2023

1.
Perscheid, M., Plattner, H., Ritter, D., Schlosser, R., Teusner, R.: Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts Research at HPI ACM SIGMOD Record 51 (4), 68–73 (2023)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@article{perscheid2022enterprise, author = {Perscheid, Michael and Plattner, Hasso and Ritter, Daniel and Schlosser, Rainer and Teusner, Ralf}, journal = {ACM SIGMOD Record}, keywords = {ddds myown}, pages = {68-73}, title = {Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts Research at HPI}, volume = {51 (4)}, year = 2023 }

2022

1.
Matthies, C., Teusner, R., Perscheid, M.: Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a Remote Agile Software Engineering Project Course During COVID-19 In: Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2022)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ]
 
COVID-19 and its immediate impacts on teaching activities have required changes from computer science educators worldwide. We switched our on-site courses to remote setups without detailed knowledge of what tools, techniques, and methods would work in different teaching contexts. A growing amount of experience reports on general best practices for remote teaching in higher education are available. However, university courses featuring practical software development projects present unique challenges regarding remote learning, as effective student collaboration is vital. In these courses, students tackle situations in the project and their team meetings that would also occur in real software projects experienced in industry settings. In this paper, we share our experiences on how we successfully adapted our software engineering project course to a remote setup, which challenges we observed in student teams and how they can be mitigated, and what (surprisingly) worked better than expected. Finally, we propose improvements that we expect will be beneficial not only for future remote-only but also for hybrid or on-site courses.
@inproceedings{Matthies_2022, abstract = {COVID-19 and its immediate impacts on teaching activities have required changes from computer science educators worldwide. We switched our on-site courses to remote setups without detailed knowledge of what tools, techniques, and methods would work in different teaching contexts. A growing amount of experience reports on general best practices for remote teaching in higher education are available. However, university courses featuring practical software development projects present unique challenges regarding remote learning, as effective student collaboration is vital. In these courses, students tackle situations in the project and their team meetings that would also occur in real software projects experienced in industry settings. In this paper, we share our experiences on how we successfully adapted our software engineering project course to a remote setup, which challenges we observed in student teams and how they can be mitigated, and what (surprisingly) worked better than expected. Finally, we propose improvements that we expect will be beneficial not only for future remote-only but also for hybrid or on-site courses.}, author = {Matthies, Christoph and Teusner, Ralf and Perscheid, Michael}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences}, keywords = {teaching}, publisher = {Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences}, title = {Challenges (and Opportunities!) of a Remote Agile Software Engineering Project Course During {COVID}-19}, year = 2022 }

2.
Perscheid, M., Plattner, H., Ritter, D., Schlosser, R., Teusner, R.: Das Fachgebiet “Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts” am Hasso-Plattner-Institut Datenbank-Spektrum 22, 175–180 (2022)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@article{perscheid2022fachgebiet, author = {Perscheid, Michael and Plattner, Hasso and Ritter, Daniel and Schlosser, Rainer and Teusner, Ralf}, journal = {Datenbank-Spektrum}, keywords = {ddds myown}, pages = {175-180}, title = {Das Fachgebiet “Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts” am Hasso-Plattner-Institut}, volume = 22, year = 2022 }

2021

1.
Serth, S., Staubitz, T., Teusner, R., Meinel, C.: CodeOcean and CodeHarbor: Auto-Grader and Code Repository In: Shaffer, C., Brusilovsky, P., Koedinger, K., and Edwards, S. (eds.) SPLICE 2021 Workshop CS Education Infrastructure for All III: From Ideas to Practice. p. 5. 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Virtual Event (2021)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ Download ]
 
The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) successfully operates a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform since 2012. Since 2013, global enterprises, international organizations, governments, and research projects funded by the German ministry of education are partnering with us to operate their own instances of the platform. The focus of our platform instance is on IT topics, which includes programming courses in different programming languages. An important element of these courses are graded hands-on programming assignments. MOOCs, even more than traditional classroom situations, depend on automated solutions to assess programming exercises. Manual evaluation is not an option due to the massive amount of users that participate in these courses. The paper at hand presents two of the tools developed in this context at the HPI: CodeOceantextemdash an auto-grader for a variety of programming languages, and CodeHarbor, a tool to share auto-gradable programming exercises between various online platforms.
@inproceedings{serthCodeOceanCodeHarborAutoGrader2021, abstract = {The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) successfully operates a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform since 2012. Since 2013, global enterprises, international organizations, governments, and research projects funded by the German ministry of education are partnering with us to operate their own instances of the platform. The focus of our platform instance is on IT topics, which includes programming courses in different programming languages. An important element of these courses are graded hands-on programming assignments. MOOCs, even more than traditional classroom situations, depend on automated solutions to assess programming exercises. Manual evaluation is not an option due to the massive amount of users that participate in these courses. The paper at hand presents two of the tools developed in this context at the HPI: CodeOcean\textemdash an auto-grader for a variety of programming languages, and CodeHarbor, a tool to share auto-gradable programming exercises between various online platforms.}, address = {Virtual Event}, author = {Serth, Sebastian and Staubitz, Thomas and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, booktitle = {SPLICE 2021 Workshop CS Education Infrastructure for All III: From Ideas to Practice}, editor = {Shaffer, Cliff and Brusilovsky, Peter and Koedinger, Ken and Edwards, Steve}, keywords = {programming}, month = {mar}, organization = {SPLICE}, pages = 5, publisher = {52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education}, title = {CodeOcean and CodeHarbor: Auto-Grader and Code Repository}, year = 2021 }

2.
Steinbeck, H., Teusner, R., Meinel, C.: Teaching the Masses on Twitch: An Initial Exploration of Educational Live-Streaming In: Proceedings of the Eighth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale. pp. 275–278. ACM, Virtual Event, Germany (2021)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ]
 
Streaming games and entertainment content are established formats on large portals like YouTube and Twitch. Educational streams have not yet reached the same popularity. Consequently, the existing research of gaming streams by far exceeds the research of live-streaming lectures. In this paper, we contribute first insights regarding this area, outline the status quo of the edu-streaming ecosystem, and highlight common approaches and characteristics. Through a descriptive study of 100 popular gaming streams, we systemize the inductively found features and approaches that are seen in both ecosystems. With a further focus on 20 educational streams, we highlight features such as synchronous community building and on-stream interactivity. We project the main differences between the core characteristics of MOOCs and educational streams. Finally, we propose further research directions for the emerging field of public, synchronous online education.
@inproceedings{steinbeck2021teaching, abstract = {Streaming games and entertainment content are established formats on large portals like YouTube and Twitch. Educational streams have not yet reached the same popularity. Consequently, the existing research of gaming streams by far exceeds the research of live-streaming lectures. In this paper, we contribute first insights regarding this area, outline the status quo of the edu-streaming ecosystem, and highlight common approaches and characteristics. Through a descriptive study of 100 popular gaming streams, we systemize the inductively found features and approaches that are seen in both ecosystems. With a further focus on 20 educational streams, we highlight features such as synchronous community building and on-stream interactivity. We project the main differences between the core characteristics of MOOCs and educational streams. Finally, we propose further research directions for the emerging field of public, synchronous online education.}, address = {{Virtual Event, Germany}}, author = {Steinbeck, Hendrik and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Eighth ACM Conference}} on {{Learning}} @ {{Scale}}}, keywords = {streaming educational twitch}, month = {jun}, pages = {{275–278}}, publisher = {{ACM}}, title = {Teaching the Masses on Twitch: An Initial Exploration of Educational Live-Streaming}, year = 2021 }

