The 26th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education (WCCCE) 2024 May 2-3, 2024, The Okanagan College, Kelowna, BC, Canada
The Official Conference Home Page is Hosted at Okanagan College Computer Science Department.
We are pleased to announce the 26th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education at Okanagan College. The conference is a forum for discussing the development of computing programs and curricula and for sharing innovative strategies and tools for teaching & learning in fields such as computer science, software engineering, computer technology, information systems and information technology. It will bring educators from the western provinces, the rest of Canada, and beyond, allowing them to share their experiences and learn from one another. The Department of Computer Science at Okanagan College is pleased to be hosting the conference in 2024.
Venue
WCCCE 2023 will occur in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, May 2-3, 2024 (Thursday and Friday). The conference sessions will be held on the Okanagan College campus. WCCCE 2024 will have an in-person format.
Conference Photos
The 26th WCCCE 2024 conference photos: https://www.okanagan.bc.ca/sites/default/files/2024-06/2024-05-21wccce2024photos.pdf
Official WCCCE 2024 conference photos from Okanagan College: https://www.flickr.com/photos/okanagan_college/albums/72177720316668779/
Important Dates
- Submissions due: Monday, March 25th, 2024
- Author notifications: early April 2024
- Conference: May 2-3, 2024
Keynote Speakers
Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Approaches to Assessment and Student Help
Artificial intelligence has a significant impact on approaches to engaging, helping, and assessing students. Even before generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, students often questioned the value of assignments, may not consistently engage with instructors and teaching assistants during office hours and labs, and struggled to find the motivation and support necessary for their learning. This talk describes several research studies and systems designed to improve student engagement and learning. The first project focuses on automating assessment using PrairieLearn for both asynchronous labs and real-time classroom engagement using a gamification approach. The second project describes the HelpMe system supporting on-demand help for students using virtual labs rather than scheduled lab times. Virtual labs help with accessibility and engagement while reducing the computer lab resources used. The third project analyzes the impacts of generative AI on assessments and support systems. This includes research on detecting AI submissions in Computer Science courses and using course-specific chatbots to help answer questions for students. Attendees will be able to take away some practical approaches for use in their own classes.
Bio: Dr. Ramon Lawrence is a professor of computer science and Academic Director for the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. His teaching recognitions included the UBC Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation in 2017, the Killam Teaching Prize in 2020, and a 9-time member of the teaching honour roll recognizing the top 10% of instructors at UBC Okanagan. His scholarship in teaching and learning research is in the areas of automatic assessment and help systems and the impacts of artificial intelligence on education. The research has resulted in changes to how labs are delivered for many courses. He is the founder of Unity Data Inc. (www.unityjdbc.com), which provides software for data integration from multiple sources and is a database consultant for enterprises requiring Big Data solutions. Recent work produced software for SQL querying and integrating MongoDB with enterprise relational systems used by numerous companies worldwide. Dr. Lawrence is a senior member of the ACM and a senior member of IEEE.
2. Dr. Ben Stephenson
Tales from the Trenches: Experiences from Two Decades of Post-Secondary Teaching
I have been teaching at the post-secondary level since 2001. During that time, I have used a variety of activities and interventions to engage students, manage my workload, improve assessments, and better students’ experiences in both my own courses and others. In this talk I will survey the practices that I have implemented; everything from TA training to snake charming, and textbook writing to computer generated art. I’ll tell stories about what has worked well, some well-intentioned ideas that didn’t have as much impact as hoped, and maybe even a complete flop (or two). My hope is that you come away from this session with new ideas to try in your own classroom and the ability to avoid some of the mistakes that I have made.
Bio: Ben Stephenson is a Professor (Teaching) at the University of Calgary with more than two decades of post-secondary teaching experience during which he has taught thousands of students. He is the author of a dozen pedagogically focused papers, five “nifty” assignments, and two textbooks. Ben is a significant contributor to the Canadian and international Computer Science Education communities and is currently recovering from his recent work as Co-Chair of the 2023 and 2024 SIGCSE Technical Symposia on Computer Science Education. Outside of working hours he is a husband and father of two, an avid Lego builder, a solar panel enthusiast, and a frugal grocery shopper.
