Research and Projects

Gender Issues and Confidence in Computing Capabilities

There are many programs and initiatives worldwide to inspire enthusiasm for technology and computing science. However, still a lot of them seem to attract boys rather than girls. Furthermore, despite the intensive promotion of technology, there is still room for improvement. At our department, we are thus taking a closer look at gender-appropriate materials and interventions (project “Gender-meets-Informatics”) and conduct fundamental research in the field of personality, self-esteem, self-concept and general interests (project “KAUA”).

Quality and Maturity of Teaching Interventions

At our department, we are involved in developing teaching units for pupils at all age levels, and we also work closely together with teachers and pedagogues and help them in improving their lectures and interventions.  Within this setting, we are interested in assessing the quality of teaching units by calculating their maturity levels and deriving recommendations (project “TeaM Model”), and we also investigate the effects of interventions and curricula on the perception of Computing Science and personal skills (project “KAUA”).

Computational Thinking and Basic Digital Education

When reflecting on cultural techniques, we primarily think of the cognitively most fundamental cultural techniques reading, writing and arithmetic, and of its lengthy and laborious acquisition in dedicated school-subjects.  But, in our increasingly digitally penetrated culture there are demands for extended skills and competences as widely elaborated in the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens. At our department, we take a closer look at the real competencies needed at the different age groups, analyze the quality of existing competence models (project “GECKO”) and also actively work on interventions introducing computing science, ICT and computational thinking from the elementary level up to the university level (e.g. projects “Biber Elementar”, “Informatik-im-Park”, “IT-SG” and “Informatik-Werkstatt”)

Software Engineering Education

Software Engineering education has to account for a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills software engineers will be required to apply throughout their professional life. Covering all the topics in depth within a university or even school setting is infeasible due to curricular constraints as well as due to the inherent differences between educational institutions and the actual workplace of individual graduates. Thus, our department works on strategies in improving software engineering skills at University and school level (e.g. projects “AMEISE” or “SeqTrex”) and it also actively contributes to curricula and standards developing those skills needed by the current and future generations.