3.
Serth, S., Teusner, R., Meinel, C.: Impact of Contextual Tips for Auto-Gradable Programming Exercises in MOOCs In: Proceedings of the Eighth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale. pp. 307–310. ACM, Virtual Event, Germany (2021)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
Learners in Massive Open Online Courses offering practical programming exercises face additional challenges next to the actual course content. Beginners have to find approaches to deal with misconceptions and often struggle with the correct syntax while solving the exercises. The paper at hand presents insights from offering contextual tips in a web-based development environment used for practical programming exercises. We measured the effects of our approach in a Python course with 6,000 active students in a hidden A/B test and additionally used qualitative surveys. While a majority of learners valued the assistance, we were unable to show a direct impact on completion rates or average scores. We however noticed that users requesting tips took significantly longer and made more use of other assistance features of the platform than users in our control group. Insights from our study can be used to target beginners with more specific hints and provide additional, context-specific clues as part of the learning material.
@inproceedings{serthImpactContextualTips2021, abstract = {Learners in Massive Open Online Courses offering practical programming exercises face additional challenges next to the actual course content. Beginners have to find approaches to deal with misconceptions and often struggle with the correct syntax while solving the exercises. The paper at hand presents insights from offering contextual tips in a web-based development environment used for practical programming exercises. We measured the effects of our approach in a Python course with 6,000 active students in a hidden A/B test and additionally used qualitative surveys. While a majority of learners valued the assistance, we were unable to show a direct impact on completion rates or average scores. We however noticed that users requesting tips took significantly longer and made more use of other assistance features of the platform than users in our control group. Insights from our study can be used to target beginners with more specific hints and provide additional, context-specific clues as part of the learning material.}, address = {{Virtual Event, Germany}}, author = {Serth, Sebastian and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {{Eighth ACM Conference}} on {{Learning}} @ {{Scale}}}, keywords = {programming}, month = {jun}, pages = {307–310}, publisher = {{ACM}}, title = {Impact of {{Contextual Tips}} for {{Auto}}-{{Gradable Programming Exercises}} in {{MOOCs}}}, year = 2021 }

4.
Teusner, R.: Situational Interventions and Peer Feedback in Massive Open Online Courses, https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-50758, (2021)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) open up new opportunities to learn a wide variety of skills online and are thus well suited for individual education, especially where proffcient teachers are not available locally. At the same time, modern society is undergoing a digital transformation, requiring the training of large numbers of current and future employees. Abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and the need to formulate instructions for computers are becoming increasingly relevant. A holistic way to train these skills is to learn how to program. Programming, in addition to being a mental discipline, is also considered a craft, and practical training is required to achieve mastery. In order to effectively convey programming skills in MOOCs, practical exercises are incorporated into the course curriculum to offer students the necessary hands-on experience to reach an in-depth understanding of the programming concepts presented. Our preliminary analysis showed that while being an integral and rewarding part of courses, practical exercises bear the risk of overburdening students who are struggling with conceptual misunderstandings and unknown syntax. In this thesis, we develop, implement, and evaluate different interventions with the aim to improve the learning experience, sustainability, and success of online programming courses. Data from four programming MOOCs, with a total of over 60,000 participants, are employed to determine criteria for practical programming exercises best suited for a given audience. Based on over five million executions and scoring runs from students' task submissions, we deduce exercise difficulties, students' patterns in approaching the exercises, and potential flaws in exercise descriptions as well as preparatory videos. The primary issue in online learning is that students face a social gap caused by their isolated physical situation. Each individual student usually learns alone in front of a computer and suffers from the absence of a pre-determined time structure as provided in traditional school classes. Furthermore, online learning usually presses students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum, which presents the same content to all students, regardless of their individual needs and learning styles. Any means of a personalization of content or individual feedback regarding problems they encounter are mostly ruled out by the discrepancy between the number of learners and the number of instructors. This results in a high demand for self-motivation and determination of MOOC participants. Social distance exists between individual students as well as between students and course instructors. It decreases engagement and poses a threat to learning success. Within this research, we approach the identified issues within MOOCs and suggest scalable technical solutions, improving social interaction and balancing content difficulty. Our contributions include situational interventions, approaches for personalizing educational content as well as concepts for fostering collaborative problem-solving. With these approaches, we reduce counterproductive struggles and create a universal improvement for future programming MOOCs. We evaluate our approaches and methods in detail to improve programming courses for students as well as instructors and to advance the state of knowledge in online education. Data gathered from our experiments show that receiving peer feedback on one's programming problems improves overall course scores by up to 17%. Merely the act of phrasing a question about one's problem improved overall scores by about 14%. The rate of students reaching out for help was significantly improved by situational just-in-time interventions. Request for Comment interventions increased the share of students asking for help by up to 158%. Data from our four MOOCs further provide detailed insight into the learning behavior of students. We outline additional significant findings with regard to student behavior and demographic factors. Our approaches, the technical infrastructure, the numerous educational resources developed, and the data collected provide a solid foundation for future research.
@phdthesis{teusner2021situational, abstract = {Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) open up new opportunities to learn a wide variety of skills online and are thus well suited for individual education, especially where proffcient teachers are not available locally. At the same time, modern society is undergoing a digital transformation, requiring the training of large numbers of current and future employees. Abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and the need to formulate instructions for computers are becoming increasingly relevant. A holistic way to train these skills is to learn how to program. Programming, in addition to being a mental discipline, is also considered a craft, and practical training is required to achieve mastery. In order to effectively convey programming skills in MOOCs, practical exercises are incorporated into the course curriculum to offer students the necessary hands-on experience to reach an in-depth understanding of the programming concepts presented. Our preliminary analysis showed that while being an integral and rewarding part of courses, practical exercises bear the risk of overburdening students who are struggling with conceptual misunderstandings and unknown syntax. In this thesis, we develop, implement, and evaluate different interventions with the aim to improve the learning experience, sustainability, and success of online programming courses. Data from four programming MOOCs, with a total of over 60,000 participants, are employed to determine criteria for practical programming exercises best suited for a given audience. Based on over five million executions and scoring runs from students' task submissions, we deduce exercise difficulties, students' patterns in approaching the exercises, and potential flaws in exercise descriptions as well as preparatory videos. The primary issue in online learning is that students face a social gap caused by their isolated physical situation. Each individual student usually learns alone in front of a computer and suffers from the absence of a pre-determined time structure as provided in traditional school classes. Furthermore, online learning usually presses students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum, which presents the same content to all students, regardless of their individual needs and learning styles. Any means of a personalization of content or individual feedback regarding problems they encounter are mostly ruled out by the discrepancy between the number of learners and the number of instructors. This results in a high demand for self-motivation and determination of MOOC participants. Social distance exists between individual students as well as between students and course instructors. It decreases engagement and poses a threat to learning success. Within this research, we approach the identified issues within MOOCs and suggest scalable technical solutions, improving social interaction and balancing content difficulty. Our contributions include situational interventions, approaches for personalizing educational content as well as concepts for fostering collaborative problem-solving. With these approaches, we reduce counterproductive struggles and create a universal improvement for future programming MOOCs. We evaluate our approaches and methods in detail to improve programming courses for students as well as instructors and to advance the state of knowledge in online education. Data gathered from our experiments show that receiving peer feedback on one's programming problems improves overall course scores by up to 17%. Merely the act of phrasing a question about one's problem improved overall scores by about 14%. The rate of students reaching out for help was significantly improved by situational just-in-time interventions. Request for Comment interventions increased the share of students asking for help by up to 158%. Data from our four MOOCs further provide detailed insight into the learning behavior of students. We outline additional significant findings with regard to student behavior and demographic factors. Our approaches, the technical infrastructure, the numerous educational resources developed, and the data collected provide a solid foundation for future research.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf}, keywords = {MOOC collaboration peer-feedback intervention programming}, month = {may}, title = {Situational Interventions and Peer Feedback in Massive Open Online Courses}, year = 2021 }

