The Artful Craft of Improving Virtual Summer Camps in the Midst of COVID-19 (Work in Progress)

Shawna Wolf; Shaya Wolf; Hui Hu; Andrea Burrows; Mike Borowczak

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division Poster Session
Page Count: 26
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41204
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41204
Download Count: 296

Paper Authors

biography

Mike Borowczak University of Wyoming orcid.org/0000-0001-9409-8245

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Dr. Mike Borowczak received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering in 2013. Formerly the Loy and Edith Harris Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Wyoming, he is now an Associate Professor, serving as the Director of the Cybersecurity Education and Research (CEDAR) Center and Lab, and the Co-Director of the Advanced Blockchain Research and Development Lab. He is a former hardware security architect and data scientist, having worked in both the semiconductor industry as well as several since-acquired startups. His research interests include Secure Distributed Systems, Security and Resilience of Autonomous Systems, Continuous and Adaptive Authentication, Cyber-Physical Systems and Applications, and Hardware-Level Security for Lightweight Agents. He and his students have published over 46 journal and conference publications. He is a senior member of the IEEE, ACM, and IET. His research has been funded (~$6.2M since 2018) by federal, national, state, and industrial entities, including the NSF, NSA, Idaho National Laboratories, State of Wyoming, IOHK and Kraken.

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Abstract

The Artful Craft of Science (TACoS) is a week-long summer camp that the University of Wyoming has provided annually for up to 80 upcoming 5th and 6th graders since 2015. The program includes a variety of activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including a five-day introductory computer science (CS) class. In 2020 and 2021, TACoS ran virtually due to COVID-19, revealing a unique opportunity to compare two instances of the CS section of the program. This study focuses on answering two questions: 1) How does video quality impact student participation and engagement; and 2) How does the length of time that content is accessible affect how students engage with course material? Both virtual years (Summers 2020 and 2021), the CS program included five 20–30-minute videos, a corresponding website for students to follow, and physical components that were mailed to each student prior to the course. After the first year (Summer 2020), improvements were made to the CS course presentation including attention to video quality, fresh course content for repeat-attendees, and further streamlined lesson plans. In the second virtual year (Summer 2021), students were given access to course material for a longer amount of time, as content remained available for a month instead of only during the camp week. Over both virtual years, viewership data was collected from each video including the number of views per activity, the average view duration, the audience retention rate across each video, the average views per viewer, and the lifetime watch time for each video. A total of 37 (46%) parent evaluation reviews (including perspectives of their students) of the TACoS program were collected, providing insight on the overall impressions of the camp, the CS program specifically, the students’ favorite project/course within TACoS, the course completion rate, the ranked comparison of parents’ time spent helping their child with each TACoS program, and general parent feedback. Findings show that there was improvement in the video content which could have invited more participation in the project/course and higher student engagement with the project/course material in the second virtual year.

Citation
Format

Borowczak, M., & Burrows, A., & Wolf, S., & Wolf, S., & Hu, H. (2022, August), The Artful Craft of Improving Virtual Summer Camps in the Midst of COVID-19 (Work in Progress) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41204

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The Artful Craft of Science (TACoS) is a week-long summer camp that the University of Wyoming has provided annually for up to 80 upcoming 5th and 6th graders since 2015. The program includes a variety of activities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including a five-day introductory computer science (CS) class. In 2020 and 2021, TACoS ran virtually due to COVID-19, revealing a unique opportunity to compare two instances of the CS section of the program. This study focuses on answering two questions: 1) How does video quality impact student participation and engagement; and 2) How does the length of time that content is accessible affect how students engage with course material? Both virtual years (Summers 2020 and 2021), the CS program included five 20–30-minute videos, a corresponding website for students to follow, and physical components that were mailed to each student prior to the course. After the first year (Summer 2020), improvements were made to the CS course presentation including attention to video quality, fresh course content for repeat-attendees, and further streamlined lesson plans. In the second virtual year (Summer 2021), students were given access to course material for a longer amount of time, as content remained available for a month instead of only during the camp week. Over both virtual years, viewership data was collected from each video including the number of views per activity, the average view duration, the audience retention rate across each video, the average views per viewer, and the lifetime watch time for each video.  A total of 37 (46%) parent evaluation reviews (including perspectives of their students) of the TACoS program were collected, providing insight on the overall impressions of the camp, the CS program specifically, the students’ favorite project/course within TACoS, the course completion rate, the ranked comparison of parents’ time spent helping their child with each TACoS program, and general parent feedback. Findings show that there was improvement in the video content which could have invited more participation in the project/course and higher student engagement with the project/course material in the second virtual year.

AU  - Mike Borowczak
AU  - Andrea Burrows
AU  - Shawna Wolf
AU  - Shaya Wolf
AU  - Hui Hu
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - The Artful Craft of Improving Virtual Summer Camps in the Midst of COVID-19 (Work in Progress)
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41204
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41204
ER  -