The rapidly increasing number of Internet of Things devices and the forthcoming arrival of quantum computing is imposing the transition to new quantum-resistant cryptography in constrained-resources devices. However, the energy impact of post-quantum cryptography on wireless sensor networks, critical to battery life and network up-time, remains largely unquantified. In this paper, this gap is addressed by evaluating the energy impact of standardized post-quantum cryptography CRYSTALS-Kyber and FALCON on extreme edge Internet of Things devices. In this work a new energy aware multilevel security framework over Contiki-NG has been developed and tested on extreme edge nodes based on EFR32MG12 Cortex-M4 System-on-Chip. This work provides energy consumption data measured in four different operational scenarios during one-hour experiments, allowing to estimate the impact on battery lifetime for four different battery capacities: 125, 225, 500 and 1000 mAh. The results presented in this work demonstrate that while the highest security level offers post-quantum confidentiality and integrity incurs in measurable costs, leading to a maximum lifetime reduction lower than 1% in the experiments with FALCON being identified as the dominant contributor to energy consumption related to post-quantum cryptography. At intermediate security levels, only post-quantum confidentiality using CRYSTALS-Kyber can be achieved at considerably lower energy costs. This study provides quantitative evidence supporting the feasibility of deploying post-quantum cryptography in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks through a novel energy-aware approach, offering crucial data for designing secure and sustainable quantum-resistant Internet of Things systems.

Escape rooms have evolved from recreational activities to engaging educational tools, combining storytelling, puzzlesolving, and teamwork. Despite their popularity, research on escape rooms remains highly decentralized with no clear focus or pathway. To shed some light on this growing field, this study analyzes 1,051 published articles on escape rooms using natural language processing, specifically keyword analysis and structured topic modeling. Our study addresses four key research questions related to (1) commonly used phrases, (2) research topics, (3) the evolution of these topics, and (4) their interconnections. We identified 24 distinct topics categorized into design and development, field of application, participants, and technology. The analysis reveals an almost exclusive focus on educational applications (>90%), particularly in healthcare and STEM education, highlighting soft skills and practical knowledge development. Based on our findings, we provide a research agenda where we highlight future research opportunities which include expanding research methods, incorporating generative artificial intelligence and easing the barriers to adoption for teachers.

This research-to-practice full paper describes a case study conducted at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Sistemas Informáticos at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, within the subject of Software Engineering Fundamentals. In this study, physical rewards, called MeriCOINs, were introduced as a way to gamify the subject. These rewards were progressively awarded to incentivize students throughout the course. These MeriCOINs were given as prizes within educational games and multiplechoice exam simulations presented as contests through the Wooclap tool. Students could use these MeriCOINs as part of the course process for queue advancement and late submissions. A notable improvement in student motivation and performance was achieved according to the perceptions of both students and teachers. A process for manufacturing and editing MeriCOINs using sustainable and low-cost processes was designed, which not only allow for easy and inexpensive implementation of the rewards but also establish them as a valid educational approach that can be replicated in different courses and contexts.

Despite prior research has shown several benefits of game-based and video-based learning and has compared these methodologies versus traditional instruction, little work has been done to compare their usefulness, especially in online education settings. This paper examines and compares the usefulness of game-based learning using educational video games and video-based learning for teaching software engineering in online environments. The design of this research is quasi-experimental, involving a control and an experimental group. A total of 193 software engineering students participated in this research, 45 in the control group and 148 in the experimental group. Both groups took a lesson about software design, but the students in the control group learned through online video-based learning, whereas their counterparts in the experimental group learned through online game-based learning. A survey was used to collect students' perceptions and pre- and post-tests were used to measure acquired knowledge. The results indicate that both learning methodologies were found to be beneficial for student learning and that online game-based learning outperformed online video-based learning in terms of students' perceptions.