5.
Dobrigkeit, F., Matthies, C., Pajak, P., Teusner, R.: Cherry Picking - Agile Software Development Teams Applying Design Thinking Tools In: Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming textendash Workshops. pp. 201–206. Springer International Publishing (2021)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ]
 
Design Thinking (DT) is an established approach to conceptualize software products before starting the product development work. Research suggests that software development can benefit from a continuous integration of DT throughout Agile development processes. However, practitioners and researchers lack an in-depth understanding of which tools from the ever-growing DT toolbox are suited to support software development teams and their processes and how these tools can be applied to the teams’ daily work. As initial steps towards closing this knowledge gap, we present our experiences from testing five different DT tools from a previously developed toolbox with four Agile software development teams. Each team chose three tools to apply to their product, problem, and context during a workshop. We present summarised findings regarding the use cases, benefits, and challenges of these tools as experienced by the participants. Overall, the teams welcomed the DT tools and were able to independently apply them to achieve the desired effects, e.g., to highlight user needs, find product issues, and discover team challenges.
@incollection{Dobrigkeit_2021, abstract = {Design Thinking (DT) is an established approach to conceptualize software products before starting the product development work. Research suggests that software development can benefit from a continuous integration of DT throughout Agile development processes. However, practitioners and researchers lack an in-depth understanding of which tools from the ever-growing DT toolbox are suited to support software development teams and their processes and how these tools can be applied to the teams’ daily work. As initial steps towards closing this knowledge gap, we present our experiences from testing five different DT tools from a previously developed toolbox with four Agile software development teams. Each team chose three tools to apply to their product, problem, and context during a workshop. We present summarised findings regarding the use cases, benefits, and challenges of these tools as experienced by the participants. Overall, the teams welcomed the DT tools and were able to independently apply them to achieve the desired effects, e.g., to highlight user needs, find product issues, and discover team challenges.}, author = {Dobrigkeit, Franziska and Matthies, Christoph and Pajak, Philipp and Teusner, Ralf}, booktitle = {Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming {\textendash} Workshops}, keywords = {agile}, pages = {201–206}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, title = {Cherry Picking - Agile Software Development Teams Applying Design Thinking Tools}, year = 2021 }

2020

1.
Serth, S., Teusner, R., Meinel, C.: Digitale Arbeitsblätter mit interaktiven Programmieraufgaben im Informatik-Unterricht In: Zender, R., Ifenthaler, D., Leonhardt, T., and Schumacher, C. (eds.) Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI) - Proceedings: DELFI 2020 – Die 18. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. pp. 235–246. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), Bonn, Germany (2020)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ Download ]
 
Moderner Informatikunterricht umfasst das Erlernen von Grundlagen des Programmierens. Dabei verwenden Lehrer häufig bereits vorhandene Videos, Quizfragen und praktische Programmieraufgaben aus Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), obwohl derzeit die Möglichkeiten zur Anpassung der Inhalte und dem Hinzufügen eigener Materialien für Lehrer begrenzt sind. Unsere Software ermöglicht es Lehrern, ihre eigenen interaktiven Arbeitsblätter mit angepassten und eigenen Übungen zu erstellen. Im Rahmen einer praktischen Evaluierung wurde das Konzept von Schülern und Lehrern gleichermaßen gut angenommen: Lehrer hatten mehr Zeit für die Beantwortung individueller Fragen und Schüler konnten in ihrem eigenen Tempo mithilfe automatisierter Rückmeldungen lernen. Für die Vorbereitung zukünftiger Unterrichtsstunden schätzten Lehrer die Möglichkeit, häufige Fehler auszuwerten, um so zuvor unerkannte Probleme besprechen zu können. Interaktive Arbeitsblätter fördern individualisierte Lernprozesse, unterstützen Lehrer in der Unterrichtsgestaltung und sind somit ein wichtiger Bestandteil digitaler Bildung an Schulen.
@inproceedings{serthDigitaleArbeitsblaetterMit2020, abstract = {Moderner Informatikunterricht umfasst das Erlernen von Grundlagen des Programmierens. Dabei verwenden Lehrer häufig bereits vorhandene Videos, Quizfragen und praktische Programmieraufgaben aus Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), obwohl derzeit die Möglichkeiten zur Anpassung der Inhalte und dem Hinzufügen eigener Materialien für Lehrer begrenzt sind. Unsere Software ermöglicht es Lehrern, ihre eigenen interaktiven Arbeitsblätter mit angepassten und eigenen Übungen zu erstellen. Im Rahmen einer praktischen Evaluierung wurde das Konzept von Schülern und Lehrern gleichermaßen gut angenommen: Lehrer hatten mehr Zeit für die Beantwortung individueller Fragen und Schüler konnten in ihrem eigenen Tempo mithilfe automatisierter Rückmeldungen lernen. Für die Vorbereitung zukünftiger Unterrichtsstunden schätzten Lehrer die Möglichkeit, häufige Fehler auszuwerten, um so zuvor unerkannte Probleme besprechen zu können. Interaktive Arbeitsblätter fördern individualisierte Lernprozesse, unterstützen Lehrer in der Unterrichtsgestaltung und sind somit ein wichtiger Bestandteil digitaler Bildung an Schulen.}, address = {Bonn, Germany}, author = {Serth, Sebastian and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, booktitle = {Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI) - Proceedings: DELFI 2020 – Die 18. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.}, editor = {Zender, Raphael and Ifenthaler, Dirk and Leonhardt, Thiemo and Schumacher, Clara}, keywords = {programming}, month = {09}, organization = {Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI)}, pages = {235-246}, publisher = {Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI)}, series = {Lecture Notes in Informatics}, title = {Digitale Arbeitsblätter mit interaktiven Programmieraufgaben im Informatik-Unterricht}, volume = {P-308}, year = 2020 }

2.
Matthies, C., Huegle, J., Dürschmid, T., Teusner, R.: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Development Data Concerning Agile Software Development Practices In: Felderer, M., Hasselbring, W., Rabiser, R., and Jung, R. (eds.) Software Engineering 2020. pp. 73–74. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., Bonn (2020)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ]
 
