Contribution: In this work-in-progress paper we describe the process of creating and validating a conceptual assessment in the field of sedimentology for undergraduate geoscience courses. The mechanism can aid future geoscience educators and researchers in the process of academic assessment development aligned with learning objectives in these courses. Background: Prior literature review supports the benefits of using active learning tools in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses. This paper is part of a larger project to develop and incorporate research-based active learning software in sedimentology and other geoscience courses to improve grade point average (GPA) and time to graduation for Hispanic students at Texas A&M University. To evaluate the novel tool, we designed and validated the conceptual assessment instrument presented in this work. Research Question: What is the process to develop and validate a conceptual assessment for sedimentology? Methodology: This paper follows quantitative analysis and the assessment triangle approach and focuses on cognition, observation, and interpretation to design and evaluate the conceptual assessment. In the cognition element of the triangle, we explain the mechanism for creating the assessment instrument using students' learning objectives. The observation element explains the mechanism of data collection and the instrument revision. The interpretation element explains the results of the validation process using item response theory and reliability measures. We collected the conceptual assessment data from 17 participants enrolled in two courses where sedimentology topics are taught. Participants were geology majors in one of the courses and engineering majors in the other. Findings: The team developed a conceptual assessment that included eight multiple-choice (MCQ) and four open-ended response questions. The results of the design process described the conceptualization of questions and their validation. Also, the validity of created rubrics was established using inter-rater reliability measures, which showed good agreement between raters. Additionally, the results of the validation process indicated that the conceptual assessment was designed for students with average abilities.

Contribution: This research full paper, using a systematic review, explores factors that motivate students to learn programming. This synthesized literature explains students' motivation, which will help refine educational approaches. Background: In today's technological innovation landscape, learning to program is a fundamental skill and no longer bounded by discipline or majors at college. Students need to have foundational knowledge in at least one programming language. To thrive in this digital era, it is crucial for educational institutions to not only teach computer literacy but also inspire a genuine passion for programming among students. However, what effectively motivates students for such endeavors is a challenge, especially in conceptually hard concepts of programming courses. To address the challenge, it is important to synthesize what has already been done and how instructors have nurtured their students' interests. Research Question: The research question that guides the study is: What factors motivate students to learn programming? Methodology: To uncover these factors, we collected data from two databases, ACM Digital Library and Education Source, and found one hundred and thirty-four (134) studies. We filtered one hundred and eight (108) studies using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. This systematic review presents the analysis conducted using twenty-six (26) studies. We used qualitative content analysis to identify the factors influencing students' motivation. Findings: We categorized the studies into three themes: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and social cognition. This full paper provides an understanding of each theme and the results of the studies to explain the factors of students' motivation when learning programming. We believe that this synthesized literature will help educators refine their educational approaches to nurture and keep students motivated in programming courses.

Contribution: The American dream leads many immigrants to transfer from many countries to the United States of America in hopes of better education, jobs, and resources. United States of America is known for its opportunities, ambitions, and adventurous possibilities. However, besides the American dream, the land poses many challenges to all international immigrants, specifically students and faculty members, who work hard to find their place in society and culture. Background: This research paper contributes to understanding the immigrant experience through Sasha's story. This is worth telling and reading as her perspectives are unique due to her identity as a Christian minority from India, a woman of color, a first-generation engineering student, and an international student, teacher, and researcher with no existing connection or community support in the United States. Besides the unique aspects, these experiences may provide many accounts shared in many other journeys that often remain unheard and unseen. This paper presents a story highlighting some aspects of this journey using a lived narrative experience of a South-Asian girl, Sasha (pseudonym). This paper is an inspirational story of a young girl who journeys from a large south-Asian country to the United States to find opportunities and her place. This narrative describes her ambitions, resilience, and perseverance in three roles: student, teaching track professor, and researcher. The story weaves her inspirations, motivations, challenges, and mitigation in all these roles. Research Questions: The paper addresses two research questions: 1) What are Sasha's main challenges as a woman of color, graduate student, instructor, researcher, and professor? 2) From Sasha's perspective, what has helped Sasha overcome these challenges? Methodology: The paper uses Sasha's recorded self-reflections as the main accounts of her story. She maintained regular journals of her journey, and they will be the primary source of data for this study. In her journals, Sasha expressed her emotions, struggles, issues, mitigation, and coping strategies. She also expressed and celebrated her successes during the entire journey. Findings: Using Sasha's reflections and the following narrative inquiry, we will present this journey to new faculty and researchers so they can relate to and adapt to her success, struggles, and emotions.

