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Wed 13 Oct 2021 14:30 - 14:40 - Interaction and Support at a Distance Chair(s): Parmit Chilana

Distance education has gained significance recently. However, its application to robotics education presents challenges as physical access to hardware is typically required. While educational robotics simulation platforms exist, most are limited in scope or do not facilitate remote collaboration well. This paper proposes a novel networked robotics simulator for education, where students are able to collaborate in a shared 3D virtual space their robots inhabit. The framework combines these simulated worlds with a block-based programming environment to enable distance robotics education for a wider audience. The users’ programs run in a web browser on their computers and they issue commands to the virtual robots through a network protocol abstracted to simple-to-use blocks. Robots send back acknowledgements and sensor values through the same protocol. Interactive environments provide students with a more immersive educational experience, and allow for automatically evaluating student performance. In addition to sharing the virtual worlds remotely, students can also develop their programs together since the block-based environment supports both synchronous and asynchronous remote collaboration. The paper presents two environments showing a robotics challenge and an extension of the concept to a smart city scenario controlling traffic lights. Reduced barriers to entry for both robotics education and curriculum creation will allow for a more diverse set of students and course materials.

Wed 13 Oct

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

14:00 - 14:50
Interaction and Support at a DistanceResearch Papers / Journal-First Presentations
Chair(s): Parmit Chilana Simon Fraser University
14:00
10m
Paper
Remote Pair Collaborations of CS Students: Leaving Women Behind?Full paper
Research Papers
Caroline Lott The University of Tulsa, Alex McAuliffe The University of Tulsa, Sandeep Kuttal The University of Tulsa
14:10
10m
Paper
HowToo: A Platform for Sharing, Finding, and Using Programming StrategiesFull paper
Research Papers
Maryam Arab George Mason University, Jenny T. Liang University of Washington, Yang Kyu Yoo George Mason University, Amy Ko University of Washington, Thomas LaToza George Mason University
14:20
10m
Talk
How end-user programmers forage in online repositories? An information foraging perspectiveJournal-first
Journal-First Presentations
14:30
10m
Short-paper
Enabling Collaborative Distance Robotics Education for Novice ProgrammersShort paper
Research Papers
Gordon Stein Vanderbilt University, Akos Ledeczi Vanderbilt University
14:40
10m
Short-paper
Streamers Teaching Programming, Art, and Gaming: Cognitive Apprenticeship, Serendipitous Teachable Moments, and Tacit Expert KnowledgeShort paper
Research Papers
Ian Drosos University of California, San Diego, Philip Guo University of California San Diego