This work is a summary of research previously published at the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training in 2019. The perceptions and attitudes of developers impact how software projects are run and which development practices are employed in development teams. Recent Agile methodologies have taken this into account, focusing on collaboration and a shared team culture. In this research, we investigate the perceptions of Agile development practices and their usage in Scrum software development teams. Although perceptions collected through surveys of 42 participating students did not evolve significantly over time, our analyses show that the Scrum role significantly impacted participants' views of employed development practices. We find that using the version control system according to Agile ideas was consistently rated most related to the values of the Agile Manifesto. Furthermore, we investigate how common software development artifacts can be used to gain insights into team behavior and present the development data measurements we employed. We show that we can reliably detect well-defined Agile practices, such Test-Driven Development, in this data and that usage of these practices coincided with participants' self-assessments.
@inproceedings{Matthies2020SE, abstract = {This work is a summary of research previously published at the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training in 2019. The perceptions and attitudes of developers impact how software projects are run and which development practices are employed in development teams. Recent Agile methodologies have taken this into account, focusing on collaboration and a shared team culture. In this research, we investigate the perceptions of Agile development practices and their usage in Scrum software development teams. Although perceptions collected through surveys of 42 participating students did not evolve significantly over time, our analyses show that the Scrum role significantly impacted participants' views of employed development practices. We find that using the version control system according to Agile ideas was consistently rated most related to the values of the Agile Manifesto. Furthermore, we investigate how common software development artifacts can be used to gain insights into team behavior and present the development data measurements we employed. We show that we can reliably detect well-defined Agile practices, such Test-Driven Development, in this data and that usage of these practices coincided with participants' self-assessments.}, address = {Bonn}, author = {Matthies, Christoph and Huegle, Johannes and Dürschmid, Tobias and Teusner, Ralf}, booktitle = {Software Engineering 2020}, editor = {Felderer, Michael and Hasselbring, Wilhelm and Rabiser, Rick and Jung, Reiner}, keywords = {imported}, pages = {73-74}, publisher = {Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.}, title = {Attitudes, Beliefs, and Development Data Concerning Agile Software Development Practices}, year = 2020 }

3.
Ramin, F., Matthies, C., Teusner, R.: More than Code: Contributions in Scrum Software Engineering Teams In: Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering Workshops. pp. 137–140. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2020)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
Motivated and competent team members are a vital part of Agile Software development and make or break any project's success. Motivation is fostered by continuous progress and recognition of efforts. These concepts are founding pillars of the Scrum methodology, which focuses on self-organizing teams. The types of contributions Scrum development team members make to a project's progress are not only technical. However, a comprehensive model comprising the varied contributions in modern software engineering teams is not yet established. We propose a model that incorporates contributions of all Scrum roles, explicitly including those which are not directly related to project artifacts. It improves the visibility of performed tasks, acts as a starting point for team retrospection, and serves as a foundation for discussion in the research community.
@inproceedings{Ramin2020ICSEW, abstract = {Motivated and competent team members are a vital part of Agile Software development and make or break any project's success. Motivation is fostered by continuous progress and recognition of efforts. These concepts are founding pillars of the Scrum methodology, which focuses on self-organizing teams. The types of contributions Scrum development team members make to a project's progress are not only technical. However, a comprehensive model comprising the varied contributions in modern software engineering teams is not yet established. We propose a model that incorporates contributions of all Scrum roles, explicitly including those which are not directly related to project artifacts. It improves the visibility of performed tasks, acts as a starting point for team retrospection, and serves as a foundation for discussion in the research community.}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, author = {Ramin, Frederike and Matthies, Christoph and Teusner, Ralf}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering Workshops}, keywords = {imported}, pages = {137-140}, publisher = {ACM}, series = {ICSEW'20}, title = {More than Code: Contributions in Scrum Software Engineering Teams}, year = 2020 }

2019

1.
Matthies, C., Huegle, J., Dürschmid, T., Teusner, R.: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Development Data Concerning Agile Software Development Practices In: 2019 IEEE/ACM 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET). pp. 158–169. IEEE (2019)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
The perceptions and attitudes of developers impact how software projects are run and which development practices are employed in development teams. Recent agile methodologies have taken this into account, focusing on collaboration and shared team culture. In this research, we investigate the perceptions of agile development practices and their usage in Scrum software development teams. Although perceptions collected through surveys of 42 participating students did not evolve significantly over time, our analyses show that the Scrum role significantly impacted participants' views of employed development practices. We find that using the version control system according to agile ideas was consistently rated most related to the values of the Agile Manifesto. Furthermore, we investigate how common software development artifacts can be used to gain insights into team behavior and present the development data measurements we employed. We show that we can reliably detect well-defined agile practices, such Test-Driven Development, in this data and that usage of these practices coincided with participants' self-assessments.
@inproceedings{matthies2019ICSE, abstract = {The perceptions and attitudes of developers impact how software projects are run and which development practices are employed in development teams. Recent agile methodologies have taken this into account, focusing on collaboration and shared team culture. In this research, we investigate the perceptions of agile development practices and their usage in Scrum software development teams. Although perceptions collected through surveys of 42 participating students did not evolve significantly over time, our analyses show that the Scrum role significantly impacted participants' views of employed development practices. We find that using the version control system according to agile ideas was consistently rated most related to the values of the Agile Manifesto. Furthermore, we investigate how common software development artifacts can be used to gain insights into team behavior and present the development data measurements we employed. We show that we can reliably detect well-defined agile practices, such Test-Driven Development, in this data and that usage of these practices coincided with participants' self-assessments.}, author = {Matthies, Christoph and Huegle, Johannes and Dürschmid, Tobias and Teusner, Ralf}, booktitle = {2019 IEEE/ACM 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET)}, keywords = {software_engineering Scrum metrics Agile}, month = {may}, pages = {158-169}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {Attitudes, Beliefs, and Development Data Concerning Agile Software Development Practices}, year = 2019 }

2.
Serth, S., Teusner, R., Renz, J., Uflacker, M.: Evaluating Digital Worksheets with Interactive Programming Exercises for K-12 Education In: Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE). IEEE (2019)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
This Research Full Paper presents insights from digital worksheets with embedded interactive programming exercises tailored for high-school students new to programming. Computer Science teachers often incorporate existing videos, quizzes, and practical programming exercises from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, teachers' options to adapt the content to their specific needs are currently limited. Based on a qualitative survey with thirteen teachers, we developed a software prototype which allows teachers to create their own interactive worksheets consisting of texts, videos, quizzes, and practical programming exercises. Additionally, teachers can embed and further customize existing exercises from MOOCs. Further, we enable teachers to gain deeper insights by providing results from automated submission analysis, thus uncovering knowledge gaps and fostering content-driven in-class discussions. Our evaluation shows that the concept was well received by students and teachers alike: Teachers noticed the possibility of a shift in their role from a lecturing instructor to an individual tutor, as students are enabled to learn at their own pace and receive specific, direct feedback based on automated unit tests. Interactive worksheets, as an integrated part of digital education, thus foster informed teacher interventions as part of an individualized student learning process.
@inproceedings{serthEvaluatingDigitalWorksheets2019, abstract = {This Research Full Paper presents insights from digital worksheets with embedded interactive programming exercises tailored for high-school students new to programming. Computer Science teachers often incorporate existing videos, quizzes, and practical programming exercises from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, teachers' options to adapt the content to their specific needs are currently limited. Based on a qualitative survey with thirteen teachers, we developed a software prototype which allows teachers to create their own interactive worksheets consisting of texts, videos, quizzes, and practical programming exercises. Additionally, teachers can embed and further customize existing exercises from MOOCs. Further, we enable teachers to gain deeper insights by providing results from automated submission analysis, thus uncovering knowledge gaps and fostering content-driven in-class discussions. Our evaluation shows that the concept was well received by students and teachers alike: Teachers noticed the possibility of a shift in their role from a lecturing instructor to an individual tutor, as students are enabled to learn at their own pace and receive specific, direct feedback based on automated unit tests. Interactive worksheets, as an integrated part of digital education, thus foster informed teacher interventions as part of an individualized student learning process.}, author = {Serth, Sebastian and Teusner, Ralf and Renz, Jan and Uflacker, Matthias}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)}, keywords = {programming}, month = 10, organization = {IEEE Education Society}, publisher = {IEEE}, series = {FIE 2019}, title = {Evaluating Digital Worksheets with Interactive Programming Exercises for K-12 Education}, year = 2019 }