Contribution: This study offers an analysis of cybersecurity for continuing advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). Specifically, we synthesized the literature and highlighted the possible cybersecurity risks and ethical concerns associated with advancements in AI. Background: Recent advancements in AI have implicated various risks and ethical concerns regarding cybersecurity. Prior literature studies have highlighted a plethora of these issues. We have conducted a systematic review to analyze the issues presented in the prior literature. Analyzing the issues presented has allowed us to answer one research question. Research Question: Our study answered one research question: Given the continuous advancements in artificial intelligence, what are cybersecurity's potential risks and ethical concerns? Methodology: We utilized the IEEE Xplore database to answer the research question. After setting the search criteria to journal articles posted between 2019 and 2024, we found 67 articles relevant to our keywords. After screening, we finalized 16 articles to address our research question. The articles selected were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Articles were then categorized into three different themes: (1) social engineering, (2) misinformation and fake news, and (3) hacking. Findings: Our findings indicate that researchers have informed us about the malicious use of AI in cybersecurity by classifying attacks into three themes. These themes indicate the manner of attack. Furthermore, we find that the major risks and ethical concerns regarding the application of AI in cybersecurity relate to the preservation of privacy. As the field of artificial intelligence continues to grow, we see that it is imperative to continue monitoring the safety of this technology. For researchers to serve the public, future work should aim to translate technical terminology into more digestible phrases for those not knowledgeable in the field.

The multi-modal approach for conducting education research is gaining traction among the engineering and computing education disciplines. This panel aims to introduce this novel and emergent approach to answering important research questions related to engineering and computing education. Additionally, the panelists will share their personal experiences on how they have incorporated a multi-modal approach for their research. The panelists will also share the best practices and common mistakes researchers could make using this methodology.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines are constantly threatened by lower student enrollment and considerable university dropout. According to national surveys, 60% of college students who enter STEM majors drop out. Among many other reasons, the students reported the misalignment of three components: content, assessment, and pedagogy in the courses. Most students indicate that in the STEM courses, they were tested for something not taught or discussed in class, causing difficulty in understanding the subjects. It is noteworthy that designing a course curriculum can be difficult for many instructors as most instructors in STEM are not trained for teaching but are experts in content knowledge. Because of this limitation, the need for alignment between course content, assessment, and pedagogy is often overlooked. While many educational tools are used for disseminating content and assessment, there is a need for tools that can systematically educate instructors on curriculum design and alignment between the three components. We are developing an educational technology tool called Educators Guidebook for Understanding Instruction by Design and Experience (EdGUIDE). At the prototype stage, EdGUIDE is an educational web-based tool designed to provide easy-to-follow, systematic steps to guide instructors in designing their courses using a backward design process. We hypothesize that these steps and education material will help the instructors view the alignment between the course components from the beginning to execution. In the prototype, EdGUIDE assists the instructors in the thinking process for determining the importance of content topics in their courses. Specifically, it aids in designing learning objectives, aligning learning objectives with the course content, mapping learning objectives on Bloom's Taxonomy, and arranging them by content importance. This study examined the usability and effectiveness of the educational tool's prototype. We interviewed eight participants with varying experience in course design and introduced the tool. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we identified the strengths and weaknesses and suggested improvements for the application. The paper shares participants' perspectives and highlights how the application design may proceed toward full application.

The ICAP framework classifies learning into four levels based on students' cognitive engagement with the course materials. These levels are Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive. The built-in hypothesis within the framework suggests that Interactive activities may generate better learning and engagement than Constructive activities, which may generate better outcomes than Active activities, which in turn may generate better results than Passive activities. Prior literature has focused on the impact of ICAP learning modes on student engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes. Most of these studies were conducted in either lab settings or for testing a section of the hypothesis. Although ICAP provides a baseline to determine the nature of class activities, literature is scarce on studies that use the framework. Considering this gap, for this study, we specifically selected a class where the instructor conducted lectures using active learning-based instructional activities. Considering that the instructor's perspective may differ from students' perspective, we use the validated survey instrument Student Response to Instructional Practices (StRIP) to examine how students perceive the instructional activities in class. Also, this study focuses on the impact of the Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive components of ICAP on students' positivity, participation, and the value they derive from course materials. More specifically, the study answers two research questions: 1) How did students perceive the frequency of the different instructional activities (interactive, constructive, active, or passive) in class? and 2) How did the instructional activities relate to students' positivity, participation, and perceived value of the activities? We collected the data from a systems analysis and design course at a large Midwestern University. Eighty-eight students voluntarily participated in the end-of-semester survey. Data were collected for students' responses to instruction for each activity type, the value of class activities, degree of participation, and their positivity towards the class. Using the averages of students' responses to instructional activities, we calculated the Pearson bi-variate correlations between students' perceptions about activities and their participation, attitude, and value. Additionally, we used multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between instructional activities and students' positivity, participation, and value of learning. In this paper, we explain the results of these analyses and describe the degree to which students' perspectives resonated with the instructor's perspective. The study's findings provide unique insight into students' perceived use of the various instructional activities in the class. Also, the study provides a preliminary way to use the ICAP framework for examining the nature of class as active or passive and the effect of such class designs on students' behaviors.

