of integrating their educational experience with their perception of who they are and want to become. This is associated with drop-out and also has consequences for student learning. Here, learning is defined in the broad sense of personal and professional development.This thesis presents results from a research project that explores students' identity development during their first three years of studies. The analysis and results build on interview and essay data collected during a longitudinal study of students in two study programmes at Uppsala University, Computer and Information Engineering (IT) and Computer Science (CS). The main body of data analysed for this thesis was collected from the students at the beginning and end of their first study year.A research framework to study identity has been developed. The notion of identity used in this work has been inspired by Lave and Wenger's social theory of learning, and theory of situated learning. Identity, in this work, refers to students' histories of experiences with a focus on how they negotiate meaning within the discipline of CS/IT.The results describe aspects of CS/IT students' identities and provide a basis from which to discuss the implications of identity for learning and education, as well as to reason about how identity development can be supported in CS/IT education.
|
|