2018

1.
Matthies, C., Teusner, R., Hesse, G.: Beyond Surveys: Analyzing Software Development Artifacts to Assess Teaching Efforts In: IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE). pp. 1–9 (2018)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents an approach of using software development artifacts to gauge student behavior and the effectiveness of changes to curriculum design. There is an ongoing need to adapt university courses to changing requirements and shifts in industry. As an educator it is therefore vital to have access to methods, with which to ascertain the effects of curriculum design changes. In this paper, we present our approach of analyzing software repositories in order to gauge student behavior during project work. We evaluate this approach in a case study of a university undergraduate software development course teaching agile development methodologies. Surveys revealed positive attitudes towards the course and the change of employed development methodology from Scrum to Kanban. However, surveys were not usable to ascertain the degree to which students had adapted their workflows and whether they had done so in accordance with course goals. Therefore, we analyzed students' software repository data, which represents information that can be collected by educators to reveal insights into learning successes and detailed student behavior. We analyze the software repositories created during the last five courses, and evaluate differences in workflows between Kanban and Scrum usage.
@inproceedings{matthies2018fie, abstract = {This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents an approach of using software development artifacts to gauge student behavior and the effectiveness of changes to curriculum design. There is an ongoing need to adapt university courses to changing requirements and shifts in industry. As an educator it is therefore vital to have access to methods, with which to ascertain the effects of curriculum design changes. In this paper, we present our approach of analyzing software repositories in order to gauge student behavior during project work. We evaluate this approach in a case study of a university undergraduate software development course teaching agile development methodologies. Surveys revealed positive attitudes towards the course and the change of employed development methodology from Scrum to Kanban. However, surveys were not usable to ascertain the degree to which students had adapted their workflows and whether they had done so in accordance with course goals. Therefore, we analyzed students' software repository data, which represents information that can be collected by educators to reveal insights into learning successes and detailed student behavior. We analyze the software repositories created during the last five courses, and evaluate differences in workflows between Kanban and Scrum usage.}, author = {Matthies, Christoph and Teusner, Ralf and Hesse, Guenter}, booktitle = {IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)}, keywords = {development_artifacts software_engineering Kanban Scrum Education}, month = {oct}, pages = {1-9}, title = {Beyond Surveys: Analyzing Software Development Artifacts to Assess Teaching Efforts}, year = 2018 }

2.
Teusner, R., Matthies, C., Staubitz, T.: What Stays in Mind? - Retention Rates in Programming MOOCs In: 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (2018)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
This work presents insights about the long-term effects and retention rates of knowledge acquired within MOOCs. In 2015 and 2017, we conducted two introductory MOOCs on object-oriented programming in Java with each over 10,000 registered participants. In this paper, we analyze course scores, quiz results and self-stated skill levels of our participants. The aim of our analysis is to uncover factors influencing the retention of acquired knowledge, such as time passed or knowledge application, in order to improve long-term success. While we know that some participants learned the programming basics within our course, we lack information on whether this knowledge was applied and fortified after the course's end. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a survey in 2018 among all participants of our 2015 and 2017 programming MOOCs. The first part of the survey elicits responses on whether and how MOOC knowledge was applied and gives participants opportunity to voice individual feedback. The second part of the survey contains several questions of increasing difficulty and complexity regarding course content in order to learn about the consolidation of the acquired knowledge. We distinguish three programming knowledge areas in the survey: First, understanding of concepts, such as loops and boolean algebra. Second, syntax knowledge, such as specific keywords. Third, practical skills including debugging and coding. We further analyzed the long-term effects separately per participant skill group. While answer rates were low, the collected data shows a decrease of knowledge over time, relatively unaffected by skill level. Application of the acquired knowledge improves the memory retention rates of MOOC participants across all skill levels.
@inproceedings{teusner2018stays, abstract = {This work presents insights about the long-term effects and retention rates of knowledge acquired within MOOCs. In 2015 and 2017, we conducted two introductory MOOCs on object-oriented programming in Java with each over 10,000 registered participants. In this paper, we analyze course scores, quiz results and self-stated skill levels of our participants. The aim of our analysis is to uncover factors influencing the retention of acquired knowledge, such as time passed or knowledge application, in order to improve long-term success. While we know that some participants learned the programming basics within our course, we lack information on whether this knowledge was applied and fortified after the course's end. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a survey in 2018 among all participants of our 2015 and 2017 programming MOOCs. The first part of the survey elicits responses on whether and how MOOC knowledge was applied and gives participants opportunity to voice individual feedback. The second part of the survey contains several questions of increasing difficulty and complexity regarding course content in order to learn about the consolidation of the acquired knowledge. We distinguish three programming knowledge areas in the survey: First, understanding of concepts, such as loops and boolean algebra. Second, syntax knowledge, such as specific keywords. Third, practical skills including debugging and coding. We further analyzed the long-term effects separately per participant skill group. While answer rates were low, the collected data shows a decrease of knowledge over time, relatively unaffected by skill level. Application of the acquired knowledge improves the memory retention rates of MOOC participants across all skill levels.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Matthies, Christoph and Staubitz, Thomas}, booktitle = {2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)}, keywords = {myown}, title = {What Stays in Mind? - Retention Rates in Programming MOOCs}, year = 2018 }

