Call for Participation
The Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education (WCCCE) 2023 May 4 & 5, 2023, University British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
The Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education is a forum for disseminating experience and information pertaining to the development and delivery of programs and courses in computer science, computer technology, or information systems, broadly defined. The conference's purpose is to bring together educators along with industrial partners and government officials who have an interest in the instruction and delivery of computing-related courses and the development and evolution of computing education.
This year as we celebrate our 25th conference! We seek to honour our past and chart a path to broadening participation among Canadian computing educators. To foster this interchange of ideas, the organizers of WCCCE 2023 welcome papers, nifty assignments, and special sessions on the following (non-exhaustive) list of topics:
- Post-secondary programs and curricula for computing
- New or experimental computing-education curricula at any level, including K-12
- Teaching methods or tools for specific concepts or courses
- Materials for specific concepts or courses
- General methods and tools for computing-related courses
- Methods, tools, and effective structures for designing and teaching computing labs
- Applications and techniques to support distance and/or distributed learning
- Multimedia applications for computing education
- Computing education research
- Broadening participation and improving student wellbeing
- School outreach programs or high-school programs for computer programming and/or computational thinking
We intend to have the Conference Proceedings indexed in the ACM Digital Library.
If you are effectively using unique methods to teach a computing-related topic, or have successfully adopted a new tool or technology in your computing-related courses or labs, this is an opportunity to tell people about it. If you have developed a tool that improves the instructional quality of your courses or provides insight into the learning process, this is the place to demonstrate it. Even if you have tried methods or tools in your instruction with little success, we are still eager to hear about it. Your experience can help us all.
The deadline for all submissions is March 25, 2023 extended to March 27, 2023.
WCCCE 2023 will be run in a hybrid format, offering both in-person and remote participation options for presenters and audience. For more information, including instructions on how to submit, please explore this website.
If you are willing to serve as a reviewer, please let us know.
Long Papers
All long paper submissions must follow the ACM's publication guidelines. Any identifying information such as author's names, institution names, or identifying references are to be replaced with placeholders so that the papers can be anonymously reviewed. The authors of accepted papers will have the opportunity to modify their submissions, taking into account the comments of reviewers; and to replace any placeholders with the proper identifiers. Papers may contain up to six pages plus one page for references and acknowledgments. Authors will have 25 minutes to present their work (including time for questions) at the conference.
Links to the article templates for LaTeX (strongly recommended) and Microsoft Word, along with a description of the submission format can be found at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. When preparing your submission, make sure to use the ACM reference formats for various citation types as described at https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/reference-formatting.
Short Papers
A short paper is a lightweight way to engage the WCCCE audience with some aspect of computing education that you are excited and passionate about. The authors of each accepted short paper will have approximately 15 minutes to present their work (including time for questions) during a conference session.
Short papers must follow the submission guidelines for long papers with respect to formatting and anonymization. Short papers must not exceed two pages in length including references.
Blizzard Talks
A Blizzard Talk is the Canadian equivalent to a lightning talk. Individuals will be given 5 minutes to present on any topic of potential interest to the WCCCE community. For example, this would be a great way for you to tell us about:
- work in progress
- an interesting assignment
- things you learned from the pandemic that could inform teaching going forward
- new teaching tools
- your opinions on some pedagogical topic
- new course development
- a study you would like to do
- a project where you would like to partner with others
Nifty Assignments
WCCCE will also provide an opportunity for educators to share assignments that they have previously used to assess students in novel and engaging ways. For more information on what constitutes a "nifty assignment", please visit http://nifty.stanford.edu/info.html.
Accepted assignments will be presented in the Nifty Assignments session at the conference. The assignment materials will be hosted on the WCCCE website so that they are available to other educators for years to come, and a brief description of the assignment will be published in the conference proceedings. Submissions to this track must not have been previously published in another nifty assignment or similar session.
The content of a nifty assignment submission will vary depending on the nature of the assignment. Submitters are encouraged to include the (non-exhaustive) list of items below, as appropriate to their particular assignment, so that it can be refereed effectively. Note that submissions should not include information on the authors or their affiliations for the blind review process.
- A description of the assignment and what makes it nifty. This could include:
- The strengths/positive aspects of the assignment.
- The topics and learning goals assessed by the assignment.
- The assignment's level of difficulty.
- The course in which the assignment was used.
- The language students used to implement their solutions.
- Any weaknesses or challenges associated with the assignment.
- Any technological or educational dependencies (such as a particular library).
- The assignment handout that was provided to the students.
- Any starter code, data files, or other materials needed to complete the assignment.
- Grading criteria (optional).
- A runnable sample solution (optional).
Special Sessions
New for 2023, a Special Session provides an opportunity to share your work and ideas in a unique fashion. Participants are allowed to craft the session as they best see fit. The only constraints are location and time: the sessions will be scheduled by default in standard conference rooms and can range from 25 to 75 minutes in length. The format can resemble a panel, birds of a feather session, reflective practice, courseware demo, tutorial, workshop, or roundtable, to name a few. Special Session submission proposals are not to exceed three pages and are to contain the following information:
- A descriptive title for the session.
- A description of the topic that clearly indicates how/why this session would be of interest to attendees and justifies how this session adds something new to the program that the predefined session formats (papers, blizzard talks, and nifty assignments) do not provide.
- The time required and an outline of how that time will be utilized.
- An explanation of the expectations of participants and how participants will be actively engaged.
- Any special requests that would improve the session (e.g., equipment, room configuration) along with a backup plan should we be unable to accommodate them.
- References (if applicable).
- A list of presenters with their affiliations, and short biographies explaining their expertise in the topic of the session.