Program
Thursday, May 2nd
| 8:30 am | Registration and Breakfast (S Building Pitt at S 104) | |
| 9:00 am | Welcome and Opening Remarks (S 104 — Theatre) | |
| 9:15 am | Thursday Keynote (S104 – Theatre) Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Approaches to Assessment and Student Help Ramon Lawrence (UBC Okanagan) |
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| 10:15 am | Coffee Break (S Building Pit) | |
| 10:45 am | Paper Session 1a (B129) | Paper Session 1b (B131) |
| 12:05 pm | Lunch (S Building Pit) | 12:35 pm – 1:05 pm. Sponsor’s Session: IBA Group (B129) |
| 1:15 pm | Paper Session 2a (B129)
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Blizzard Talks and Nifty Assignments (B131) |
| 2:35 pm | Coffee Break (S Building Pit) | |
| 3:00 pm | Paper Session 3 (S104 – Theatre) | Sponsor’s Session: Cengage Canada (B129) |
| 4:30 pm | WCCES AGM (S104 – Theatre) | |
| 6:00 pm | Conference Dinner (HS Building, Room HS 101) | |
Friday, May 3rd
| 8:30 am | Registration and Breakfast (S Building Lobby) |
| 9:00 am | Friday Keynote (S104 – Theatre) Tales from the Trenches: Experiences from Two Decades of Post-Secondary Teaching Ben Stephenson (University of Calgary) |
| 10:00 am | Coffee Break (S Building Pit); 10:00 am – 10:30 am. Sponsor’s Session: ACM-W North America/ Women in Computing (B129) |
| 10:30 am | Paper Session 4 (S104 – Theatre) |
| 12:00 pm | Lunch (S Building Pit) |
| 1:15 pm | Paper Session 5 (S104 – Theatre) |
| 2:50 pm | Closing Remarks (S104 – Theatre) |
Paper Session 1a (Thursday at 10:45 am in B129)
Chair: Jim Nastos
You Hacked My Program! Teaching Cybersecurity using Game-based Learning
Md. Hasan Tareque (University of Lethbridge)
Steven Deutekom (University of Lethbridge)
John Anvik (University of Lethbridge)
Maimoona Bashir (University of Lethbridge)
Where Do Students Struggle Most in a First Course on Assembly Language?
Jalal Kawash (University of Calgary)
Cybersecurity Education within a Computing Science Program – A Literature Review
Elisa Pinheiro Ferrari (Okanagan College)
Albert Wong (Langara College)
Youry Khmelevsky (Okanagan College)
Paper Session 1b (Thursday at 10:45 am in B131)
Chair: Charles Hepler
Generative AI in CS Education: Literature Review through a SWOT Lens
Jordan Roberts (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
Abdallah Mohamed (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
Faceless Adversary, Feckless Colleague: The Many Sides of ChatGPT
Bill Bird (University of Victoria)
Experience Report: Adopting AI-Usage Policy in Software Engineering Education
Parsa Rajabi (Simon Fraser University)
Paper Session 2a (Thursday at 1:15 pm in B129)
Chair: Youry Khmelevsky
13:15. Opportunities for Adaptive Experiments to Enable Continuous Improvement in Computer Science Education
Ilya Musabirov (University of Toronto)
Angela Zavaleta Bernuy (University of Toronto)
Pan Chen (University of Toronto)
Michael Liut (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Joseph Williams (University of Toronto)
13:41. Maximizing Student Engagement and Space Efficiency: Strategic Approaches in the Alternating-Week Blended Learning Model for Computing Education
Ismail El Sayad (University of the Fraser Valley)
Carl Janzen (University of the Fraser Valley)
14:07 – 14:35. Program Wars v.2.0: Improving a Game-based Learning Approach for Teaching Fundamental Programming Concepts
Md. Hasan Tareque (University of Lethbridge)
Steven Deutekom (University of Lethbridge)
John Anvik (University of Lethbridge)
Maimoona Bashir (University of Lethbridge)
Paper Session 2b: Blizzard Talks and Nifty Assignments (Thursday at 1:15 pm in B131)
Chair: Anthony Estey
13:15. Addressing Educational Disparities: Assessing the Gap for Indigenous Community
Shafaq Khan (University of Windsor)
13:25. Using GitHub Copilot as a Pair Instructional Designer
Ildar Akhmetov (Northeastern University)
13:35. Java Parallel Programming Course for Non-Java Students
Xuguang Chen (Saint Martin’s University)
13:45. CougarStats: An R Shiny App for Statistical Data Analysis
Michael Myer (Mount Royal University)
Ashok Krishnamurthy (Mount Royal University)
13:55. A project-based graduate course in software engineering education
Meghan Allen (University of British Columbia – Vancouver)
Elisa Baniassad (University of British Columbia – Vancouver)
Reid Holmes (University of British Columbia – Vancouver)
14:05. Recycling Items Sorting System
Lino Coria (Northeastern University)
Juancho Buchanan (Northeastern University)
14:15. Building Bridges in Computer Networks: A Nifty Assignment for Cross-Language Learning and Code Refactoring
Ildar Akhmetov (Northeastern University)
Logan W. Schmidt (Northeastern University)
14:25-14:35. Can You Spot the AI? Incorporating GenAI into Technical Writing Assignments
Parsa Rajabi (Simon Fraser University)
Chris Kerslake (Simon Fraser University)
Paper Session 3 (Thursday at 3:00 pm in S104)
Chair: Bill Bird