3.
Teusner, R., Hille, T., Staubitz, T.: Effects of Automated Interventions in Programming Assignments: Evidence from a Field Experiment In: L@S 2018: Fifth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale (2018)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
A typical problem in MOOCs is the missing opportunity for course conductors to individually support students in overcoming their problems and misconceptions. This paper presents the results of automatically intervening on struggling students during programming exercises and offering peer feedback and tailored bonus exercises. To improve learning success, we do not want to abolish instructionally desired trial and error but reduce extensive struggle and demotivation. Therefore, we developed adaptive automatic just-in-time interventions to encourage students to ask for help if they require considerably more than average working time to solve an exercise. Additionally, we offered students bonus exercises tailored for their individual weaknesses. The approach was evaluated within a live course with over 5,000 active students via a survey and metrics gathered alongside. Results show that we can increase the call outs for help by up to 66% and lower the dwelling time until issuing action. Learnings from the experiments can further be used to pinpoint course material to be improved and tailor content to be audience specific.
@inproceedings{teusner2018effects, abstract = {A typical problem in MOOCs is the missing opportunity for course conductors to individually support students in overcoming their problems and misconceptions. This paper presents the results of automatically intervening on struggling students during programming exercises and offering peer feedback and tailored bonus exercises. To improve learning success, we do not want to abolish instructionally desired trial and error but reduce extensive struggle and demotivation. Therefore, we developed adaptive automatic just-in-time interventions to encourage students to ask for help if they require considerably more than average working time to solve an exercise. Additionally, we offered students bonus exercises tailored for their individual weaknesses. The approach was evaluated within a live course with over 5,000 active students via a survey and metrics gathered alongside. Results show that we can increase the call outs for help by up to 66\% and lower the dwelling time until issuing action. Learnings from the experiments can further be used to pinpoint course material to be improved and tailor content to be audience specific.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Hille, Thomas and Staubitz, Thomas}, booktitle = {L@S 2018: Fifth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale}, keywords = {MOOC exercise intervention programming}, title = {Effects of Automated Interventions in Programming Assignments: Evidence from a Field Experiment}, year = 2018 }

4.
Teusner, R., Hille, T.: On the Impact of Programming Exercise Descriptions In: Proceedings of the 2018 Learning With MOOCS (LWMOOCS2018). pp. 51–54. IEEE (2018)
[ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
@inproceedings{noauthororeditor, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Hille, Thomas}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2018 Learning With MOOCS (LWMOOCS2018)}, keywords = {mooc exercise description programming}, month = {September}, organization = {IEEE}, pages = {51-54}, title = {On the Impact of Programming Exercise Descriptions}, year = 2018 }

2017

1.
Teusner, R., Hille, T., Hagedorn, C.: Aspects on Finding the Optimal Practical Programming Exercise for MOOCs In: Proceedings of the 47th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference. IEEE (2017)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) focus on manifold subjects, ranging from social sciences over languages to technical skills, and use different means to train the respective skills. MOOCs that are teaching programming skills aim to incorporate practical exercises into the course corpus to give students the hands-on experience necessary for understanding and mastering programming. These exercises, apart from technical challenges, come with a series of questions to be addressed, for example: which fraction of the participants' time should they take (compared to video lectures and other course activities), which difficulty should be aimed for, how much guidance should be offered and how much repetition should be incorporated? The perceived difficulty of a task depends on previous knowledge, supplied hints, the required time for solving and the number of failed attempts the participant made. Furthermore, the detail and accuracy of the problem description, the restrictiveness of the applied test cases and the preparation provided specifically for a given exercise also influence the perceived difficulty of a task. In this paper, we explore the data of three programming courses to find criteria for optimal practical programming exercises. Based on over 3 million executions and scoring runs of participants' task submissions, we aim to deduct exercise difficulty, student patterns in approaching the tasks and potential flaws in task descriptions and preparatory videos. We compare our findings to in class trainings and traditional, mostly video and quiz based MOOCs. Finally, we propose approaches and methods to improve programming courses for participants as well as instructors.
@inproceedings{teusner2017aspects, abstract = {Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) focus on manifold subjects, ranging from social sciences over languages to technical skills, and use different means to train the respective skills. MOOCs that are teaching programming skills aim to incorporate practical exercises into the course corpus to give students the hands-on experience necessary for understanding and mastering programming. These exercises, apart from technical challenges, come with a series of questions to be addressed, for example: which fraction of the participants' time should they take (compared to video lectures and other course activities), which difficulty should be aimed for, how much guidance should be offered and how much repetition should be incorporated? The perceived difficulty of a task depends on previous knowledge, supplied hints, the required time for solving and the number of failed attempts the participant made. Furthermore, the detail and accuracy of the problem description, the restrictiveness of the applied test cases and the preparation provided specifically for a given exercise also influence the perceived difficulty of a task. In this paper, we explore the data of three programming courses to find criteria for optimal practical programming exercises. Based on over 3 million executions and scoring runs of participants' task submissions, we aim to deduct exercise difficulty, student patterns in approaching the tasks and potential flaws in task descriptions and preparatory videos. We compare our findings to in class trainings and traditional, mostly video and quiz based MOOCs. Finally, we propose approaches and methods to improve programming courses for participants as well as instructors.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Hille, Thomas and Hagedorn, Christiane}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 47th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference}, keywords = {MOOC exercise programming}, month = {oct}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {Aspects on Finding the Optimal Practical Programming Exercise for MOOCs}, year = 2017 }

2.
Teusner, R., Rollmann, K.-A., Renz, J.: Taking Informed Action on Student Activity in MOOCs In: Proceedings of the Fourth (2017) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale. pp. 149–152. ACM, New York, NY, USA (2017)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
This paper presents a novel approach to understand specific student behavior in MOOCs. Instructors currently perceive participants only as one homogeneous group. In order to improve learning outcomes, they encourage students to get active in the discussion forum and remind them of approaching deadlines. While these actions are most likely helpful, their actual impact is often not measured. Additionally, it is uncertain whether such generic approaches sometimes cause the opposite effect, as some participants are bothered with irrelevant information. On the basis of fine granular events emitted by our learning platform, we derive metrics and enable teachers to employ clustering, in order to divide the vast field of participants into meaningful subgroups to be addressed individually.
@inproceedings{teusner2017taking, abstract = {This paper presents a novel approach to understand specific student behavior in MOOCs. Instructors currently perceive participants only as one homogeneous group. In order to improve learning outcomes, they encourage students to get active in the discussion forum and remind them of approaching deadlines. While these actions are most likely helpful, their actual impact is often not measured. Additionally, it is uncertain whether such generic approaches sometimes cause the opposite effect, as some participants are bothered with irrelevant information. On the basis of fine granular events emitted by our learning platform, we derive metrics and enable teachers to employ clustering, in order to divide the vast field of participants into meaningful subgroups to be addressed individually.}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Rollmann, Kai-Adrian and Renz, Jan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fourth (2017) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale}, keywords = {cluster analytics mooc learning survey metrics}, month = {apr}, pages = {149-152}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {Taking Informed Action on Student Activity in MOOCs}, year = 2017 }

3.
Teusner, R., Matthies, C., Giese, P.: Should I Bug You? Identifying Domain Experts in Software Projects Using Code Complexity Metrics In: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security (QRS). pp. 418–425 (2017)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ DOI ] [ Download ]
 
