BUG BUSTERS

It has been a great year!

2010-08-31T22:05:00.000-06:00

We finished our CRA-W CREU project and we are sad that it has come to an end. Well, it's not exactly at an end because Amy will continue this work for her honors thesis, Ali is working on an independent study, and we will all present our work at the Grace Hopper Conference next month!

This was a great experience and gave us an understanding of what research is. "Research" and "graduate school" used to sound intimidating, but this experience makes it easier to understand what a graduate degree is all about.

When we initially started our research project, we had some ideas about the bugs that we thought students encountered. We collected over 600 bugs and learned that we were correct that many students encounter bugs, but the distribution of bugs was surprising. Check out our data at: http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~bugs
While you are there, watch some movies or play games and then give them a rating. We learned Flash and Camtasia to create the games, movies, and quizzes.

Finally, we want to thank the CRA-W CREU program for funding us to explore research! We hope that other students get the opportunity to work on a project and have a similar experience to us!

The end is in sight.

2010-08-07T09:43:00.000-06:00

We're nearing the end of the project - just one week left. It has come so fast. We still have to finish updating our website but we're so close! Now we are just focusing on wrapping things up and getting our final reports in. We'll be sure to post again to finish off the project.
We have now bought our place tickets for the Grace Hopper conference in Atlanta, Georgia. We are really excited! This project has proven to be a lot of fun and very educational. We look forward to sharing our findings and results with others in the industry.
Overall, being a part of this team has been enjoyable and rewarding. It's certainly bittersweet that the end is so close.

At long last

2010-07-14T13:07:00.000-06:00

There isn't much to post about. Our lives have become pretty much routine here at Bug Theater. Tutorials, posters, quizzes, games, classifying, repeat... We're getting pretty good at the routine though. Everything will be up and running perfectly for fall semester.
We do have one bit of news though...we have all received scholarships for the Grace Hopper conference this fall. They cover our lodging, meals, and airfare so we are beyond thrilled to receive them since it means we will be able to attend the conference together.
The minor changes in our routine will be arranging things with our scholarships, creating a new more compact poster, and a few other little details for the conference.

Quizes

2010-06-28T11:40:00.000-06:00

Well along with our normal schedule of posters, games, and videos we are also creating quizes for the beginning CS class (CS1400). We are creating mini quizes to test the students on the chapters in the book. Each quiz covers 2 chapters and will have about 5 questions, and then some different ways to solve each question. Hopefully these quizes will help prepare the students for their tests all along the way and improve their understanding.

So Much To Do

2010-06-21T10:32:00.000-06:00

Over the last couple of weeks we have finished some Flash games, Camtasia videos, started some practice tests, and made a few minor changes to the website. We still have lots more to do though. The website will be posted tomorrow and we are doing some usability testing on it this week. If it sounds like we do the same things every week, it's because a lot of the time we do, just with different bugs.

Usability Testing

2010-06-07T13:51:00.000-06:00

As we start adding more applications to the website this summer we figured we should have some people test it out before we add all the other stuff. We have written up a few things we will have each tester do to see if things are easy to find, that the website looks organized, and it's user friendly. We also have two new Camtasia videos and a Flash game to go on the website.
Our Grace Hopper info for the conference info booklet. Not only will there be an overview of our project but there is a little bio and photo to go along with it. You know you've made it to the big time when your photo is published!
We are also starting a new page for our website that will have possible test questions for the CS 1400 and CS 1410 classes. After solving the problem they will be able to see 3 or 4 correct solutions for each problem. Right now we're in the process of finding some good problems and creating the new page for it.

Grace Hopper...Again

2010-06-01T14:59:00.000-06:00

All of our Grace Hopper program information is due at the end of this week. We are gathering all of the needed information and praying that there isn't something we're forgetting. Last week we started preparing this information and created some new tip posters for the tutor lab. We've also finished some Camtasia and Flash stuff that should be posted on the website soon.

Accepted

2010-05-24T09:53:00.000-06:00

We have been accepted to the Grace Hopper poster session in September. Although this is exciting it has added a few things to our to-do list. We have to submit bios and pictures of all of us, a 700 word abstract, and the poster must be re-designed (the old one is too big).
Last week we started on our new how-to videos and test your skill games. Our work has been a little impeded by the ever changing weather which has gotten a few of us sick and slowed us down a little. With everyone on the mend we should be able to catch everything up and hopefully submit all the needed info for Grace Hopper this week.

Welcome to Summer...

2010-05-17T11:44:00.000-06:00

Over the last week we have...finished classifying the April bugs, created a schedule for the summer, updated the website, and finished our Grace Hopper scholarship applications. This summer we will each be making one how to movie and one Flash game per week, creating practice problems, and making new posters.

