WORKSHOP PROPOSAL FOR OOPSLA 1997

We propose a full-day workshop of presentations and collaborative sessions to study and discuss:
RESOURCES FOR EARLY OBJECT DESIGN EDUCATION

We wish to organize this workshop to follow on from the very successful workshop we organized at OOPSLA 1996 on "Teaching and Learning Object Design in the First Year". The earlier workshop resulted in agreement that object design should be emphasised to a greater extent in the early stages of computer science education, and a number of convincing approaches were presented. However, in the 1996 workshop there was also a widespread call for resources to enable teachers to emphasize object design more effectively. This new 1997 workshop will address the need for a resource base for emphasising object design in the early years. In the call for participation, we will suggest a category structure for the resources we feel are most important, such as case studies, sample exercises, and so on. Prospective participants will be invited to submit a sample resource for presentation at the morning session of the workshop. With these as a focus we will spend the afternoon in discussion. We will first discuss the resources presented in the morning, and in general address how best to evaluate and categorize these kinds of resources. Later we will address how to facilitate sharing resources on an ongoing basis -- for example, we will consider establishing a web repository for early object design education resources. As results of the workshop, we will prepare a report on the set of resources, useful in their own right, and our discussion about them. We will then use these resources to illustrate the workshop proposals on categorization, evaluation, and how best to address longer term sharing. As in 1996, we hope to be able to present an immediate report to the Educators Symposium. We will stay true to the key principles of the earlier workshop by continuing to stress design over implementation, explicitly avoiding language wars, and above all working to help educators perform their role more successfully. We will again specifically invite people from industry to contribute their perspective.

1. PRIMARY WORKSHOP THEMES

2. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PROBLEMS TO BE ADDRESSED 3. A PROPOSED AGENDA
We propose to follow a similar plan to the 1996 workshop, which worked very successfully. Broadly, we will use the morning for specific presentations, and with these presentations to focus us, we will use the afternoon for discussion. Also as in 1996, we will split the morning presentations into major presentations, to allow enough time for critical ideas, and brief presentations, to allow everyone to outline their approach and hence facilitate later discussion. 4. REFERENCES TO PAPERS, WORKSHOPS, AND FORUMS MOTIVATING THE WORKSHOP
Our view is that recently there has been an increasing acceptance of OO as the paradigm of choice for introductory computer science courses. However, interest has typically focussed on language and implementation issues. In research and industry there have been important developments in better understanding of object design, but these have not been directly suitable as resources for educators at early levels. Some new approachs have emerged, and we see our workshop as playing an important role in supporting educators. 5. PROSPECTIVE CO-ORGANIZERS:
Rick Mercer                                             Robert Biddle
Penn State Berks                                     Victoria University of Wellington
Engineering and CS                                  School of Mathematical and Computing Sciences
PO Box 7009 PO Box 600 Reading, PA Wellington
19610-6009 USA                                    NEW ZEALAND
1-610-320-4845                                     64-4-471-5328
1-610-320-4857(fax)                              64-4-495-5232(fax)
rhm1@psuvm.psu.edu                             robert@comp.vuw.ac.nz

6. PRIMARY CONTACT: Rick Mercer