In any sufficiently complex software system there are experts, having a deeper understanding of parts of the system than others. However, it is not always clear who these experts are and which particular parts of the system they can provide help with. We propose a framework to elicit the expertise of developers and recommend experts by analyzing complexity measures over time. Furthermore, teams can detect those parts of the software for which currently no, or only few experts exist and take preventive actions to keep the collective code knowledge and ownership high. We employed the developed approach at a medium-sized company. The results were evaluated with a survey, comparing the perceived and the computed expertise of developers. We show that aggregated code metrics can be used to identify experts for different software components. The identified experts were rated as acceptable candidates by developers in over 90% of all cases.
@inproceedings{teusner2017qrs, abstract = {In any sufficiently complex software system there are experts, having a deeper understanding of parts of the system than others. However, it is not always clear who these experts are and which particular parts of the system they can provide help with. We propose a framework to elicit the expertise of developers and recommend experts by analyzing complexity measures over time. Furthermore, teams can detect those parts of the software for which currently no, or only few experts exist and take preventive actions to keep the collective code knowledge and ownership high. We employed the developed approach at a medium-sized company. The results were evaluated with a survey, comparing the perceived and the computed expertise of developers. We show that aggregated code metrics can be used to identify experts for different software components. The identified experts were rated as acceptable candidates by developers in over 90% of all cases.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Matthies, Christoph and Giese, Philipp}, booktitle = {2017 IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security (QRS)}, keywords = {in-memory_database}, month = {July}, pages = {418-425}, title = {Should I Bug You? Identifying Domain Experts in Software Projects Using Code Complexity Metrics}, year = 2017 }

4.
Teusner, R., Wittstruck, N., Staubitz, T.: Video Conferencing as a Peephole to MOOC Participants In: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE). IEEE (2017)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ] [ Download ]
 
Distance education gained considerable attention with the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Given the significant role collaboration plays in practical computer science education on campus, it becomes evident that nowadays online course platforms mostly lack the necessary collaborative capabilities. We present a solution to support collaborative programming through video conferencing for practical exercises employed in MOOC contexts. Two user surveys showed that albeit users value the possibilities, privacy concerns remain. We therefore propose to additionally use the technology to face another challenge: MOOCs usually are conceptualized and produced to a large extent before the actual course runtime. Reaction on current events within the course is possible but requires insights on students’ problems. Course conductors can use the tutoring mode in our WebIDE to understand struggling students and potentially uncover topics that lack additional background material or need additional training exercises.
@inproceedings{teusner2017video, abstract = {Distance education gained considerable attention with the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Given the significant role collaboration plays in practical computer science education on campus, it becomes evident that nowadays online course platforms mostly lack the necessary collaborative capabilities. We present a solution to support collaborative programming through video conferencing for practical exercises employed in MOOC contexts. Two user surveys showed that albeit users value the possibilities, privacy concerns remain. We therefore propose to additionally use the technology to face another challenge: MOOCs usually are conceptualized and produced to a large extent before the actual course runtime. Reaction on current events within the course is possible but requires insights on students’ problems. Course conductors can use the tutoring mode in our WebIDE to understand struggling students and potentially uncover topics that lack additional background material or need additional training exercises.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Wittstruck, Nicholas and Staubitz, Thomas}, booktitle = {2017 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)}, keywords = {MOOC videoconferencing programming}, organization = {IEEE}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {Video Conferencing as a Peephole to MOOC Participants}, year = 2017 }

5.
Staubitz, T., Teusner, R., Meinel, C.: Towards a Repository for Open Auto-Gradable Programming Exercises In: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (2017)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ]
 
Auto-gradable hands-on programming exercises are a key element for scalable programming courses. A variety of auto-graders already exist, however, creating suitable high- quality exercises in a sufficient amount is a very time-consuming and tedious task. One way to approach this problem is to enable sharing auto-gradable exercises between several interested parties. School-teachers, MOOC1 instructors, workshop providers, and university level teachers need programming exercises to provide their students with hands-on experience. Auto-gradability of these exercises is an important requirement. The paper at hand introduces a tool that enables the sharing of such exercises and addresses the various needs and requirements of the different stakeholders.
@inproceedings{staubitz_tale_2017, abstract = {Auto-gradable hands-on programming exercises are a key element for scalable programming courses. A variety of auto-graders already exist, however, creating suitable high- quality exercises in a sufficient amount is a very time-consuming and tedious task. One way to approach this problem is to enable sharing auto-gradable exercises between several interested parties. School-teachers, MOOC1 instructors, workshop providers, and university level teachers need programming exercises to provide their students with hands-on experience. Auto-gradability of these exercises is an important requirement. The paper at hand introduces a tool that enables the sharing of such exercises and addresses the various needs and requirements of the different stakeholders.}, author = {Staubitz, Thomas and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, booktitle = {2017 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)}, keywords = {programming}, month = {December}, title = {Towards a Repository for Open Auto-Gradable Programming Exercises}, year = 2017 }

6.
Staubitz, T., Teusner, R., Meinel, C.: openHPI’s Coding Tool Family: CodeOcean, CodeHarbor, CodePilot In: Automatische Bewertung von Programmieraufgaben (ABP) (2017)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ]
 
The Hasso Plattner Institute successfully runs a self-developed Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform—openHPI—since 2012. MOOCs, even more than classic classroom situations, depend on automated solutions to assess programming exercises. Manual evaluation is not an option due to the massive amount of users that participate in these courses. The paper at hand maps the landscape of tools that are used on openHPI in the context of automated grading of programming exercises. Furthermore, it provides a sneak preview to new features that will be integrated ion the near future. Particularly, we will introduce CodeHarbor, our platform to share auto-gradeable exercises between various online code execution platforms.
@inproceedings{StaubitzEtAl:ABP2017, abstract = {The Hasso Plattner Institute successfully runs a self-developed Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform—openHPI—since 2012. MOOCs, even more than classic classroom situations, depend on automated solutions to assess programming exercises. Manual evaluation is not an option due to the massive amount of users that participate in these courses. The paper at hand maps the landscape of tools that are used on openHPI in the context of automated grading of programming exercises. Furthermore, it provides a sneak preview to new features that will be integrated ion the near future. Particularly, we will introduce CodeHarbor, our platform to share auto-gradeable exercises between various online code execution platforms.}, author = {Staubitz, Thomas and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, booktitle = {Automatische Bewertung von Programmieraufgaben (ABP)}, crossref = {ABP2017}, keywords = {MOOC Repository myown Sharing Scalability Autograder Programming Code}, title = {openHPI's Coding Tool Family: CodeOcean, CodeHarbor, CodePilot}, year = 2017 }

2016

1.
Richly, K., Teusner, R.: Where is the Money Made? An Interactive Visualization of Profitable Areas in New York City In: The 2nd EAI International Conference on IoT in Urban Space (Urb-IoT) (2016)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ]
 