This study explored the effectiveness of scaffolding in students' reflection writing process. We compared two sections of an introductory computer programming course$(\mathrm{N}=188)$. In Section 1, students did not receive any scaffolding while generating reflections, whereas, in Section 2, students were scaffolded during the reflection writing process. Student reflections were collected using two versions of the CourseMIRROR application (standard version in Section 1 and adaptive version in Section 2). By using Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms, the app calculated a reflection specificity score for each reflection. We conducted an independent sample t-test between the students' reflection specificity scores in these two sections. The results indicated that students using adaptive versions wrote more specific reflections than students using the standard version of the app, suggesting that scaffolding helped students write more specific reflections, which may be helpful in their overall learning outcomes in an introductory computer programming course.

In this work-in-progress paper we explored the effect of active learning software FossilSketch, and variations in learning modes on Hispanic students' learning. Our institutional data showed that Hispanic students have consistently lower GPAs at graduation, and their average grades are lower across all geological courses, compared to all other ethnicities. However, in 2021, when students were in hybrid learning mode, we observe improvement in grades across all geological courses for Hispanic students. FossilSketch is an educational software application for teaching undergraduate micropaleontology, introduced at the University starting in 2021. Analysis of Hispanic student survey responses showed that their perception of learning micropaleontology improved with the introduction of FossilSketch. When looking at class mode, we conclude that hybrid mode was the most favourable learning mode for Hispanic students, when the flexibility of class mode during 2021–2022 and use of FossilSketch improved Hispanic students' attitudes to learning, which is additionally supported by improved assessment scores in the class where FossilSketch was used, and across all geological courses.

Despite the role that Software Quality Assurance (SQA) plays in developing a quality software product, the techniques taught in undergraduate software engineering (SE) courses are learned superficially. This is evident from new professionals entering industry who lack the skills to consistently implement SQA practices [2] The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a technique called audits in improving students' ability to learn the SQA process. Organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) use audits to assess an organization's development process maturity [17]. These audits follow a systematic process which involves a verbal inquiry of the workflow of the specified development process to produce product feature(s). In this work-in-progress (WIP) paper, we hypothesize that the use of audits as a pedagogy technique improves students' ability to learn SQA techniques and will allow them to apply them in industry projects. We also hypothesize that students' learning of SQA through audits will have a positive correlation with their ability to develop quality products. This paper advances the literature on the use of audits, used in industry to institutionalize processes effective in producing quality products, as a pedagogical technique in an undergraduate SE course at Texas A&M University, a large R1 university.

This work-in-progress research paper examines the relationship between two aspects of students' engagement and academic performance.With the boom of technology-mediated learning environments, many educational applications are integrated into STEM courses. However, the effectiveness of these applications in the learning environments is contingent upon factors including but not limited to applications' ease of use, relevance to courses, students' engagement with the application, and perceived value of the application in the context of students' learning. This work-in-progress paper uses two aspects of engagement in a mobile technology-mediated learning environment and explores their relationship with students' academic performances. The two perspectives of engagement include 1) students' engagement with the course – Academic Engagement and 2) students' engagement with the application used in the course – Application Engagement. We collected the data from 110 first-year engineering students enrolled in a required engineering class programming in MATLAB. Students self-reported their academic engagement on four dimensions: behavioral, emotional, social, and cognitive. In addition, students used a mobile application called CourseMIRROR. The application prompted students to write their reflections on each lecture throughout the semester, asking about its interesting or confusing points. The application uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithm to create the summaries of these reflections. For application engagement, we used the number of times students viewed the summary through embedded data analytics in the CourseMIRROR application. For students' academic performance, we used the students' total scores in the course. We hypothesize that these two engagement perspectives are related to the students' academic performance. Specifically, the study will be guided by the following research questions: 1) To what degree do students' academic and application engagement relate to their academic performance? And 2) Do students with high engagement (i.e., academic or application) perform better in their exams? We analyzed the data using Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression to predict the students' academic performance and its relationship with students' academic engagement and application engagement. This work-in-progress paper presents the results of these analyses and their implications and provides future research directions.

Passive learning environment to teach programming concepts, especially in large lecture classes hinders students' motivation, performance and may adversely affect their achievement goals. The study presents the use of two instructional strategies teamwork and reflective thinking using educational technologies introduced in a class of 120 first year engineering students. This study also presents the impact of educational technologies based learning environment on students' motivation, achievement goals, and engagement