International Seminar, Borovec, September 25-26,
2004.
University education on programming
Nikolay Kirov Kirov
New Bulgarian University
E-mail: nkirov@math.bas.bg
This page: http://www.math.bas.bg/~nkirov/2004/borovec.html
|
1. Teaching Programming
2. Programming Contests for University
Students
3. Why HTML? What's Wrong with
PowerPoint?
|
Teaching Programming
Learning to program is a fundamental part of
degree-level
education in computing. Teaching programming effectively in today's
mass
Higher Education is a problem. The graduating student who professes a
complete
inability to write the simplest program is commonplace.
| WHERE? WHAT? HOW MANY? WHO? ... |
The list of the Bulgarian universities with teaching
in
programming
State universities
Sofia University
"St.
Kliment Ohridski"
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics
[Bachelor's Degree in: Informatics, Computer Science,
Applied Mathematics, Mathematics; Teacher's degree in Mathematics and
Informatics]
University of
Plovdiv
"Paisii Hilendarski"
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics
[Bachelor's Degree in: Informatics, Mathematics;
Teacher's
degree in Mathematics and Informatics]
South-West
University
"Neofit Rilski"
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics; Teacher's degree in
Mathematics and Informatics]
St. Cyril and St.
Methodius
University of Veliko Turnovo
[Bachelor's Degree in: Informatics; Teacher's degree
in Mathematics and Informatics]
Shumen University
"Konstantin
Preslavsky"
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics
[Bachelor's Degree in: Informatics, Mathematics,
Teacher's
degree in Mathematics and Informatics]
University
of Rousse "Angel Kantchev "
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics; Teacher's degree in
Mathematics and Informatics]
Technical state universities
Technical
University
of Sofia
[Bachelor's Degree in Applied Mathematics, Engineering
(various subjects)]
Technical
University of Gabrovo
[Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (various subjects)]
Technical
University
of Varna
[Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (various subjects)]
Economics state universities
University
of National and World Economy
Faculty of Informatics
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics, Business Informatics]
Varna
University
of Economics
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics; Teacher's
degree
in Mathematics and Informatics]
Non state universities
American University in
Bulgaria
New
Bulgarian
University
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics]
Burgas
Free
University
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics and Computer Sciences]
Varna Free
University
"Chernorizets Hrabar"
[Bachelor's Degree in Informatics]
Informatics (Computer Science)
lectures+tutorials+labs
|
Introduction in
Programming
|
Data Structures
and Programming
|
OOP |
| Sofia U |
60+30+30 |
60+30+30* |
60+30+30* |
| U Plovdiv |
60+0+40 |
60+0+40 |
60+0+40 |
| SWU |
60+15+30 |
45+30+30 |
45+0+30 |
| UVT |
30+0+60 |
45+0+30 (+45+45+0)** |
45+0+45 |
| Shumen U |
45+30+30 |
45+30+30 (+45+30+30)*** |
45+15+30 |
| U Rousse |
60+0+30 |
60+0+30 |
60+0+30 |
| VUE |
75+0+45 |
45+15+30 |
- |
| NBU |
30 |
60+0+60** |
45 |
| BFU |
30+0+45 |
30+0+45 |
30+0+45 |
| VFU |
+ |
+ |
+ |
*Optional.
**Algorithms and Data Structures
***Data Structures
Engineering (Computer Systems and Technologies,
Communication
Techniques and Technologies, etc.)
|
Programming and Using Computers I |
Programming and Using Computers II |
| SWU |
30+0+30 |
30+0+30 |
| U Rousse |
30+0+30 |
30+0+30 |
| TU Sofia |
30+0(15)*+30 |
30+0(15)*+30 |
| TU Gabrovo |
30+0+30 |
30+0+30 |
| TU Varna |
30+0+30 |
30+0+30 |
| BFU |
30+0+30 |
30+0+30 |
*For Computer Systems and Technologies
Programming Languages
In the last few years the demand from students for
relevant,
directly applicable and up-to-date skills has lead many universities to
move to teaching C++ or Java, using a true object oriented approach.
Environments
The most of the lecturers use MS Windows operating
system.
The integrated program systems for C++ are Borland C++, MS Visual C++
6.0,
a free GUI C++ compiler named Dev-C++ and DJGPP compiler. Only the last
two systems have full support of the C++ standard. UNIX-like operating
systems are more suitable for introductory courses in programming,
especially
for C++ language.
How important is the interface for computer-based
programming
tutors? Are there new methods presenting programming environments to
students
that we should be adopting?
Algorithms or Programming
What is better to learn first: algorithms (with
language
independent approach) or programming (with some programming language)?
The hen or the egg? One possible answer is both, starting from simple
algorithms
and a small subset of a given programming language.
Students
The majority of university level courses offer a
similar
experience to all students. However in the teaching of introductory
computer
programming this practice has become increasingly difficult to justify,
due to the widely differing initial experience of students.
