COMPSCI 747 — Computing Education
Assignment One
Literature Review
Semester 1, 2023
Introduction
This assignment is completed in groups. For this assignment, you will form a group based
on topics of interest, conduct a survey of literature on a Computing Education topic, write
a group report on the literature you have reviewed, and present your findings in a recorded
video that will be played to the class. Additionally, you will be expected to review and
provide feedback about the group reports authored by other students.
You should aim to select your topic and form groups by the end of the first week of the
course.
You will be provided with one or two papers to help you get started. In addition to reading
these papers, and looking at the references they cite, you should also run keyword searches
using the main library databases (such as the ACM Digital Library and IEEE explore).
For each article returned by your search, you should quickly scan the title and abstract to
determine its relevance. Once you find some relevant articles, read the entire article (making
notes as you read) and then use the references from the article to find other relevant literature.
A typical literature review will have around 15 – 30 articles relevant to the topic you have
chosen.
When you write up the survey of the literature, as well as summarising the content of the
papers you have read, you are expected to look at the papers critically for what has been
done well, what could be improved, what the major contributions are, and especially the
validity of the conclusions. Try to organise (synthesize) the results so they can be explained
clearly and so that your review offers something new, over and above the collection of articles
you have found.
Group Report (35%)
The literature review should be approximately 6-8 pages of formatted text (excluding refer-
ences). The report should be formatted according to the standard ACM SIGCSE template
for conference proceedings1.
1https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template
1
You are expected to use LaTeX to format your document. If you are using Overleaf to author
your report (which we strongly recommend), then you should use the ACM Conference
Proceedings template2.
What to hand in
Submit your report through Canvas. The report should include:
• A clear statement of the purpose of the literature review. What is it that you are
reviewing and why?
• A narrative structure. What is the overall story that the literature tells you about this
topic?
• A descriptive account of the various research studies in the area and how they have
contributed to the field.
• Some analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of individual papers
• Some synthesis of the different papers – how are they related? What gaps do they
reveal?
• A conclusion that summarizes the main findings that have arisen through the review
process.
You will also be asked to submit a short reflection about the contribution of each of your
group members.
Marking criteria
The assignment will be assessed using the following criteria:
• Introduction that provides the background and motivation for the topic, and a conclu-
sion that summarizes the main findings from the research literature
• Narrative structure that links the various paragraphs together into a coherent whole
• Critical analysis of the existing research
• Some kind of synthesis – pulling together related work and organising the findings in
some way that helps make the work clearer
• Claims are justified with reference to the literature
• References are appropriately chosen and sufficient to convey important work
• Clarity and correctness of language
• Formatting and reference style
The literature review report is worth 35% of your final grade. Please check Canvas for the
due dates.
2https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/association-for-computing-machinery-acm-sig-proceedings-
template/bmvfhcdnxfty
2
Individual Peer Review (5%)
You are expected to conduct an formal peer review of the reports submitted by your peers.
This review is completed individually.
The comments you provide to your peers should be critical and constructive. Try to identify
both strengths and weaknesses in the reports that you review. Although the feedback you
provide should be helpful for the recipients, the marks you allocate will not be used to
determine the grade for the recipients’ report. You will be allocated 3 group reports to
review and should aim to write 1-2 pages of feedback for each report.
The marks for the peer review component of the assignment are awarded for the quality of
your review. You will be graded on the level of detail and the constructive criticism that you
provide. Higher marks are awarded for feedback that might be used to improve the report
of the group you are reviewing.
What to hand in
• You will be shown how to submit the peer reviews in class.
Marking criteria
The peer review reports you produce will be assessed using the following criteria:
• Strengths have been identified and clearly communicated
• Weaknesses have been identified and clearly communicated
• Constructive suggestions for improvement are provided
• Clear and appropriate use of language, grammar, spelling
The peer reviews are worth 5% of your final grade. Please check Canvas for the due dates.
Seminar (5%)
Your group will record a 8–10 minute presentation about your literature review (no more
than 10 minutes), and the recording will be played to the class.
The presentation should describe the motivation for conducting the review, give an overview
of the papers (i.e., a summary of the number of papers reviewed and high level summary), and
should synthesize the findings from the literature review. You should finish your presentation
with a clear summary of the main findings from the literature.
Pay attention to how you aggregate the findings and communicate those findings to the
audience. Consider how you might use tables or charts to help communicate the relationship
between papers effectively.
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Each member of the group should present some of the content of the seminar.
What to hand in
• A recorded 8–10 minute presentation in video format
• The slides used for the presentation in PDF or PPTX format (or similar)
Marking criteria
Your presentation will be assessed using the following criteria:
• Clear motivation explaining the impact and importance of the topic
• Overall narrative structure, linking between slides and sections
• Clarity of content
• Quality and formatting of text and images
• Presentation skills
The presentation is worth 5% of your final grade. Please check Canvas for the due dates.
Future use of your material
In this course, we often provide examples of work produced by students in past courses. We
would like the opportunity to share your submitted work with students in future courses
where appropriate. As such we seek your permission to use your work for educational
purposes in the future. Your grade for the assignment will not be affected regardless of
whether or not permission is given.
Please include one of the following statements at the end of the assignment:
• We give permission for this assignment to be used in future for educational purposes.
OR:
• We do NOT give permission for this assignment to be used in future for educational
purposes.