Next Generation Laboratories in Computer Science Education

作为提高学生成绩的一种手段，封闭实验室在计算机科学教育界已经变得很普遍。然而，自从最初推动封闭实验室以来，许多部门的情况发生了变化：网络技术的快速发展和学生对网络个人计算机的拥有量的增加使得使用封闭实验室进行练习或指导活动变得更加不明智，许多机构正面临着入学人数增加、空间短缺或实验室助理预算减少的问题，这就要求院系确保尽可能明智地使用昂贵的课程封闭实验室组件资源。在这个项目中，我们正在重新审视封闭实验室模式的优势，评估在封闭实验室之外学习的方法和技术，以便为学生提供更好的实习体验，并减少一个部门在计算机课程中开发和提供封闭实验室组件的成本。我们正在：(1)分析一门课程对封闭实验室的需求，以及在课程每周的实验室课程中进行的学生活动；(2)确定哪些以实践为导向的学生活动最适合在封闭的实验室环境中进行，哪些活动可以在封闭的实验室环境之外有效地进行；(3)识别和记录一组最佳实践的技术和工具，这些技术和工具可以支持封闭实验室的有效学习活动，也可以支持更好地转移到开放实验室的活动；(4)使用这组最佳实践来定义如何计划和实现实验室组件的开发指南。

Computer Science (31)Closed laboratories have become common in the computer science educational community as a means of enhancing student achievement. However, circumstances for many departments have changed since the original push to closed laboratories: rapid advances in web-based technologies and increasing ownership of networked personal computers by students makes it even less sensible to use closed laboratories to deliver exercises or tutorial activities and many institutions are facing increasing enrollments, shortage of space, or reduced budgets for laboratory assistants that require departments to ensure that resource expensive closed laboratory components for courses are used as wisely as possible.In this project we are re-examining the strengths of the closed laboratory model and assessing methods and technology for learning outside a closed laboratory in order to deliver better practicum experiences for students and to reduce a department's costs for developing and delivering closed-laboratory components in a computing curriculum.We are:(1) analyzing the needs for a closed-laboratory component for a course and also for the set of student activities carried out during a course's weekly laboratory sessions;(2) determining what practicum-oriented student activities are best served in a closed laboratory environment and which can effectively be handled outside a closed laboratory session;(3) identifying and documenting a set of best-practices of techniques and tools that can support effective learning activities for closed laboratories, and also for activities that are better moved to an open laboratory situation;and(4) using this set of best-practices to define a development guide for how to plan and implement laboratory components.