Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Behind the Shoulders of Bebras Teams: Analyzing How They Interact with the Platform to Solve Tasks

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1220))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

In the Italian Bebras Challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinkings, an interactive online platform is used to display attractive tasks to teams of pupils, and evaluate the answers they submit. We instrumented the platform in order to collect also data concerning the interactions of pupils with the system. We analyzed this data according to a multidimensional model use to describe such interaction, and collected many overall statistics on the problem solving process and teams’ behavior. The fine grained data we logged was also useful to analyze how the teams engaged with specific tasks, which we designed as easy and turned out to be difficult. By looking at the data, we were able to explain the unexpected difficulties, nailing down what had distracted or confused many solvers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://bebras.org/.

  2. 2.

    https://aladdin.di.unimi.it.

  3. 3.

    Full statistics are available, in Italian, at https://bebras.it/1819/Statistiche+gare.html.

  4. 4.

    The logging of events relies on the clocks of the computers used by contestants.

References

  1. Bellettini, C., et al.: A platform for the Italian Bebras. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2018), vol. 1, pp. 350–357. SCITEPRESS (2018). https://doi.org/10.5220/0006775103500357

  2. Bellettini, C., Lonati, V., Malchiodi, D., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A., Torelli, M.: How challenging are Bebras tasks? An IRT analysis based on the performance of Italian students. In: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education ITiCSE 2015, pp. 27–32. ACM (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2729094.2742603

  3. Bellettini, C., Lonati, V., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A.: How pupils solve online problems: an analytical view. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019), vol. 2, pp. 132–139. SCITEPRESS (2019). https://doi.org/10.5220/0007765801320139

  4. Bonani, A., Del Fatto, V., Dodero, G., Gennari, R.: Tangibles for graph algorithmic thinking: experience with children (abstract only). In: Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2018, pp. 1094–1094. ACM, New York (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3159450.3162267

  5. Boyle, A., Hutchison, D.: Sophisticated tasks in e-assessment: what are they and what are their benefits? Assess. Eval. High. Educ. 34(3), 305–319 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930801956034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Calcagni, A., Lonati, V., Malchiodi, D., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A.: Promoting computational thinking skills: would you use this Bebras task? In: Dagiene, V., Hellas, A. (eds.) ISSEP 2017. LNCS, vol. 10696, pp. 102–113. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71483-7_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Dagienė, V.: Supporting computer science education through competitions. In: Proceedings of 9th WCCE 2009, Education and Technology for a Better World, 9th WCCE 2009, Bento, Goncalves (2009). https://www.ifip.org//wcce2009/proceedings/papers/WCCE2009_pap76.pdf

  8. Dagienė, V., Sentance, S.: It’s computational thinking! Bebras tasks in the curriculum. In: Brodnik, A., Tort, F. (eds.) ISSEP 2016. LNCS, vol. 9973, pp. 28–39. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46747-4_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Dagienė, V., Stupuriene, G.: Informatics education based on solving attractive tasks through a contest. In: KEYCIT 2014 - Key Competencies in Informatics and ICT, pp. 97–115 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Goldstein, S.C., Zhang, H., Sakr, M., An, H., Dashti, C.: Understanding how work habits influence student performance. In: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2019, pp. 154–160. ACM (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3304221.3319757

  11. Haberman, B., Cohen, A., Dagienė, V.: The beaver contest: attracting youngsters to study computing. In: Proceedings of the 16th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, pp. 378–378. ACM (2011). https://doi.org/10.1145/1999747.1999891

  12. Lonati, V., Malchiodi, D., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A.: Bebras as a teaching resource: classifying the tasks corpus using computational thinking skills. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2017), p. 366 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3059009.3072987

  13. Lonati, V., Malchiodi, D., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A.: How presentation affects the difficulty of computational thinking tasks: an IRT analysis. In: Proceedings of the 17th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, pp. 60–69. ACM, New York (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3141880.3141900

  14. van der Vegt, W.: Predicting the difficulty level of a Bebras task. Olymp. Inform. 7, 132–139 (2013). https://ioinformatics.org/journal/INFOL127.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  15. van der Vegt, W.: How hard will this task be? Developments in analyzing and predicting question difficulty in the Bebras challenge. Olymp. Inform. 12, 119–132 (2018). https://doi.org/10.15388/ioi.2018.10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. van der Vegt, W., Schrijvers, E.: Analyzing task difficulty in a Bebras contest using Cuttle. Olymp. Inform. 13, 145–156 (2019). https://doi.org/10.15388/ioi.2019.09

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Bebras community for the great effort spent in producing exciting task ideas.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Carlo Bellettini, Violetta Lonati, Mattia Monga & Anna Morpurgo

Authors
  1. Carlo Bellettini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Violetta Lonati
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mattia Monga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anna Morpurgo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mattia Monga .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    H. Chad Lane

  2. Anderson Academic Commons, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Susan Zvacek

  3. School of Engineering, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK

    James Uhomoibhi

Appendix

Appendix

We present here some figures related to task T04 (Waterfalls) and T01 (Anthill scramble).

Figure 10 shows a methodical but wrong behavior; the team followed a methodical exploration without being able to recognize the correct answer even if they examined it for almost 20 s.

Fig. 10.
figure 10

Task T04 class C: methodical, wrong, team behavior.

Full size image

Figures 11a) and b) show two examples of non-methodical behavior.

Figure 12a and b show the behaviors of two examples of two teams that do not use an incremental approach; one succeeds, the other does not.

Fig. 11.
figure 11

Task T04 class C: non methodical team behaviors.

Full size image
Fig. 12.
figure 12

Task T01: Non incremental behaviors.

Full size image

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Bellettini, C., Lonati, V., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A. (2020). Behind the Shoulders of Bebras Teams: Analyzing How They Interact with the Platform to Solve Tasks. In: Lane, H.C., Zvacek, S., Uhomoibhi, J. (eds) Computer Supported Education. CSEDU 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1220. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58459-7_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58459-7_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-58458-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-58459-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation