| 1. |
- Börstler, Jürgen, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Developers talking about code quality
- 2023
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 28:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are many aspects of code quality, some of which are difficult to capture or to measure. Despite the importance of software quality, there is a lack of commonly accepted measures or indicators for code quality that can be linked to quality attributes. We investigate software developers’ perceptions of source code quality and the practices they recommend to achieve these qualities. We analyze data from semi-structured interviews with 34 professional software developers, programming teachers and students from Europe and the U.S. For the interviews, participants were asked to bring code examples to exemplify what they consider good and bad code, respectively. Readability and structure were used most commonly as defining properties for quality code. Together with documentation, they were also suggested as the most common target properties for quality improvement. When discussing actual code, developers focused on structure, comprehensibility and readability as quality properties. When analyzing relationships between properties, the most commonly talked about target property was comprehensibility. Documentation, structure and readability were named most frequently as source properties to achieve good comprehensibility. Some of the most important source code properties contributing to code quality as perceived by developers lack clear definitions and are difficult to capture. More research is therefore necessary to measure the structure, comprehensibility and readability of code in ways that matter for developers and to relate these measures of code structure, comprehensibility and readability to common software quality attributes.
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| 2. |
- Börstler, Jürgen, et al.
(författare)
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I know it when I see it : Perceptions of Code Quality ITiCSE'17 Working Group Report
- 2017
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Ingår i: ITICSE-WGR'17: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2017 ITICSE CONFERENCE WORKING GROUP REPORTS. - New York, NY, USA : ACM Digital Library. - 9781450347044 ; , s. 70-85
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. Code quality is a key issue in software development. The ability to develop high quality software is therefore a key learning goal of computing programs. However, there are no universally accepted measures to assess the quality of code and current standards are considered weak. Furthermore, there are many facets to code quality. Defining and explaining the concept of code quality is therefore a challenge faced by many educators.Objectives. In this working group, we investigated code quality as perceived by students, educators, and professional developers, in particular, the differences in their views of code quality and which quality aspects they consider as more or less important. Furthermore, we investigated their sources for information about code quality and its assessment.Methods. We interviewed 34 students, educators and professional developers regarding their perceptions of code quality. For the interviews they brought along code from their own experience to discuss and exemplify code quality.Results. There was no common definition of code quality among or within these groups. Quality was mostly described in terms of indicators that could measure an aspect of code quality. Among these indicators, readability was named most frequently by all groups. The groups showed significant differences in the sources they use for learning about code quality with education ranked lowest in all groups.Conclusions. Code quality should be discussed more thoroughly in educational programs.
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| 3. |
- Börstler, Jürgen, et al.
(författare)
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"I know it when I see it" : perceptions of code quality
- 2017
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Ingår i: ITiCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. - New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450347044 ; , s. 389-389
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Code quality is a key issue in software development. The ability to develop software of high quality is therefore a key learning goal of computing programs. However, there are no universally accepted measures to assess the quality of code and current standards are consideredweak. Furthermore, there are many facets to code quality. Defining and explaining the concept of code quality is therefore a challenge faced by many educators. In this working group, we investigate the perceptions of code quality of students, teachers, and professional programmers. In particular, we are interested in the differences in views of code quality by students, educators, and professional programmers and which quality aspects they consider as more or less important. Furthermore, we are interested in which sources of information on code quality and its assessment are used by these groups. Eventually, this will help us to develop resources that can be used to broaden students' views on software quality.
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| 4. |
- Börstler, Jürgen, et al.
(författare)
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"I know it when I see it" - Perceptions of Code Quality ITiCSE'17 Working Group Report
- 2018
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Ingår i: ITICSE-WGR'17. - New York, NY, USA : ACM Publications. ; , s. 70-85
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. Code quality is a key issue in software development. The ability to develop high quality software is therefore a key learning goal of computing programs. However, there are no universally accepted measures to assess the quality of code and current standards are considered weak. Furthermore, there are many facets to code quality. Defining and explaining the concept of code quality is therefore a challenge faced by many educators. Objectives. In this working group, we investigated code quality as perceived by students, educators, and professional developers, in particular, the differences in their views of code quality and which quality aspects they consider as more or less important. Furthermore, we investigated their sources for information about code quality and its assessment. Methods. We interviewed 34 students, educators and professional developers regarding their perceptions of code quality. For the interviews they brought along code from their own experience to discuss and exemplify code quality. Results. There was no common definition of code quality among or within these groups. Quality was mostly described in terms of indicators that could measure an aspect of code quality. Among these indicators, readability was named most frequently by all groups. The groups showed significant differences in the sources they use for learning about code quality with education ranked lowest in all groups. Conclusions. Code quality should be discussed more thoroughly in educational programs.