Detailed information about the flow of potential customers in a city is extremely relevant for strategic decisions of various service providers such as taxi companies or advertising agencies. The knowledge about highly frequented regions as well as peak times in specific areas provides a crucial business advantage to competitors. Today, business relevant decisions about the positioning of service providers and advertising spaces or the balancing of capacity are primarily based on experience only. In this paper, we present a novel approach to gain knowledge about the distribution of potential customers over time and space based on the data of taxi rides, which have been recorded for documentation purposes. By leveraging the performance of in-memory databases, we build an applica- tion, which allows the user to analyze about 700 million taxi rides in real-time. The application allows companies to get an impression in which areas and in what timeframes they can reach a large audience of potential customers. Additionally, we demonstrate that the developed visualization concept enables the comparison of different regions and allows to analyze trends in the customer flow over time.
@conference{richly2016where, abstract = {Detailed information about the flow of potential customers in a city is extremely relevant for strategic decisions of various service providers such as taxi companies or advertising agencies. The knowledge about highly frequented regions as well as peak times in specific areas provides a crucial business advantage to competitors. Today, business relevant decisions about the positioning of service providers and advertising spaces or the balancing of capacity are primarily based on experience only. In this paper, we present a novel approach to gain knowledge about the distribution of potential customers over time and space based on the data of taxi rides, which have been recorded for documentation purposes. By leveraging the performance of in-memory databases, we build an applica- tion, which allows the user to analyze about 700 million taxi rides in real-time. The application allows companies to get an impression in which areas and in what timeframes they can reach a large audience of potential customers. Additionally, we demonstrate that the developed visualization concept enables the comparison of different regions and allows to analyze trends in the customer flow over time.}, author = {Richly, Keven and Teusner, Ralf}, booktitle = {The 2nd EAI International Conference on IoT in Urban Space (Urb-IoT)}, keywords = {imported}, title = {Where is the Money Made? An Interactive Visualization of Profitable Areas in New York City}, year = 2016 }

2015

1.
Richly, K., Teusner, R., Immer, A., Windheuser, F., Wolf, L.: Optimizing Routes of Public Transportation Systems by Analyzing the Data of Taxi Rides In: Workshop on Smart Cities and Urban Analytics, in conjunction with 23rd ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL) (2015)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@conference{Keven2015a, author = {Richly, Keven and Teusner, Ralf and Immer, Alexander and Windheuser, Fabian and Wolf, Lennard}, booktitle = {Workshop on Smart Cities and Urban Analytics, in conjunction with 23rd ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL)}, keywords = {imported}, title = {Optimizing Routes of Public Transportation Systems by Analyzing the Data of Taxi Rides}, year = 2015 }

2.
Kowark, T., Teusner, R., Richly, K., Plattner, H.: RepMine: A System for Transferrable Analyses of Collaboration Activities in Software Engineering In: 2015 Workshop on Software Support for Collaborative and Global Software Engineering, In conjunction with the 30th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (2015)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@conference{Thomas2015a, author = {Kowark, Thomas and Teusner, Ralf and Richly, Keven and Plattner, Hasso}, booktitle = {2015 Workshop on Software Support for Collaborative and Global Software Engineering, In conjunction with the 30th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering}, keywords = {imported}, month = 11, title = {RepMine: A System for Transferrable Analyses of Collaboration Activities in Software Engineering}, year = 2015 }

3.
Teusner, R., Richly, K., Staubitz, T., Renz, J.: Enhancing Content between Iterations of a MOOC – Effects on Key Metrics In: EMOOCs 2015: European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit. pp. 147–156 (2015)
[ Abstract ] [ BibTeX ] [ URL ]
 
This paper presents our findings of a comparison study conducted on three iterations of a MOOC run on our platform openHPI. We present the main facts shared by the courses and the planned as well as occurred differences. Additionally, we discuss the added technical features such as user groups along with the expected and actual outcomes. We relate our experiences from the second and third iteration to those of the first one. Findings show that demand for high quality content endures, even if the topic is rather specialized. Expectations of participants towards online courses are growing in general due to an increasing amount of organizations offering lectures. MOOCs are compared to school lessons, distance education and seminars. As a result, the pressure on platforms is increasing with regards to content, service and reliability. To cope with that, we share best practices and propose promising improvements to the platform and future courses.
@conference{Ralf2015a, abstract = {This paper presents our findings of a comparison study conducted on three iterations of a MOOC run on our platform openHPI. We present the main facts shared by the courses and the planned as well as occurred differences. Additionally, we discuss the added technical features such as user groups along with the expected and actual outcomes. We relate our experiences from the second and third iteration to those of the first one. Findings show that demand for high quality content endures, even if the topic is rather specialized. Expectations of participants towards online courses are growing in general due to an increasing amount of organizations offering lectures. MOOCs are compared to school lessons, distance education and seminars. As a result, the pressure on platforms is increasing with regards to content, service and reliability. To cope with that, we share best practices and propose promising improvements to the platform and future courses.}, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Richly, Keven and Staubitz, Thomas and Renz, Jan}, booktitle = {EMOOCs 2015: Third European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit}, journal = {EMOOCs 2015: European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit}, keywords = {Iterations_MOOCs}, month = 5, number = 1, pages = {147-156}, title = {Enhancing Content between Iterations of a MOOC – Effects on Key Metrics}, volume = 1, year = 2015 }

2014

1.
Haeger, F., Teusner, R.: Scaling Design Thinking - Using a multi-team design thinking workshop to kick start software projects Presented at the , Tel Aviv (2014)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@inproceedings{hager2014scaling, author = {Haeger, Franziska and Teusner, Ralf}, keywords = {imported}, title = {Scaling Design Thinking - Using a multi-team design thinking workshop to kick start software projects}, year = 2014 }

2.
Teusner, R., Perscheid, M., Appeltauer, M., Enderlein, J., Klingbeil, T., Kusber, M.: PopulAid: In-Memory Data Generation for Customized Benchmarks In: Workshop on Big Data Benchmarking (WBDB) (2014)
[ BibTeX ] [ URL ]
 
@conference{Michael2014a, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Perscheid, Michael and Appeltauer, Malte and Enderlein, Jonas and Klingbeil, Thomas and Kusber, Michael}, booktitle = {Workshop on Big Data Benchmarking (WBDB)}, keywords = {imported}, title = {PopulAid: In-Memory Data Generation for Customized Benchmarks}, year = 2014 }

2013

1.
Grünewald, F., Mazandarani, E., Meinel, C., Teusner, R., Totschnig, M., Willems, C.: openHPI: Soziales und Praktisches Lernen im Kontext eines MOOC In: in Proceedings of DeLFI 2013 - 11. e-Learning Fachtagung Informatik (2013)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@conference{Franka2013a, author = {Grünewald, Franka and Mazandarani, Elnaz and Meinel, Christoph and Teusner, Ralf and Totschnig, Michael and Willems, Christian}, booktitle = {in Proceedings of DeLFI 2013 - 11. e-Learning Fachtagung Informatik}, keywords = {imported}, title = {openHPI: Soziales und Praktisches Lernen im Kontext eines MOOC}, year = 2013 }

2.
Grünewald, F., Mazandarani, E., Meinel, C., Teusner, R., Totschnig, M., Willems, C.: openHPI - a Case-Study on the Emergence of two Learning Communities In: EDUCON (2013)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@conference{Franka2013a, author = {Grünewald, Franka and Mazandarani, Elnaz and Meinel, Christoph and Teusner, Ralf and Totschnig, Michael and Willems, Christian}, booktitle = {EDUCON}, keywords = {imported}, title = {openHPI - a Case-Study on the Emergence of two Learning Communities}, year = 2013 }

3.
Teusner, R., Gabrysiak, G., Richter, S., Kleff, S.: Interactive Strategy-Based Validation of Behavioral Models In: GTVMT (2013)
[ BibTeX ]
 
@conference{Ralf2013a, author = {Teusner, Ralf and Gabrysiak, Gregor and Richter, Stefan and Kleff, Stefan}, booktitle = {GTVMT}, keywords = {imported}, title = {Interactive Strategy-Based Validation of Behavioral Models}, year = 2013 }