Call for Papers 2008

8th Koli Calling

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTING EDUCATION RESEARCH

Koli National Park, Finland, November 13-16, 2008

Koli Calling is one of the leading international conferences dedicated to the exchange of research and practice relevant to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Education Research in the Computing disciplines. Koli Calling aims to publish high quality research that combines teaching and learning experiences with solid, theoretically anchored research. The conference is held in the inspiring surroundings of the Koli National Park in Eastern Finland, an hour’s drive north of the city of Joensuu. The 2008 conference is organized by Uppsala University, Sweden in collaboration with the Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Joensuu, Finland.

CONFERENCE FORMAT

Koli Calling is a single track conference with research, practice and systems presentations as well as keynote speeches. The conference language is English. The conference is known for its moderate size, intimate atmosphere, and lively discussions, consequently a limited number of submissions will be accepted. Last year approximately fifty participants from ten countries on three continents attended the conference.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Erik de Graaff (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands): Innovation and Research in Engineering Education

TOPICS

Original submissions in all areas related to the conference theme are invited. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Computing education research: methodologies and results
Educational technology, software, and tools
Use of technology to support education in computing and related sciences
Tools for visualization or concretization
Teaching innovations, best practices, experience, assessment development and case studies in Computing Education
Distance education, virtual and open universities in computing

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

Research Paper [8-10 pages]. Unpublished, original, theoretically anchored research related to the conference theme. Papers will be of high quality and present novel arguments, syntheses, results, methods or tools. Research papers are mainly evaluated by the relevance and quality of the research.
System Paper [8-10 pages]. Unpublished, original work describing methods or tools for learning or instruction in computing education, motivated by the didactic needs of teaching computing and supported supported by clear argumentation or a theoretical framework. Submissions are eva0luated on their impact on and contribution to the research questions defined, and on their contributions to existing knowledge and practice. Submissions should preferably be accompanied by a Demo proposal.
Discussion Paper [4 pages]. Unpublished, original work in progress, or dissemination and discussion of new ideas in Computing Education Research. Discussion papers should clearly indicate the issue that the author aims to discuss, as well as discussion questions and a mechanism to promote a debate among the conference participants. A discussion paper is evaluated by its anticipated impact on discussions during the conference. At least half the time allocated to a discussion paper should be used for a public discussion.
Poster/Demo [2 page abstract]. Interactive presentation of emerging ideas for research, teaching practice, or tools can be presented as posters or demonstrations. Submissions are evaluated based on their originality and the possible future contribution to the field of Computing Education.

REVIEW PROCESS AND PUBLICATIONS

To ensure selection of high quality contributions, submissions for the Research, System, and Discussion Paper categories are reviewed by at least three members of the international Program Committee. Demo and Poster abstracts are reviewed by at least two members of the Program Committee. The Koli Calling Program Committee takes pride in considering submissions thoroughly and providing constructive feedback. The review process is double-blind, so submitted papers should be anonymized.

All accepted contributions are available as an electronic pre-proceedings prior to the conference. The final Proceedings, published by the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, will be distributed after the conference. The proceedings will be electronically available via the Koli Calling conference site and from the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University. The authors of accepted submissions are expected to incorporate the comments and suggestions given by the reviewers as well as those from the discussion at the conference into the final version of their manuscript. Final papers from the conference will be indexed and available through the ACM Digital Library, and the conference is organized in cooperation with ACM SIGCSE.

Authors of selected papers from the conference will be invited to submit an extended version of the paper to a special issue of the ACM Journal of Educational Resources in Computing (JERIC). Such papers should extend and complement the results presented in the Koli Calling paper. This gives authors an opportunity to present data and additional details of analysis that might not have fitted into the number of proceedings pages allocated for normal Koli Calling papers. Authors of papers selected by the Koli review committee for inclusion in the JERIC special edition will receive an invitation from the conference chairs to submit an extended version of their paper after the conference. Extended papers will undergo another round of reviewing before they are accepted for the special issue of JERIC.

SYSTEMS AND TOOLS SHOWCASE

For 2008 we introduce the "systems and tools showcase" as a way to recognise the significant contribution that system implementers make to computing education research. Systems and tools contributions describe the software, and other features of the submitted system or tool [see the separate Call for Tools for more details]. Systems will be evaluated by members of the international programme committee for high quality both in terms of design and implementation, as well as usability and suitability for CS education. After evaluation accepted systems will be allocated two to four pages in the conference proceedings in which to describe the rationale behind the system and discuss the effectiveness of the tool in the context of CS education.

The program committee will also select one of accepted systems to receive the Koli Calling Educational Tool Award at the conference.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission Deadline: September 1
Notification of Acceptance: October 2
Registration Deadline: October 30
Conference: November 13 (evening) - 16 (lunch-time)

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Please follow the instructions on the conference web page, http://www.cs.joensuu.fi/kolistelut/ .

CONFERENCE CHAIRS

Arnold Pears, Uppsala University, Sweden
Lauri Malmi, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

Moti Ben-Ari, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Anders Berglund, Uppsala University, Sweden
Michael E. Caspersen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Pierluigi Crescenzi, University of Florence, Italy
Valentina Dagiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Mike Joy, University of Warwick, UK
Hannu-Matti Järvinen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Ari Korhonen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Raymond Lister, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Robert McCartney, University of Connecticut, USA
Guido Roessling, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany
Tapio Salakoski, University of Turku, Finland
Carsten Schulte, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Simon, University of Newcastle, Australia
Jarkko Suhonen, University of Joensuu, Finland
Erkki Sutinen, University of Joensuu, Finland

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Ilkka Jormanainen, University of Joensuu, Finland (Local arrangements)
Jussi Nuutinen, University of Joensuu, Finland (Webmaster)

MORE INFORMATION

See conference web site http://www.cs.joensuu.fi/kolistelut/ or contact Arnold Pears <arnold.pears@it.uu.se>