End of the Semester Countdown

2010-05-06T11:05:00.000-06:00

With only a couple of days left we are about to hit the research grant full time next week. Today we will be meeting with some of the CS faculty to get ideas about games and how to videos we could work on this summer. Most of the last week has been spent finishing final projects and studying for/taking finals. We have all been working on our scholarship applications for the Grace Hopper conference this fall. We've also been on the hunt for the bug that is stopping us from uploading Camtasia videos. By next week the website should be fully functioning and we should have a whole pile of new ideas to fill our website with this summer.

Flash Games

2010-04-23T13:12:00.000-06:00

We have posted the new games, one on arrays and the other on pointers. They can be found at: http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~bugs/skills.htm . They look great, especially on our pretty new website. This week we plan on posting a few how-to videos and finishing our scholarship applications for the Grace Hopper conference. There are only two weeks before we take this grant on FULL TIME.

The never-ending website

2010-04-21T14:21:00.000-06:00

After posting the new website last week we saw some user friendly changes that we wanted to make. This week we are adding two new flash games and the March statistics. There will probably always be something that needs to be done! We worked on Flash games and Camtasia videos last week too. As soon as we figure out how to load the videos into the players they'll be out there for the world to see. We also classified the March bugs and hung up our poster from the Undergrad Research Conference for the whole department to see. Along with coming up with new game and movie ideas this week we are hoping to solve the mystery of the video player. Wish us luck!

Updates

2010-04-10T16:58:00.000-06:00

As the end of the semester is approaching fast, we have kept ourselves busy and got a lot done.

The application to the Grace Hopper conference is finished and submitted, wish us luck on that! We finished working on the new website, it can be found at http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~bugs/index.htm. We also created a new video on how to use loops and switch statements. There are also two new flash games up on the new website. They will help you test your skills on pointers and arrays. These were the two areas where students had most problems and bugs this semester.

Currently we are working on classifying the new bugs from March. The bug descriptions will be up on the website soon, so keep an eye on that.

After a LONG break...

2010-03-29T10:57:00.001-06:00

Over the course of spring break, applying for Grace Hopper, and fixing up the website the blog has sort of fallen by the way side and been forgotten. Here is all the updates.... We are redoing the website, yet again. Our professor had many of her students review our website and from their feedback we are making some major changes to make it more eye pleasing, easier to use, more organized, and more professional looking. We also have a few more Flash and Camtasia videos to post to it. It will be up and running by Friday so keep an eye out. We are applying for Grace Hopper in Atlanta this fall. Our paper will hopefully be sent in Tuesday and if we get in we plan on using our poster from UCUR.

Back to School

2010-03-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Along with catching up on our school work last week we're also still working on our regular website stuff. The website has contracted some quirky bugs that we are trying our best to get rid of but it is really testing our knowledge. we have some more statistics, movies, and Flash games on their way.

UCUR

2010-03-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

UCUR was a blast! Not only was it great experience in presenting our research but we learned a ton. We spent the beginning of the week getting the website updated (the background is now an eye pleasing red), practicing our speech, re-checking the bugs, and finishing off poster details. We presented our poster for two hours in the morning and then spent the afternoon two hours looking at others posters and listening to a few presentations. The projects ranged from the effectiveness of mixing medicines in saline solutions to be administered to the affects of Disney princess characters and their effects on young children. You forget how many things there are still to be discovered and researched until you go to something like this. Plus the 6 hour drive was perfect for catching up on homework. Pictures to be posted soon!

Updates

2010-02-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well a couple of weeks ago many of the students in the CS department looked over our website and then gave us feedback. We have been updating the information, making it more pleasing to the eye, and easier to navigate. The changes will be up before we leave for the conference this weekend. We've also finished the poster and are taking it to the printers today to have it turned into a massive 3'x5' masterpiece. We also made up our little speech to go along with our poster and practiced it in front of the tutors. We're hoping the people at the conference are a less intimidating audience.

Posters, Websites, and Presentations

2010-02-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

The poster is finally complete! We think. We will be presenting it to the tutors this week and will decide what needs to be changed to the poster and our mini presentation of it. We've also been working on two new Camtasia videos that are about ready to post. One on loops and the other on pass by reference. Also we've had students look at our website and critique it for us so we are making changes according to their specifications!

February

2010-02-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

We are a whole month into a new year, and February looks like it is going to be a busy month. We just got a new set of bugs to classify, we are adding some new pages to our website, and we are headed to our first conference in a couple of weeks! Last week we worked on our poster, finished the 'tickets' to hand out with our URL on them, started on our new web page for descriptions of our bugs, and began a Camtasia video. As you can see we have a LOT of works in projects, it's going to be a busy month!

The POSTER

2010-01-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

Our poster is almost completed. The undergrad research conference isn't for a few weeks but we wanted to get it done early. It is 40" x 60" of what we do and how we do it. We feel that it is our duty to show all of the computer science guys that will be there how a poster can be 'pretty' as well as functional. So far it looks pretty darn great and as soon as we finish fine tuning some statistical data it will be ready to send to the printers! Along with our poster we are creating fake movie tickets with our web address so they can keep track of us online. We'll post a picture of one on here as soon as they're finished. This has been the most creative week of our research so far and I think it's safe to say we loved it!

UGRASP

2010-01-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

Amy has recently joined our team of brains and has been so sweet to do all of our grunt work as we start to teach her Camtasia and Flash. She is also preparing to take over the website updates for us. She's one smart cookie and we're sure it will look great! We have set up our tutoring sessions for this semester. The dates are:
February 17 2:30-3:30
March 18 2:00-3:00
April 14 2:30-3:30
During these students will be able to bring in their code for us to look over and help them improve it.
We are headed to the UGRASP (Utah Undergrad Research Conference) in a few weeks. There we will be presenting a poster on our research and giving a short oral presentation. We are really excited for this opportunity and are working to make our poster AMAZING. Along with this we are working to revise our list of bug types to make it more streamlined and productive, adding some more information to our statistics, and drawing up new Camtasia and Flash videos!

New Year, New Semester

2010-01-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well we are back for the first day of spring semester today!! Thus far for the new semester we have come up with our new schedule, have adopted a new group member Amy, and our website is up and running. We won't have any new bugs to classify for a while so now we begin building more flash games and online tutorials for some more of the bugs that we classified last semester. It looks like we have passed the hardest part of the learning curve for Flash, Camtasia, and HTML so this semester should be pretty smooth sailing and we will be posting videos and games like crazy. Watch out 2010 here we come!

The basic website is up!

2009-12-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

We finished up the first draft of the website! Check it out at: http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~bugs

We have one Camtasia Video that auto-plays, an interactive Flash video, and statistics about the bugs. We are over the majority of the learning curve now and will be able to improve the website dramatically next semester since we will be able to go into more detail! We will add to the statistics to share examples of each category of bug and the median time spent on each type of bug. We will add more Camtasia and Flash videos. We will also continue to gather and analyze bugs from the tutor lab, hold peer review sessions for the freshman and sophomore female students, make posters for the tutor lab, present our research poster at the Utah Conference on Undergrad Research (UCUR), submit a poster to the Grace Hopper conference, and submit a paper on our work to FIE. In addition, our faculty advisor is going to teach us about usability testing and we will organize usability testing sessions in the lab to further improve the design of our website. Yes, we have quite a list of New Year's Resolutions for our project come January!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Catching up after final exams week!

2009-12-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

The semester is over, but we are catching up on our hours and work since we took last week off to study and take our final exams. Our submission to the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research (UCUR) was accepted! We are registered and made our travel registrations. We will present the poster in February, so we will be able to include the December bug data on our poster and present results for a complete semester!

Now that the tutor lab is closed for the semester, we are caught up on the classifications of the tutor log forms for December. We are back-tracking though because we want to go back to identify the min, max, and avg amount of time students spent on each class of bugs. We think that not only the frequency of bugs are important to learn, but we also want to know the types of bugs that consumed the most time.

We are also working on the website. It is in limbo right now because we are redesigning it. We have two types of movies to post: (1) a step-by-step movie that shows how to find a bug (we made it with Camtasia Studio) and (2) a Flash video that is an interactive approach to teaching students about bugs. Our first step-by-step movie is down, but we are still trying to finish our Flash movie. We all watched the video and have been pair programming together, but we still need to solve our problem of making a link on a button in it. We are close to getting over the learning curve and once we do, we should be able to make the Flash movies quicker.

Finally, we are working on our mid-year surveys and will complete them this week.

Camtasia...and Turkey

2009-12-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

With last week being Thanksgiving we can't say that we got a ton accomplished. We did make it to the renovation phase with our Camtasia video. All that is left on it is to do some spelling and grammar read through on it and for everyone to give it a final once over. Then on to the big task...posting it!

The Flash Fun Continues

2009-11-23T14:57:00.003-07:00

Our Camtasia video should be up by the end of the week. We have made it through the learning curve and will be able to create the videos more efficiently in the future. Our Flash video is still in the building stages though. We know exactly what we want it to do and are working together as pair programmers to implement the movies. We created the movie plot and example code together on paper and have gone through Flash tutorials. Since this planning is done, we are just working on the technical implementation.

Flash Video

2009-11-16T12:07:00.001-07:00

Well it turns out this Flash programming is harder than we expected, surprise surprise! We have drawn up our play by play to see how our Flash game will work. But now we have to solve the problem of implementation. We are doing pair programming with Flash this week and will have a demo Flash game up by the end of the week!

Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs

2009-11-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

This past week we have started in on the October bugs. They have all been downloaded and organized, next up classification. With only 109 bugs we didn't quite beat last month's record highs (of 144 bugs), but there are still plenty to do. Our first poster is printed! I can't quite get the picture of it to post so you'll just have to use your imaginations. This week along with classifications we'll be finishing up our first Camtasia and Flash videos and getting the website ready to post them.

The Bugs Start Flying in....

2009-11-05T15:53:00.001-07:00

The last week was a busy one. The three of us went to University of Utah to participate in the ACM Programming Competition on Friday night and competed on Saturday. Much of the week was spent looking at sample problems, fixing the website, making final edits on our first poster. The poster is headed to the printers and well soon be decorating the wall by the tutor labs! We also have learned how to program a little in Flash. We aren't quite pros but we can all create a moving shape and tell it where to go. Everything is learned one step at a time though, right?
This week we start on classifying Octobers bugs. We'll see if we can beat last months record classifications!

Camtasia!!

2009-10-27T23:38:00.000-06:00

The webpage works!! The flying bugs and everything are back! The links aren't quite up and running but It looks the way it should. Over the last week we have all become Camtasia pros, well we can at least create videos. Hopefully by the end of the week we will have a video ready to post. Also our first poster has been created and is in the process of being looked over by everyone before we send it to the printers. Pictures of it will follow as soon as it's ready!

The Webpage

2009-10-19T11:58:00.000-06:00

Well the biggest accomplishment of the last week is that our webpage is up. You can view it at http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~bugs/ . Our newest complication though is that it didn't transfer quite correctly and has lost our pretty flying bug background and has taken on a bluish tint. Just as it is in programming though nothing works perfectly the first time, so we are now to the try, try again part. Hopefully by our post next week our little bugs will be back! Learning Flash is coming, slowly but surely, and this week we are creating our first posters!

Classification to the MAX

2009-10-12T15:18:00.001-06:00

We are all feeling pretty accomplished this week. We classified our massive amounts of bugs for September without a hitch. Our classification skills have also improved since we started this project because there were very few that left us perplexed this time around! They can be seen at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AorDMtGHZu8IdG1PNHRsUU5nbGUxdHF4cmR2VXFUdXc&hl=en . Now on to the task of identifying the most common ones and deciding how to solve them!

Week 6 - Our Biggest Bunch of Bugs EVER!

2009-10-02T16:44:00.000-06:00

We have started classifying the September bugs from the tutor lab. The grand total came out to be 143 bugs! That is more than we had all Spring Semester, so they should keep us busy for at least a few days as we get them all classified.
We all are now the proud users Camtasia Studio and Flash, actually we just sucessfully downloaded them but are learning how to use them next week. All of us are new to Flash programming so it should be an adventurous week.
The website should be up and running by Monday (at least the homepage that is). We have overhaulled it many a times trying to get it to look right and we think we might finally suceeded! Our latest road block is making everything end up in the right spots in the web browser. All in all though it has been quite the learning experience.

Week 5 - Classification of Bugs and Web Development

2009-09-26T17:33:00.004-06:00

We continued to classify the bugs from the tutor lab for the month of September. This has been a busy month as we have gathered over 40 tutor logs this month! (We only had a total of 140 logs from the spring semester.) We also sketched the design for our website and have begun to create the HTML and a "bug theater" logo. The website is not yet ready, but it will eventually appear at: http://digital.cs.usu.edu/~bugs

We also ordered the Flash and Camtasia Studio software that we need for our movies. It should arrive next week. We are also looking forward to October 1st because we will be able to complete the data analysis for the month of September!

WEEK 4...

2009-09-21T17:55:00.001-06:00

We are now experienced Auxiliary Reviewers. ;) We read and reviewed three research papers for SIGCSE (one accepted and two rejected in our opinion). We also cleaned up our desks and worked on our website... It's coming soon!!!

Week 3 - Classifications Round 2

2009-09-08T15:11:00.000-06:00

We have now completed the classifications of bugs for the CS 1410 classes! Here's a link to those results: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AorDMtGHZu8IdFFSck5nTTB0eFRsQ2lpUnM2REhkRXc&hl=en.

Also, our Bug Theatre is forthcoming on our new website: [URL has not yet been created].

Week 2 - Moving In & Getting to Work!

2009-09-08T14:16:00.000-06:00

We got our desks! (Which we will post pictures of shortly.)
Last week we read and discussed other research papers regarding our own research project. We also started classifying errors from tutor lab forms and entered them into an excel spreadsheet to see which ones were the most common.
The following is a link to a spreadsheet of the bug classifications we completed last week (the results from the CS 1400 lab forms):
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AorDMtGHZu8IdGM0WEE0S0pKdkJqS1RZeFA1endZcHc&hl=en

First Week

2009-08-26T20:05:00.000-06:00

Ali, Nare, and Elise are working hard this week to get their blog and their new website up and running. Wish them luck!