Computer Science and Engineering Secondary Education

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/5467810

> In 1997, a contest began to develop a new encryption algorithm to become the Advanced Encryption Standard. After years of debate, one algorithm was chosen as the AES. But how does AES work? And what makes for a secure encryption algorithm? > > *** > > Spanning Tree is an educational video series about computer science and mathematics. See more at https://spanningtree.me > > To be notified when a new video is released, sign up for the Spanning Tree mailing list at https://spanningtree.substack.com/ > > Spanning Tree is created by Brian Yu. https://brianyu.me/ > > Email me at brian@spanningtree.me to suggest a future topic. > > *** > > * 0:00 The Contest > * 1:02 Encryption > * 3:57 Confusion and Diffusion > * 5:44 Block Cipher > * 6:55 KeyExpansion > * 7:34 AddRoundKey > * 8:14 Substitution Cipher > * 8:55 SubBytes > * 11:30 MixColumns > * 12:53 ShiftRows > * 13:21 The Algorithm > > --- > > * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ATDMIz5wc > * https://piped.video/watch?v=C4ATDMIz5wc > > Aug 22, 2023

This article discusses several cheating-deterrent methods (education, evaluation, clear expectations, etc.) and evaluates their combined effectiveness in reducing cheating in a CS1 course.

I use all of these methods in all of the courses I teach, and I find that rates of students cheating fluctuate significantly over time. In particular, I had managed to get violations (at least, identified violations) down to nearly nil for a few consecutive semesters, but this past semester they spiked significantly. Many students blamed ChatGPT, but it is my professional opinion that old-fashioned plagiarism was at least as well represented as ChatGPT even for students who blamed the usage of ChatGPT for their infractions.

Education in Computer Science and Computer Engineering is difficult, and growing ever more difficult as the fields grow and expand. Numerous studies have shown that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students work harder and longer, often for poorer grades, than other disciplines. Within stem, CS/CE are some of the more difficult majors for many students.

As a professional educating students in one of these fields, what are your techniques? What are your pain points? How do you keep students engaged and motivated, and how do you measure their progress?

These questions are what this community is about. I don't have all of the answers, but I sure do have experiences, and I certainly have questions!

Join me in building a community of practice around best practices and experience-sharing for educators of CS and CE topics.