9403384
A pilot study of teaching the strategic use of common computer applications
Many users do not progress from a basic use of computer applications to more efficient usage. A strategic approach to training that focuses on teaching efficient strategies in addition to commands was successfully developed by Bhavnani and John at Carnegie Mellon University. A controlled experiment comparing this method of teaching to traditional command-based instruction was performed at the University of Western Australia. We found the teaching method is transferable to the Australian context and it appears to be remarkably robust in terms of delivery, student prior experience levels and motivation. The results clearly indicate that students can be taught to use common computer applications more efficiently than they would otherwise achieve.
1883056
An Investigation into Keystroke Latency Metrics as an Indicator of Programming Performance
Typing has long been studied in psychology and HCI, and strong cognitive models for transcription typing exist. The goal of the present research was to test if there is any correlation between students' keystroking speed and performance while they are programming. We present the results from two studies with computer science students conducted in different contexts. Keystroke timings were recorded while they worked on Java and Ada source code. Quality of their programming work was measured mainly in terms of completeness. In the controlled experiment that lasted six hours, 39 students undertook three change tasks on a 6000 LOC Java application. In the field study, data was collected over 6 weeks from 141 students while they worked unsupervised on Ada programming in first year laboratories. In both cases there were highly significant (P=0.001), moderately strong, negative correlations between speed and coding performance. With additional development, these techniques may have promise for user modelling and assessment as well as in educational diagnostics.
3050709
Quality assurance in a student-based agile software engineering process
Agile methodologies have proven to be a popular addition to the software engineering toolbox, promising significant advances in quality for small teams, with developers no longer weighed under by the documentation said to characterise traditional approaches. Yet, in spite of these claims, quality assurance remains a question to which agile methodologies have given only a partially satisfactory answer. This work examines quality assurance practices among student developers working within a lightweight iterative development process. Our focus is upon the linkages between their reported practices and the quality levels observed in the systems delivered. The study has identified a range of approaches to improving quality for small, inexperienced teams, with applications to both the educational and SME environments.
6797458
Graphs without K4 and well-quasi-ordering
Abstract It is proved that given an infinite sequence G 1 , G 2 , G 3 ,…, of series-parallel graphs there are indices i j such that G j contains an induced subgraph contractable onto G i . An example is given showing that for planar graphs the preceding theorem fails.
17884360
Experimental results for single period auctions
The objective of the paper is to present experimental results for testing the performance of different auction mechanisms related to the introduction of competitive markets for the generation of electricity. The research is based on the concept of smart markets introduced by Vernon Smith (K.A. McCabe et al., 1991) and a simulation model (PowerWeb) of a realistic bulk power system. There are unique physical aspects associated with the supply of electricity (e.g. required instantaneous matching of supply and demand, unintended congestion of parallel transmission routes and maintenance of system stability in response to disturbances). As a result, traditional theories of efficient markets and auction structures developed for other commodities may not be efficient if applied without alteration to markets for electricity. Conversely, current utility rules of operation developed for a centrally planned regime may not be appropriate in a competitive environment. The research does not address the issues of multiperiod operations (unit commitment) and multidimensional markets (ancillary services), and considers only real power in a single time period. The main objective is to test three alternative auction mechanisms when market power is a potential problem. This situation occurs when limits on transmission lines are binding to form a load pocket in which demand is met by a few (in this case two) generators.
31462634
Kuratowski Chains
5705388
Three-coloring Klein bottle graphs of girth five
We prove that every graph of girth at least five which admits an embedding in the Klein bottle is 3-colorable. This solves a problem raised by Woodburn, and complements a result of Thomassen who proved the same for projective planar and toroidal graphs.