Contests have long been used in computer science education to address themes such as artificial intelligence, video games, cybersecurity, computer programing, or robotics. However, the organization of these contests usually require a lot of resources and are very focused on a specific topic. Furthermore, there are a wide variety of gamification techniques that can complement traditional teaching activities such as points, badges, leaderboards and rewards. Prior research suggests that computer science students especially welcome these techniques, which represents a good opportunity for computer science educators. This paper presents a novel gamified learning activity that serves students to review the concepts they have learned throughout a computer science course. The activity has a contest format and makes use of multiple gamification techniques. The designed contest is performed face-to-face and uses points, leaderboards, and awards as gamification techniques. Specifically, the contest employs the dot-voting technique to collect students' votes and uses stickers and 3D-printed trophies as awards. The trophies were designed through the Tinkercad tool and printed by using the Ultimaker S3 3D printer. Moreover, an essential element of the contest that enhances its ludic aspect is that it is based on the usage of memes, which are audiovisual elements that represent in a funny way the ideas, thoughts or feelings of some people about a certain topic. The contest can be easily replicated and can address concepts related to any computer science course. The empirical validation of the contest was performed during two academic years with 72 computer science students of a database administration course. The obtained results, gathered through a survey, indicate that the perception of the participants about the contest was very positive. The students indicated that the activity helped them to reinforce their knowledge of the course and that it was extremely fun and motivating. Indeed, some students defined the learning experience as unforgettable.

The research on empirical software engineering that uses qualitative data analysis is increasing. However, most of them do not deepen into the validity of the findings, specifically in the reliability of coding in which these methodologies rely on. This paper aims to establish a novel theoretical framework that enables a methodological approach for conducting this validity analysis through Inter-Coder Agreement (ICA), based on the use of coefficients to measure the degree of agreement in collaborative coding. We systematically review several existing variants of Krippendorff’s α coefficients and provide a novel common mathematical framework to unify them. Finally, this paper illustrates the use of this theoretical framework in a large case study on DevOps culture. We expect that this work will help researchers who are committed to measuring consensus with quantitative techniques in collaborative coding, conducted as part of a qualitative research, to improve the rigor of their findings.

Today, there is a great variety of learning techniques and methodologies: traditional lectures, role-plays, group dynamics, project-based learning, simulations, educational games, and so on. Regarding technology-enhanced learning, the educational usage of virtual reality is innovative and the initiatives carried out suggest that this technology is an appealing medium for young people that facilitates an active and effective teaching. On the other hand, agile methodologies are widely spread across the IT industry and it is necessary to look for the best techniques to learn them in the most appropriate way. This contribution presents a virtual reality serious video game, named ScrumVR, which aims to teach the key aspects of the most widespread agile methodology for software development: Scrum. To do so, this video game tries to gets players closer to their first weeks of work within a Scrum team. The empirical results, gathered through a case study conducted with 78 software engineering students and supported by instruments, such as prepost tests and questionnaires, indicate that ScrumVR facilitates the learning of the roles, meetings, artifacts, and practices employed in Scrum, and contributes to enhance student's motivation and the whole learning experience.

Context: DevOps can be defined as a cultural movement to improve and accelerate the delivery of business value by making the collaboration between development and operations effective.Objective: This paper aims to help practitioners and researchers to better understand the organizational structure and characteristics of teams adopting DevOps.Method: We conducted an exploratory study by leveraging in-depth, semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders of 31 multinational software-intensive companies, together with industrial workshops and observations at organizations’ facilities that supported triangulation. We used Grounded Theory as qualitative research method to explore the structure and characteristics of teams, and statistical analysis to discover their implications in software delivery performance.Results: We describe a taxonomy of team structures that shows emerging, stable and consolidated product teams that are classified according to six variables, such as collaboration frequency, product ownership sharing, and autonomy, among others, as well as their implications on software delivery performance. These teams are often supported by horizontal teams (DevOps platform teams, Centers of Excellence, and chapters) that provide them with platform technical capabilities, mentoring and evangelization, and even temporarily may facilitate human resources.Conclusion: This study aims to strengthen evidence and support practitioners in making better informed about organizational team structures by analyzing their main characteristics and implications in software delivery performance.