15:00. Student Transitions Through an Entire Computing Program
Angela Zavaleta Bernuy (University of Toronto)
Andrew Chung (University of Toronto)
Alana Hodge (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Ayesha Tayyiba (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Michael Liut (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Andrew Petersen (University of Toronto Mississauga)
15:30. Gender Disparity in Computer Science Programs: A Case Study at the University of British Columbia Okanagan
Abby Kiehlbauch (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
Irene Vrbik (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
Abdallah Mohamed (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
16:00-15:30. Indigenization and Decolonization of CS Education 2010-2023: A Bibliometric Analysis
Sarah Carruthers (Vancouver Island University)
Paper Session 4 (Friday at 10:30 am in S104)
Chair: Mike Zastre
10:30 Test Anxiety and Self-Efficacy in a Computer-Based Test Environment
Kezia Devathasan (University of Victoria)
Michelle Craig (University of Toronto)
Daniela Damian (University of Victoria)
Celina Berg (University of Victoria)
10:52 “A Chatbot Won’t Judge Me”: An Exploratory Study of Self-disclosing Chatbots in Introductory Computer Science Classes
Quinn Goddard (University of Calgary)
Nathan Moton (University of Calgary)
Jonathan Hudson (University of Calgary)
Helen Ai He (University of Calgary)
11:14 Live Session Gamification using PrairieLearn
Louis Lascelles-Palys (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
Ramon Lawrence (University of British Columbia – Okanagan)
11:36 – 11:58 The Four Rs in a Computer Science Context
Sarah Carruthers (Vancouver Island University)
Paper Session 5 (Friday at 1:15 pm in S104)
Chair: Ildar Akhmetov
13:15 Logic Circuits Unveiled: Bridging the Gap between Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science Education
Charlie Lake (University of British Columbia – Vancouver)
Karina Mochetti (University of British Columbia – Vancouver)
13:37 GitHub Pages as an LMS Alternative
Joel Coffman (United States Air Force Academy)
13:59 An Initial Exploration of Code Diagram Query Effectiveness
Lauren Himbeault (University of Manitoba)
Celine Latulipe (University of Manitoba)
14:21-14:43 Implementing a Fully WIL Computing Science Program in Canada
Amir H. Chinaei (York University)
Larry Yueli Zhang (York University)
The Conference Sponsor Sessions:
Thursday, May 2nd
- 10:15 am – 10:45 am. Sponsor’s Session: ACM-W North America/ Women in Computing (B129)
Our goal is to support groups that empower women in computing. During SIGCSE 2024, we had a booth to promote the ways ACM-W NA can support student groups and celebrations for women in computing. We received a lot of attention, as many North American educators weren’t aware of the support we provide.
During a coffee break, I can give away some information cards about our mission and ways of joining this community. In particular, computing educators in the Western Canada area can benefit from learning about this initiative and funding opportunities for events that celebrate women in computing.
2. 12:35 pm – 1:05 pm. Sponsor’s Session: IBA Group (B129)
The presentation will include the following topics:
– history of creation and development of the IBA Group Company
– company solutions and services, review
– company products
– cyber security – penetration testing
– solutions using AI and ML, generative AI
– demonstration of the results of a capstone project using EasyRPA
3. Sponsor’s Session: Cengage Canada (B129)
A short, 30-minute session on our GitHub partnership:
Title: Building a Professional Portfolio with MindTap x GitHub Codespaces
Presenter: Darcey Pepper, Senior Manager, Product Marketing at Cengage Canada
Description: A first-of-its-kind partnership for GitHub, the widely recognized industry standard IDE, Cengage’s MindTap with GitHub Codespaces facilitates learning and practice and ensures that students are well-prepared for the job market. By actively using industry-standard coding tools, computer science students gain valuable coding experience and proficiency, positioning them to transition into their desired careers seamlessly.
Learn how MindTap with GitHub Codespaces allows your Computer Science students to build a portfolio of projects and practical work they can showcase to potential employers. Students can take this portfolio beyond the classroom to demonstrate their coding skills and experience, making them more marketable as professionals.
Sponsors
Platinum Sponsor
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
In-Kind Sponsorship
Cooperating Organizations
WCCCE 2024 is presented in cooperation with the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE — Pending) and will be Supported by the IEEE Okanagan Subsection and IEEE Vancouver Section (Pending). For more information about the WCCCE conferences, please see here: https://dl.acm.org/conference/wccce.