Chapter 1

Learning Theories and their Use in Computing Education Research

Birgit R. Krogstie, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

This chapter introduces learning theories and demonstrates their relevance for educators and researchers in computing education. It presents learning theories as perspectives that help explain learning phenomena and support the design, evaluation, and improvement of teaching practices. The chapter is organized around three broad orientations to learning: behaviorist, cognitive, and social. Behaviorist theories emphasize reinforcement, conditioning, motivation, and engagement, illustrated through examples such as gamification and initiatives to encourage student participation. Cognitive perspectives focus on mental processes, including information processing, cognitive load, metacognition, Bloom’s taxonomy, computational thinking, threshold concepts, self-directed learning, self-regulated learning, and mastery learning. Social perspectives view learning as situated within interaction, culture, and practice, and include theories such as social learning, social constructivism, communities of practice, experiential learning, reflective learning, sociocultural theory, and activity theory. The chapter also discusses connectivism and related perspectives that acknowledge the growing role of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in distributed learning networks. Examples from computing education research illustrate how different theories can inform pedagogical design, curriculum development, and research. The chapter concludes with a set of recommendations to educators in terms of selecting a learning theory to support their teaching and research.

Chapter 2

Designing Projects for Learning

Line Kolås, Helga Dís Ísfold Sigurðardóttir, and Aamna Rais Ahmed, Nord University

Project-based learning (PjBL) is widely used in higher computing education because it enables students to work on authentic problems, collaborate with others, and develop competencies relevant for professional practice. However, successful project-based learning requires more than assigning students a project; it demands deliberate pedagogical design. This chapter examines how teachers can design projects that support both project outcomes and student learning.

Drawing on literature, we compare four complementary frameworks for project-based learning: CDIO, the Industry-Enriched Project-Based Learning (I-PBL) framework, the Aalborg model of problem- and project-based learning, and the Comprehensive PBL Design Model (CPBL). Using the CDIO phases Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate as an organizing lens, we discuss how the frameworks contribute different perspectives on project architecture, stakeholder involvement, student inquiry, collaboration, and cognitive and socio-emotional development.

The chapter further presents our experiences from higher computing education related to blended project-based learning and the use of external mentors. We argue that both should be understood as pedagogical design resources that can strengthen authenticity, collaboration, reflection, and professional development when aligned with intended learning outcomes.

Throughout the chapter, planning questions are provided to support teachers in designing project-based courses. We conclude that effective PjBL depends on intentional design that integrates project processes, learning goals, stakeholders, and learning environments into a coherent whole.

Chapter 3

The Dynamics of Group Work

Robin Isfold Munkvold, Nord University

Teamwork competence is increasingly recognized as a critical competence in project-based learning (PjBL), as student teams frequently experience challenges related to communication, coordination, participation, responsibility sharing, and conflicting management. There are several aspects related to these challenges and issues that arise during a semester where students work in teams may develop into interpersonal, task-related, or process-oriented conflicts that negatively affect both learning outcomes and project progression.

This chapter explores how game-based learning can be used to promote students’ understanding of conflict management in project-based settings. Drawing on theories of teamwork, social interdependence, experiential learning, and conflict management, the chapter presents Cards of Conflict (CoC), a serious game developed to support teaching and learning about conflict resolution. The game is grounded in the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) and challenges students to collaboratively analyze authentic conflict scenarios and evaluate alternative response strategies.

Building on previous research that emphasizes the importance of authentic scenarios, collaborative learning, and game-based educational approaches, the chapter presents two instructional designs for implementing the game in higher education. The first focuses on facilitated gameplay using predefined scenarios, while the second engages students in the creation and evaluation of their own conflict cases.

The chapter offers practical guidance for educators seeking to strengthen teamwork competence and conflict-management skills through engaging and reflective learning activities.

Chapter 4

Sustainability in Computing Education

Birgit Krogstie and Bashira Jaradat, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Severe sustainability challenges face society. Information technology is part of almost every aspect of modern life and plays a key role for sustainability, both as part of the problem and as part of possible solutions. IT professionals need the competence to work with sustainability-related issues, and computing education must provide such competence. The practical integration of sustainability in computing education meets some challenges, including how sustainability can be made a meaningful part of courses and study programs rather than an “add-on”. Another key question is how much current curricula need to change – is it sufficient with incremental updates, or is a full transformation required? This chapter presents a set of sustainability models and principles useful as a basic sustainability vocabulary for educators and students. We then address sustainability competencies relevant for defining learning outcomes. The chapter further discusses pedagogy for teaching sustainability, in computing education and in general, drawing on examples from teaching and research. This includes the use of a framework for sustainability analysis, which originates in requirements engineering. Use of the framework can be integrated into design and software development courses, e.g. in the context of project-based learning. We further discuss issues related to the inclusion of sustainability in master theses and provide advice on how to conduct a sustainability analysis workshop.