We observe that a significant number of first year
students
have an excellent level or equivalent in Informatics. Many have a
little
industrial experience, and a few have worked in IT for a year out. Yet
at the other end we observe that a fair number of students have little
experience of computers beyond game playing.
Tony Jenkins from Leeds University presented a paper
describing
a differentiated approach to teaching introductory programming. At
Leeds
they used an aptitude test to categorize students as either Rocket
Scientists,
Averages
or Strugglers. Rocket Scientists were already highly
proficient
programmers. Strugglers were those who would need support to
help
them achieve a fair standard. The Averages are those who will
pass
the course well with only occasional assistance. The Rocket
Scientists
probably do not need to attend the course and were given alternative
projects
to keep them enthused. The Strugglers were given extra
attention
in the form of supervised hands-on lab sessions with high teacher to
student
ratios.
Teachers
"At first sight, teaching programming appears to be a
straightforward task. Most staff who might be asked to teach a
programming
course will be fluent in at least one language, and will probably not
be
concerned at the prospect of learning another if necessary. There are
plentiful
textbooks covering all languages, paradigms and approaches. The
material
itself can be arranged neatly to fit into a lecture course over one or
two semesters, and can be readily arranged in order of increasing
complexity.
Assessment is a simple matter of devising some suitable programming
tasks."
In Bulgaria there are actually not enough skilled
lecturers
and instructors in programming. Because the people with good ability in
programming prefer to work in IT industry than teaching at the
universities.
Programming Contests for University Students
Programming contests for university students is an
activity
of a group of university lecturers that provides university students
with
an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem solving
and
computing skills. Our ambition is to involve all the students with good
results in informatics and programming from all Bulgarian universities.
About contests for university students
Association for Computing Machinery organizes
annual
ACM
International Collegiate Programming Contest.
Rules
for ACM contests.
Basic rules:
Each
team
consists of three contestants.
Each
team
uses a single computer.
The
programming
languages are Java, C++, C and Pascal.
Contestants
may bring resource materials such as books, manuals and program
listings.
They may not bring any machine-readable versions of software or
data.
Solutions
to problems submitted for judging are called runs. Each run is judged
as
accepted or rejected by a judge, and the team is notified of the
results.
Teams
are
ranked according to the most problems solved.
Recent programming competitions in Bulgaria
2002
2003
2004
2005 - planned
| 3-rd International Programming Contest |
March, 2005 |
SWU |
8-th Interuniversity Programming Tournament
[?-th National Olympiads in Programming]
|
May, 2005 |
Sofia U |
The results of the universities teams
|
|
IPC(02) |
5-th IPT(02) |
1-st IPC(03) |
6-th IPT(03) |
2-nd IPC(04) |
7-th IPT(04) |
No. |
| 1 |
Sofia U |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
| 2 |
U Plovdiv |
2 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
6 |
| 3 |
SWU |
8 |
7 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
6 |
| 4 |
UVT |
8 |
10 |
- |
- |
- |
8 |
3 |
| 5 |
Shumen U |
7 |
9 |
8 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| 6 |
Rousse U |
- |
- |
- |
8 |
- |
8 |
2 |
| 7 |
TU Sofia |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0 |
| 8 |
TU Gabrovo |
- |
5 |
- |
9 |
- |
- |
2 |
| 9 |
TU Varna |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0 |
| 10 |
UNWE |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0 |
| 11 |
VUE |
4 |
6 |
3 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
| 12 |
AUB |
3 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
6 |
| 13 |
NBU |
6 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
3 |
6 |
| 14 |
BFU |
5 |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
7 |
3 |
| 15 |
VFU |
- |
- |
- |
9 |
- |
8 |
2 |
|
No. Univ |
9 |
10 |
7+2 |
10 |
7+1 |
11 |
|
Training advanced students for programming competitions
Basic courses in programming and algorithms;
Special courses (Programming and analysis of algorithms, Advanced
programming,
etc.);
Internet based training;
Internal university contests.
Why HTML? What's Wrong with PowerPoint?
HTML is an international open standard.
PowerPoint is
a proprietary
and undocumented file format.
There are many programs that can display and edit
HTML, on
multiple platforms. PowerPoint requires Microsoft Office on Windows or
the Macintosh. Microsoft Office is fairly expensive, and some people
dislike
the fact that it is prone to virus attacks.
It is easy to integrate tools into an HTML
production
process,
for example the code syntax highlighting and line numbering tool.
It is faster to create your own slides in HTML
because you
won't be tempted to use fancy effects :-)
HTML files are a fraction of the size of
PowerPoint
files.
The HTML format is likely to be stable over time.
There is
no assurance that future versions of Microsoft Office can read today's
PowerPoint files. (The current version of Office has trouble reading
files
that are produced with much older versions.)
Finally, by showing HTML slides to your students,
your students
will get the message that computer scientists care about open standards.
Cay Horstmann