UKICER 2023

The UK and Ireland Computing Education Research (UKICER) conference, of the UK Chapter of the ACM Special Interest Group in Computing Science Education (SIGCSE), is emerging as one of the leading forums for researchers and practitioners to meet and share advances in computing science education.

We are a diverse and inclusive community bringing together researchers, academics, industry practitioners and teachers from across the UK and Ireland as well as from the rest of Europe and the wider world.

The conference takes place in-person on Thursday 7th of September 2023 and Friday 8th of September 2023 in Swansea, Wales.

Announcements

UKICER 2023 Invited Speakers

Marie Devlin

Marie Devlin is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University where she serves as Deputy Head of the School of Computing. Her research areas include Methods for Assessing Software Engineering Competency; Technology-Enhanced Learning in Computer Science Education; and Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education (including Metacognition, Peer Assessment and Ipsative Assessment).

Tom Crick

Tom Crick is Professor of Digital Education and Policy at Swansea University, where he also serves as Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Civic Mission. His research interests sit at the research/policy interface with a focus on citizen-centred approaches and impact: CS/STEM/digital education, education policy, AI, data science, science and innovation policy, and skills/infrastructure of the digital/data economy. He has led the major science and technology curriculum reforms in Wales over the past decade, culminating in the new Curriculum for Wales which is phasing in from September 2022. He is currently an elected Member-at-Large of ACM Council, and has previously been a Vice-President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Conference Programme

The conference programme is available below and is available to download in PDF format.

Version 1 - 04/08/2023

Version 2 — 10/08/2023

Version 2.1 — 10/08/2023

Version 3 — 29/08/2023

Version 3.1 — 29/08/2023

Version 4 — 05/09/2023

Please note that this will be subject to change and we will update the version number

Click to download programme

Click to download poster list (note posters are split over two days)

All rooms in Margam Building, Singleton Campus.

Day 1: Thursday 7th September

Time Session Name Room
08:30 Registration Arrival and Registration
Coffee available from 10:30 and throughout the morning		 Refreshments Room (317)
09:00 DC Doctoral Consortium

Adaptive Formative Assessment For Teaching Novices in Introductory Programming
Author: Jagadeeswaran Thangaraj

Improving the Teaching and Learning of Debugging in Secondary Schools
Author: Laurie Gale

Designing Solutions to support a new Generation of PG Computer Science Students: A Co-Participatory Approach
Author: Victor Ayodele

Are you ready to teach AI in Schools? Teachers' perspectives of teaching AI in K-12 settings
Author: Salomey Addo

Session chairs: Quintin Cutts, Neil Brown		 Room A (200)
RIPPA Research in Practice Project Activity
Evaluating the Sense of Belonging of Undergraduate Computing Students in the UK and Ireland


Session chairs: Catherine Mooney, Fiona McNeill, and Brett Becker		 Room B (314)
WiP Works in Progress (WiP) Workshop

From Tacit to Explicit: Surfacing Awareness of Embodied Competence in Computer Science Education
Author: Julian Brooks

An investigation of STEM decolonising activity within UK Higher Education Institutions
Authors: Kate Feliciello, Amaninder Singh and Zoe Tompkins

A new search for the heart of CompSci. What does this mean for education, and so for CSEdR?
Author: Steve Draper

Invisible pointers considered harmful
Author: Jeremy Singer

Session chairs: Sally Fincher and Joseph Maguire		 Room C (214)
12:00 Opening Welcome and opening remarks

Speaker: Faron Moller		 Main Room (314)
12:15 Keynote Keynote Speaker Marie Devlin: "Subject to Change: A Computing Education Research Journey".

Chair: Troy Astarte		 Main Room (314)
13:00 Break Lunch Refreshments Room (317)
13:45 Paper Session 1: Tools No More Pencils No More Books: Capabilities of Generative AI on Irish and UK Computer Science School Leaving Examinations
Authors: Joyce Mahon, Brian Mac Namee and Brett Becker

Quick Fixes for novice programmers: effective but under-utilised
Authors: Neil Brown, Jamie Ford, Pierre Weill-Tessier and Michael Kölling



Systematic Review of UML Diagramming Software Tools for Higher Education Software Engineering Courses
Authors: Yuting Lu and Cristina Adriana Alexandru

Session Chair: Olga Petrovska		 Main Room (314)
15:15 Short Presentations from the attendees of the Doctoral Consortium

Session Chairs: Quintin Cutts and Neil Brown		 Refreshments room (317)
15:30 Posters and Coffee Numbers of posters selected for this session: 4, 5, 8, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18 (+ additional posters from DC participants tbc)

Session Chairs: Liam O'Reilly and Troy Astarte		 Refreshments Room (317)
16:00 Paper Session 2: Early Education 1 Algorithmic Abstraction in Computer Science Curricula for Primary Schools: The Case of a National Curriculum for 4th Grade
Authors: Mor Friebroon-Yesharim, Michal Armoni and Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy

Engaging primary (K-5) computing teachers in culturally relevant pedagogy through professional development
Authors: Hayley Leonard, Katharine Childs, Jane Waite, Robert Whyte and Sue Sentance

Session Chair: Keith Quille		 Main Room (314)
17:00 Close of first day Room A (200)
18:15 Banquet Leave for banquet (Coach pickup point outside Fulton House).

