computer science assignment help in australia

computer science assignment help in australia

Enhancing Computer Science Education in Australia: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to Computer Science Education in Australia

As information technology has become an integral part of everyday life and digital technology has been identified as a major factor driving innovation, productivity, and future growth, an informed citizenry capable of participating meaningfully and fully in a digital world is a societal imperative. While basic cursive literacy and numeracy are accepted as fundamental to further education, future employment, democratic participation, and lifelong learning, digital literacy is also critically important and involves an understanding of a wide range of present and future computer science concepts. Furthermore, studies indicate a strong and growing demand and hunger for skills in computer science and information technology. Despite this, shortages in ICT skills persist and are likely to worsen if current trends continue. This looming crisis poses a serious threat to growth in Australia’s digital economy.

Strong computer science education will be essential in addressing a looming skills shortage in Australia. It is also crucial for fostering growth in the digital economy by equipping Australians with the skills required for the future workforce. Unfortunately, computer science education in Australia is facing a number of challenges, ranging from antiquated policy and curriculum to a fear of computers and a lack of teacher training in computer science. This guide presents a number of these challenges and much-needed solutions. It has two parts. In the first part, we commence by providing an introduction to the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing computer science education in Australia. Following which, we then overview the current computer science education landscape before proposing an innovative and practical model that can improve computing curricula and much-needed exposure to computer science.

2. Challenges and Opportunities in Computer Science Education

Defining computer science as essentially the study of processes for creating, describing, generating, processing, communicating, and evaluating processes, the body assembled reflects the views of authors in eight different countries working in various branches of the discipline. It can be used as a guide for undertaking new course offerings or as a checklist for courses already taught. While advising that course design is both an art and a science that should critically focus on the profession, culture, variety, motivation, learning outcomes, and social responsibilities of prospective students, the guide documents common knowledge, expertise, and practices that have had enduring value in computer science teaching. The guide should thus enhance the study of computing, help improve understanding of its topics both individually and collectively, and deliver better experiences to its students, further solidifying computer science as a distinct academic discipline, with a knowledge base, accredited curricula, and internationally recognized profession.

This paper is a comprehensive guide to teaching practices in computer science education at university level, covering teacher, student, course, and assessment-related issues. Over 600 references from scholarly journals and conference proceedings are included. Beyond providing a summary of best practices commonly known to instructors of computing courses, it consolidates such knowledge, fostering a better understanding of and enhancement of computer science teaching practices. Guidelines for designing and delivering courses in artificial intelligence, algorithms, computer organization, compilers, databases, data structures, ethical and social issues, fundamental programming, theory of computing, intermediate and advanced programming, languages, operating systems, architecture, human-computer interface, networking, graphics, multimedia, image processing, security, project management, soft skills, and curriculum design are discussed, highlighting the unique nature of each. Further, a rationale query documented as a hypertext in computer science education serves as a focal point for any course design and delivery activities, while also helping institutionalize expertise in individual course offerings.

Abstract

A Comprehensive Guide

Image courtesy of Mike Zamansky, Hunter College Computer Science for All

Leo Porter University of California, San Diego leoporter@acm.org

Dr. Leon Sterling Swinburne University of Technology lehcar@acm.org

3. Best Practices and Innovative Approaches in Teaching Computer Science

There are pedagogical approaches and instructional styles especially suitable for teaching computer science that include approaches such as the constructionist theory, where learners explore, experiment, and solve problems themselves through actively manipulating and building technology-oriented products using programming or software, accessing active and ongoing hands-on collaborative project-based learning, or the development of joy-based educational apps tailored to synthetic biology educational non-majors. The integration of computer science education into primary and secondary education is addressed more in depth with respect to pedagogical approaches and instructional styles. The implemented project-based approach can be smaller in scale than a capstone project that is normally connected with academic or professional learning.

-Using a Constructionist Approach, Project-Based Learning, or Active Learning

As computer science is rapidly becoming crucial in the convergence between technologies due to the need to teach individual technologies more efficiently, educational thought leaders propose using computer science as a unifying field by teaching the concepts that span across computing disciplines, such as algorithms, logic, programming, and other underlying conceptual framework ideas. Clearly, this goal can be more easily achieved in a context happening in a computer science course in a high school setting. Moreover, the CS education community will be more appreciated for involving students who take their first computational experience courses so early in their professional development.

-Engaging Students in Computer Science Classes

High teacher quality is considered an enabler and success factor for many education systems as a whole. The demand for professional development is felt strongly in ICT disciplines and especially in computer science. Policy reform focused on hiring subject specialists in computer science is a near-term quick win, facilitated by recruiting candidates with appropriate experience who are existing school teachers in related subjects such as mathematics, science, or technical design and technology coursework.

-Educational Requirements

4. Resources and Support for Computer Science Educators

In this guide, we provide an extensive list of current resources, learning materials, organizations willing to support teacher professional development, and other forms of support that educators can use to promote engaging and scalable computer science programs in schools. This list is not exhaustive or exclusive, and we request that the Australian academic and industry community who are actively attempting to broaden participation in computer science contact us with details so we can continue to expand and evolve this list in the next stages of our work. We are looking to help scale school computing education with whichever learning programs and initiatives support this vision most effectively. Our prior research has been investigating scalable school computing education by documenting the various fears and challenges that are getting in the way of broadening participation. The fears we found included: lack of knowledge of prerequisites, time costs, lack of experience, anxiety about how to communicate with young people, and perceived lack of ability to inspire and engage them.

As educators working in academia and industry, our responsibility is to support the work of teachers around Australia in the goal of broadening and deepening computer science education to ensure that at least 40% of schools offer scalability in some form of computing education to their students. We strive to make learning computer science fun, engaging, and rewarding while offering flexible learning opportunities to all the students. There is a need for expert advisors who can bring together curriculum informed by real-world computer science knowledge, maintain industry relevance, and maintain an interest in working with the teachers and mentors who have the greatest influence in students’ lives. We want to support teachers by providing career advice and building relationships with industry and ICT higher education.

5. Conclusion and Future Directions

This guide has described a new way of teaching computer science that has promised to successfully transform the demographics of undergraduate computer science students from the traditional base of students. More recently, Christensen et al. have shown that “student demand for computer science (CS) has risen dramatically in the last decade”. Why would we want to perpetuate a demographic of IT professionals who are overwhelmingly male? The success of the University of California at Berkeley’s 2011 course described in Chapter 2 demonstrates that a student body representation across ethnic boundaries is indeed possible and the aims of the NCWIT Alliances for Gender Equity in IT, where the guide was developed, are to make this the new norm. Computer science is for everyone.

We have begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities and ways in which we can enhance computer science outcomes in our education systems. It is worth reflecting on the original question asked at the beginning of our journey in this guide: what kind of computer science education is appropriate in a world where technology is reshaping every aspect of society? To answer this, we argue that it is not a response to T-shaped skills where students major in a non-IT field, with only a top-up of computer science. Developing only this kind of specialist will not be sufficient. We require the development of a balanced workforce where individuals who are not simply capable of interfacing with computer systems comply with software development, security, and networking standards, but individuals who can critique technology, devise new technological directions, and build systems that empower people and society. We need to produce more computer scientists who understand user experience and interact with end-users near the outset of a system’s design process.