Instructional strategies in the EGRET course: an international graduate forum on becoming a researcher

Damian, Daniela; Petre, Marian; Miller, Mariel and Hadwin, Allyson F. (2012). Instructional strategies in the EGRET course: an international graduate forum on becoming a researcher. In: WCCCE '12 17th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education, 4-5 May 2012, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2247569.2247583

URL: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2247569.224758...

Abstract

In today’s knowledge economy, graduate students in the field of Computer Science are increasingly required to develop sophisticated, multi-faceted knowledge of conducting research across multiple contexts and countries. This paper reports the experience of teaching a course to prepare Computer Science graduate students for conducting research in the international community. The course emphasized development of skills critical for a successful research career in computer science, and included construction of knowledge as well as hands-on application of instructional content. The intended learning outcomes included (a) gaining familiarity with research design and methodologies in computer science, (b) preparing and delivering research presentations, (c) reviewing the literature, (d) reading and writing research papers, (e) writing and evaluating research proposals, and (f) networking in the international research community.
In this paper, we describe an innovative instructional design that emphasized international collaboration with graduate students from another university on a different continent, namely the Open University in the UK. Our instructional strategies included (a) remote participation of graduate students across universities and countries in real-time, using technologies for synchronous computer mediated communication, (b) incorporation of collaborative activities using online tools scaffolding students’ construction of sophisticated knowledge of key research activities, and (c) providing students with opportunities for hands-on practical application of concepts in collaborative research activities.

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About

• Item ORO ID
• 35493
• Item Type
• Conference or Workshop Item
• Project Funding Details

• Funded Project Name	Project ID	Funding Body
  Not Set	Not Set	University of Victoria, Marching Fund to Promote Faculty and Student Engagement in the Internationalization

• Keywords
• instructional design; computer-supported collaborative learning; computer science education
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) > Computing and Communications
  Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
• Research Group
• Centre for Research in Computing (CRC)
• Copyright Holders
• © 2012 ACM
• Depositing User
• Danielle Lilly