Chapter 5

The Educational Production Gap

Ole Goethe, Nord University

Team-based game projects are among the richest learning experiences in higher education, yet student teams often struggle for reasons that have little to do with talent. This chapter identifies an educational production gap in how the distance between what student teams are asked to deliver, a finished and playable game, and the production structure they are given to deliver it. It examines how student teams differ from professional studios, including unstable membership, creative ambiguity, the 80-20 polish problem, interdisciplinary friction and broken continuity across the academic calendar. In response, the chapter introduces the Agile Learning Team Framework (ALTF), a supervisor-facing model that adapts agile’s core logic rather than its formal machinery. The ALTF organizes a project into three phases, Formation, Production and Professionalization, each with targeted interventions such as a team charter, MVP lock, regular sprints, a QA sprint and a structured postmortem. Grounded in scaffolding and self-determination theory, the framework treats supervision as an intervention curve, with support strongest at the start and fading as teams mature. The chapter also discusses agentic AI in student teams, outlines limitations, and offers practical guides for educators.

Chapter 6

Educating for Generic Competencies

Rune Hjelsvold, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

For more than a decade, research has shown that IT professionals need non-technical (generic) competences to succeed in their jobs. In study program design, it is important to achieve good alignment between intended learning outcomes at course-level and intended learning outcomes at programme-level important so that the course level intended learning outcomes in total address the programme-level intended learning outcomes because a programme-level intended learning outcome often will be addressed by several courses. Research done by Excited on Norwegian bachelor programmes in IT, however, suggests that generic competences are not well defined in the programme-level intended learning outcomes and may therefore not be handled in a detailed and systematic way in these study programmes.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a community of teachers involved in the design of study programmes in IT a consistent and reasonably rich foundation for good programme-course level alignment regarding generic competences. The chapter explores the realm of generic competences and presents a core set of generic competences that are commonly recognised in research on generic competences for IT professionals. In the chapter, we discuss the specification of generic competences in intended learning outcome descriptions. We also discuss how generic competences can be progressively developed during a study programme along four different dimensions. The chapter finally presents a process for achieving good programme-course level alignment during study programme design and describes a case for how the process can be run in practice, using the outcomes from this chapter's discussions.

Chapter 7

Peer Assessment in Project-Based IT Education

Trond Aalberg, Somayeh Bayat Esfandani and Mariusz Nowostawski, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Peer assessment, where students give feedback on each other’s work, is a well-documented learning activity. It trains critical thinking and evaluative judgement, offers formative feedback at a scale teachers cannot match, and builds the capacity to give and receive critique. In IT education it has particular relevance, since code review and other forms of peer inspection are standard practice in professional software development. This chapter gives a practical overview of peer assessment in project-based IT education. We first explain why peer assessment suits the discipline and summarize its pedagogical foundations. We then describe the peer assessment process and the features a supporting system needs, from allocation of submissions and anonymity to feedback authoring, reading of feedback and teacher oversight. We show how the artefacts and modes of assessment change as students’ progress from small programs to team-based projects, and we set out recommended practice for the main design decisions: purpose, timing, who reviews whom, criteria, reviewer training, anonymity, closing the feedback loop and grading. We then discuss how artificial intelligence can support peer assessment and what teachers should consider before introducing it. Finally, three use cases from courses at NTNU illustrate how the purpose, design and experience of peer assessment vary in practice, and how students’ use of generative AI is beginning to change the conditions for the activity.

Chapter 8

Self-Paced Mastery Learning

Guttorm Sindre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

This chapter presents Do It Yourself (DIY) advice for readers who want to know more about self-paced mastery learning, possibly to try it out in courses that they are involved in. It starts by presenting our experiences with IT1001, an introductory programming course for STEM teacher students at the NTNU. It explains the background and principles of self-paced mastery learning and summarizes some key results from follow-up research on the course, in terms of student performance and satisfaction. The second half of the chapter outlines the key design decisions and trade-offs to be made when developing such a course, using the design rationale of IT1001 as illustration, but also pointing out alternative designs. The chapter also gives some advice on the course design process, highlighting the benefits of student involvement in course design.

Chapter 9

Gamification in Higher Education – From Research to Educational Practice

Ole Goethe, Nord University

Gamification in higher education is often reduced to points, badges and leaderboards, yet research shows mixed results and stresses that design and context matter more than mechanics. This chapter argues that gamification is better understood as a spectrum of design choices, ranging from surface elements to structural features such as levels, roles, stakes and feedback. Drawing on work connected to Excited, the Centre for Excellence in IT Education, it compares three computing education cases: (1) Heimdall’s Quest, an explicitly game-like system in vocational ICT, (2) Game Lab, a company role-play in game development with no points or badges, (3) and IT1001, an introductory programming course whose mastery-based levels function as gamification without being presented as such. Read through self-determination theory, the cases show that the same motivational function, such as visible progress, can take very different forms, and that what a mechanic does matters more than whether it looks like a game. The chapter offers eight design principles, a goal-first design framework and a warning-signs checklist addressing point-chasing, metric gaming, competition, exclusion, workload and platform constraints. Because the evidence is largely qualitative and context-dependent, the principles are presented as hypotheses for local testing, favoring the simplest mechanic that serves the learning goal.

Chapter 10

The Learning Environment

Guttorm Sindre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

This chapter presents various interventions and research efforts that have been conducted in Excited to understand and improve the students’ learning environment, both covering social aspects, physical aspects (e.g., learning areas), and the academic learning environment. The chapter distills main findings and lessons learned and ends with some advice for others who may be interested in trying out similar interventions. A special focus within Excited has been to do research about student identity and belonging and develop interventions that contribute to an improved sense of belonging in courses and study programs, through learning activities such as groupwork and project-based learning.