DevOps is becoming a main competency required by the software industry. However, academic institutions have been slow to provide DevOps training in software engineering (SE) curricula. One reason for this is the fact that the problems addressed by DevOps may be hard to understand to students who have not previously worked in the industry or on projects of meaningful size and complexity. This paper shows an experience that integrates DevOps in SE curricula through research-based teaching (RBT). We aim to expose students to the problems that have led companies to adopt DevOps by researching and analyzing real cases of companies, thereby placing students at the center of learning. The contribution of this work is to innovate the application of RBT in software engineering by showing that the RBT approach is, at least, as good as the traditional approach and that it also leads to some extra benefits. This innovative solution has been implemented by using (i) qualitative analysis, specifically coding techniques, to discover knowledge and (ii) inter-coder agreement (ICA), specifically Krippendorff’s$\alpha$coefficients, to measure the extent of students’ learning. These techniques allow teachers to determine whether students’ learning in the subject is homogeneous and to analyze disagreements among students during their analysis. This approach provides teachers with new tools (Krippendorff’s$\alpha$coefficients) to identify those concepts that are less understood by students and to evaluate whether improvements in the research instruments (e.g., the codebook used in the qualitative analysis) also generate improvements in the students’ agreement. This RBT experience shows evidence that can be used to assess whether a similar experience and the use of ICA could be applied in similar learning contexts with similar research contexts.

The academic performance of students is affected by the academic context, their aptitudes and their motivation. The latter is particularly important in Engineering disciplines because the contents to be learnt are especially complex and many students end up having a low performance that leads them to absenteeism and drop out. The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) provides several recommendations related to the academic context (ongoing assessment, mentoring processes and active learning methods among others) that seem to have a positive impact on the students' motivation. However, these cannot always be implemented due to the high number of students per class existing at many Universities. This contribution presents an empirical case study performed with 149 Computer Science students of a University organized around small groups and innovative educational methodologies. The benefits and outcomes of this academic conditions, as well as their impact in the students' motivation, are analyzed and discussed.

The academic performance of students is affected by the academic context, their aptitudes and their motivation. The latter is particularly important in Engineering disciplines because the contents to be learnt are especially complex and many students end up having a low performance that leads them to absenteeism and drop out. The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) provides several recommendations related to the academic context (ongoing assessment, mentoring processes and active learning methods among others) that seem to have a positive impact on the students’ motivation. However, these cannot always be implemented due to the high number of students per class existing at many Universities. This contribution presents an empirical case study performed with 149 Computer Science students of a University organized around small groups and innovative educational methodologies. The benefits and outcomes of this academic conditions, as well as their impact in the students’ motivation, are analyzed and discussed.

This Research Full Paper presents an empirical study about the motivation of Computer Science Engineering students. It is well known that student́s performance is affected by the academic conditions of the students, as well as their aptitudes and motivation. In the case of Engineering disciplines, motivation is particularly critical because the difficulty of Engineering degrees. It can lead to low levels of effectiveness and motivation, resulting in high rates of absenteeism and dropout. Therefore, it is important to reach a complete understanding of Engineering students' motivation and to draw strategies to boost it. This paper presents a case study performed with 78 Computer Science Engineering students of the Technical University of Madrid. This experience allows to analyze empirically student́s motivation and to establish learning recommendations to encourage it, as well as to compare motivational differences between students from different courses.

The development of transversal competences is widely recognized as one of the key elements in Engineering Education. It is essential to complement the technical training of engineers with other soft skills like self-motivation, communication or teamwork due to their great importance in the student's learning process as well as in the student's career. Thus, it is necessary to work up in resources and technologies focused in the assessment and development of transversal skills. Moreover, as the EHEA context emphasizes the autonomous learning of students, these resources and technologies should be focused in the student side. This paper presents the definition of a theoretical model of transversal skills. Also, it is introduced an ecosystem of resources and technologies that allow engineering students the self-assessment and the self-development of their transversal competences. Right now, the validation of these outcomes is starting to be conducted with engineering students from different universities.

Motivation is a critical factor in the academic performance, especially in the EHEA context, where the active learning must be promoted. In the case of engineering education, it is particularly necessary to care the student motivation by several reasons. The difficulty of engineering degrees can hinder the motivation of students and it can affect the high levels of absenteeism and dropping out. Thus, it is important to work up frameworks to evaluate and enhance, in addition to technical competences, other competences such as motivation. This paper presents the definition of a motivational framework composed by several instruments, resources, mechanisms and technologies. It allows teachers and academic institutions to evaluate and enhance the motivation of their students. But the most innovative characteristic of the framework lies in the student side; it also allows students to self-evaluate and enhance their motivation by performing questionnaires, recommendations and complementary training activities. In order to validate the proposed solutions, a case study has been successfully performed with 152 students of the Technical University of Madrid. The empirical experience has enabled to confirm the usefulness of the provided framework and to explore motivational aspects related with the engineering education.