Day 2: Friday 8th September

Time Session Name Room
09:00 Keynote Keynote Speaker Tom Crick: Developing Digitally Engaged, Data Savvy and Computationally Literate Learners (and Citizens): Reflections from Wales

Chair: Faron Moller		 Main Room (314)
09:30 Paper Session 3: Early Education 2 Investigating the Attitudes and Emotions of K-12 Students Towards Debugging

Author: Laurie Gale and Sue Sentance

On Teaching Abstraction in Computer Science: Secondary-School Teachers’ Perceptions vs. Practices

Authors: Liat Nakar and Michal Armoni


Session Chair: Lee Clift		 Main Room (314)
10:30 Posters and Coffee Numbers of posters selected for this session: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16

Session Chairs: Liam O'Reilly and Troy Astarte		 Refreshments Room (317)
11:00 Paper Session 4: Development Exploring the Interplay of Achievement Goals, Self-Efficacy, Prior Experience and Course Achievement
Authors: Hannu Pesonen, Juho Leinonen, Lassi Haaranen and Arto Hellas

The Institute of Coding Accreditation Standard: Exploring the Use of a Professional Skills Framework to Address the UK Skills Gap
Authors: David Bowers, Alan Hayes, Tom Prickett, Tom Crick, Kevin Streater and Chris Sharp



A module-agnostic reference software development process for different levels of higher-education study
Authors: Carlos Da Silva and Jack Carey

Session Chair: Casey Hopkins		 Main Room (314)
12:30 Break Lunch Refreshments Room (317)
13:15 Workshop Workshop: Futurespective on Educational Technology Use in Computer Science Higher Education
Emma Anderson, Tom Prickett, Tom Crick, Ian Watson, Christina Vasiliou and Neeranjan Chitare		 Main Room (314)
13:15 Guided Tour The Swansea University History of Computing Collection as an Educational Tool
Troy Astarte, John Tucker		 HoCC (217-218)
14:45 Closing Closing Remarks
Organisers and chairs		 Main Room (314)

Registration

Register now for UKICER 2023 here. Below are the registration dates:

  • Early Registration ends 8th August 2023 @ 11pm UK Time
    • Chapter Member Early Registration - £125
    • Student Member Early Registration - £70
    • Non Member Early Registration - £140
    • Student Non Member Early Registration - £90
  • Late Registration from 8th August 2023
    • Chapter Member Late Registration - £175
    • Student Member Late Registration - £175
    • Non Member Late Registration - £175
    • Student Non Member Late Registration - £175
  • Optional Banquet Thursday evening - £65 (no more places available)

Local accommodation

Some suggested local hotels with an easy bus connection to the conference venue are:

Venue

Swansea University Park Campus

UKICER 2023 will take place in the University's Margam Building, Singleton Park Campus, Sketty, Swansea SA2 8PP

Important Dates

There are several important dates for the United Kingdom and Ireland Computing Education Research conference.

Paper submissions

Milestone Date and Time
Call for Participation Friday, March 3, 2023.
Abstracts
(250 words)

Sunday May 28, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).

Full papers

Tuesday, June 6, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).
Notification of paper acceptance

Sunday, July 2, 2023.
Final camera ready paper submission

Sunday, July 30, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12)

Workshop proposals, Poster abstracts, RIPPA and Doctoral Consortium applications

Milestone Date and Time
Call for Participation Friday, March 3, 2023.
Workshop Proposal

Friday, June 2, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).
RIPPA

Friday, July 21, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).
Doctoral Consortium application

Friday, June 16, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).
Poster abstract

Monday, July 10, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).
Works-in-Progress (WiP)

Friday, June 23 July 21, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12).
Notification of WiP acceptance

Monday, June 30 July 28, 2023.
Notification of workshop acceptance

Monday, July 3, 2023.
Notification of RIPPA acceptance

Tuesday, July 25, 2023.

Notification of Doctoral Consortium participation

Saturday, July 1, 2023.
Final camera ready workshop proposal submission

Sunday, July 30, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12)
Final camera ready RIPPA submission

Friday, July 28, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12)
Final camera ready Doctoral Consortium one-page abstract

Sunday, July 30, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12)
Notification of poster acceptance

Friday, July 21, 2023.
Final camera ready poster submission

Sunday, July 30, 2023, anywhere on Earth (UTC-12)

Review process

Milestone Date and Time
Review process commences

Sunday, May 28, 2023.

Paper bidding commences

Sunday, May 28, 2023.

Paper bidding completes

Friday, June 2, 2023
Allocation

Tuesday, June 6, 2023.
Reviews due

Sunday, June 18, 2023.
Discussion commences

Monday, June 19, 2023.
Discussion completes

Sunday, June 25, 2023.
Notification of paper acceptance

Sunday, July 2, 2023.

Conference Schedule

Milestone Date and Time
UKICER Conference Thursday, September 7 - Friday September 8, 2023.

Committees

General Chairs

Programme Chairs

Doctoral Consortium

Posters chair

WiP workshop chairs

  • Sally Fincher, University of Kent
  • Joseph Maguire, University of Glasgow

RIPPA chairs

Workshops chairs

Programme Committee

  • Brett Becker, University College Dublin
  • Steven Bradley, Durham University
  • Neil Brown, King's College London
  • Jake Byrne, Trinity College Dublin
  • Janet Carter, University of Kent
  • Tom Crick, Swansea University
  • Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London
  • Paul Dempster, Lancaster University
  • Marie Devlin, Newcastle University
  • Rodrigo Duran, IFMS
  • Rosanne English, University of Strathclyde
  • Tristan Henderson, University of St Andrews
  • Duncan Hull, The University of Manchester
  • Peter Kemp, King's College London
  • Joseph Maguire, University of Glasgow
  • Mark Noone, Maynooth University
  • Keith Quille, TU Dublin
  • Sean Russell, University College Dublin
  • Sue Sentance, Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre
  • Ian Utting, University of Kent
  • Jane Waite, Queen Mary University of London
  • Michel Wermelinger, The Open University

Local Organising Committee

Supporters

UK and Ireland Special Interest Group in Computing Science Education ACM Chapter Logo Technocamps & IoC Logo

Organisation

Swansea University