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| 5. |
- Nelson, Greg L., et al.
(författare)
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Differentiated Assessments for Advanced Courses that Reveal Issues with Prerequisite Skills : A Design Investigation
- 2020
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Ingår i: ITICSE-WGR'20. - New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450382939 ; , s. 75-129
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Computing learners may not master basic concepts, or forget them between courses or from infrequent use. Learners also often struggle with advanced computing courses, perhaps from weakness with prerequisite concepts. One underlying challenge for researchers and instructors is determining the reason why a learner gets an advanced question wrong. Was the wrong answer because the learner lacked prerequisite skills, has not mastered the advanced skill, or some combination of the two? We contribute a design investigation into how to create differentiated questions which diagnose prerequisite and advanced skills at the same time. We focused on tracing and related skills as prerequisites, and on advanced object-oriented programming, concurrency, algorithm and data structures as the advanced skills. We conducted an inductive qualitative analysis of existing assessment questions from instructors and from a concept inventory with a validity argument (the Basic Data Structures Inventory). We found dependencies on a variety of prerequisite knowledge and mixed potential for diagnosing difficulties with prerequisites. Inspired by this analysis, we developed examples of differentiated assessments and reflected on design principles for creating/modifying assessments to better assess both advanced and prerequisite skills. Our example differentiated assessment questions and methods help enable research into how prerequisites skills affect learning of advanced concepts. They also may help instructors better understand and help learners with varying prerequisite knowledge, which may improve equity of learning outcomes. Our work also raises theoretical questions about what assessments really assess and how separate advanced topics and prerequisite skills are.
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| 6. |
- Raj, Rajendra, et al.
(författare)
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Professional Competencies in Computing Education : Pedagogies and Assessment
- 2021
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Ingår i: ITiCSE-WGR '21: Proceedings of the 2021 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. - New York, USA : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450392020 ; , s. 133-161
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Competency-based learning has been a successful pedagogical approach for centuries, but only recently has it gained traction within computing. Competencies, as defined in Computing Curricula 2020, comprise knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions. Building on recent developments in competency and computing education, this working group examined relevant pedagogical theories, investigates various skill frameworks, reviewed competencies and standard practices in other professional disciplines such as medicine and law. It also investigated the integrative nature of content knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions in defining professional competencies in computing education. In addition, the group explored appropriate pedagogies and competency assessment approaches. It also developed guidelines for evaluating student achievement against relevant professional competency frameworks and explores partnering with employers to offer students genuine professional experience. Finally, possible challenges and opportunities in moving from traditional knowledge-based to competency-based education were also examined. This report makes recommendations to inspire educators of future computing professionals and smooth students' transition from academia to employment.
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| 7. |
- Raj, Rajendra, et al.
(författare)
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Toward Practical Computing Competencies
- 2021
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Ingår i: ITiCSE '21: Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. ; , s. 603-604
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Competency-based learning has been a successful pedagogical approach for centuries, but only recently has it gained traction within computing education. Building on recent developments in the field, this working group will explore competency-based learning from practical considerations and show how it benefits computing. In particular, the group will identify existing computing competencies and provide a pathway to generate competencies usable in the field. The working group will also investigate appropriate assessment approaches, provide guidelines for evaluating student attainment, and show how accrediting agencies can use these techniques to assess the level of competence reflected in their standards and criteria. Recommendations from the working group report are intended to help practical computing education writ large.
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| 8. |
- Sabin, Mihaela, et al.
(författare)
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Panel : Synergistic Perspectives on Collaborative Learning with Version Control Tools
- 2020
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Ingår i: Proceedings IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE 2020). - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Version control systems are widely used in industry and form a staple of modern software development, and this panel addresses the benefits and difficulties of introducing version control in education. Version control systems such as Git, and software development platforms such as GitHub, Bitbucket and GitLab are industry standards for which there is an increasing appeal within education. In general, students and teachers are motivated to use these tools in the classroom to increase graduates' competitiveness in the job market. Although highly desirable, the adoption of version control is hindered by a steep learning curve for both teachers and students, a lack of resources tailored to specific instructional and learning needs, as well as inadequate integration and alignment with the learning outcomes in the program curricula. The panel will analyze these challenges, solicit feedback from the audience's experience with version control tools, and facilitate discussions around promising strategies that could benefit student learning and graduates' professional competencies expected in the workplace.
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