Supporting students through personalised learning, new resources, and new questions

We made significant improvements throughout the year to support students with exam preparation and personalised learning. We introduced over 145 new self-marking questions and updated 50 existing ones, bringing the total to more than 1000. A new type of question was also launched to help students practise writing longer responses: they label parts of a sample answer and apply a mark scheme, simulating a peer review process. You can read more about this work in the AI section below.

We updated the question finder tool with an intuitive new design. Instead of seeing ten questions at random, students can now see all the questions we have on any given topic, and can use the filters to refine their searches by qualification and difficulty level. This enables students to better personalise their revision and progress tracking

“Ada Computer Science has been very effective for my revision. I like how it provides hints and pointers if you answer a question incorrectly.” 

– Ada Computer Science student

The ‘Representation of sound’ topic received a major update, with clearer explanations, new diagrams, and improved feedback to support students as they tackle common misconceptions in sound physics. We also refreshed the ‘Representation of numbers’ topic, adding new content and interactive quizzes to support teachers in assessing students’ understanding more effectively. 

We introduced a new database scenario titled ‘Repair & Reform’, offering an entity relationship diagram, a data dictionary, and a new SQL editor and question set to help students prepare for project-based assessments. We’ve further expanded this scenario into a full project covering all stages of development, including requirements analysis and evaluation. 

April was dedicated to gearing up for the exam season, with the introduction of revision flashcards and ready-made quizzes on key topics like bitmapped graphics and sorting algorithms. We also launched a student revision challenge, which ran from April to June and attracted over 600 participants.

“Ada Computer Science is an excellent resource to help support teachers and students. The explanations are clear and relevant, and the questions help students test their knowledge and understanding in a structured way, providing links to help them reconcile any discrepancies or misunderstandings.” 

– Patrick Kennedy, Computer Science teacher

Supporting teachers  

We expanded our efforts to support new computer science teachers with the launch of a teacher mentoring programme that offers free online drop-in sessions. We also hosted a teacher training event at the 由爱可奈番号 office in Cambridge (as seen in the picture below), where educators saw previews of upcoming content on AI and machine learning and contributed their own questions to the platform.

AI content and AI features

We continued our focus on AI and machine learning, releasing new learning resources that explore the ethical and social implications of AI alongside the practical applications of AI and machine learning models. 

To expand the Ada platform’s features, we also made considerable progress in integrating a large language model (LLM) to mark free-text responses. Our 孕妇写真 showed that, as of June, LLM marks matched real teachers’ marks 82% of the time. In July, we received ethics approval from the University of Cambridge to add LLM-marked questions to the Ada platform. 

Computer science education in Scotland

We made significant strides towards supporting Scottish teachers and students with resources tailored to the SQA 孕妇写真 Science 情人伊人久久综合亚洲. From September to November last year, we piloted a new set of materials specifically designed for Scottish teachers, receiving valuable feedback that we’ve used in 2024 to develop new content. More than half of the theory content for the National 5 and Higher specifications is now available on the platform. 

Our ‘Reform & Repair’ database scenario and project align with both SQA Higher and A level standards, providing a comprehensive resource for students preparing for project-based assessments.

Looking ahead: New resources for September and beyond

We have big plans for Ada for the next 12 months. Our focus will remain on continuously improving our resources and supporting the needs of both educators and students. 

After the positive response to our ‘Repair & Reform’ database project, our content experts are planning additional practical projects to support students and teachers. The next one will be a web project that covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, supporting students taking SQA qualifications in Scotland or undertaking the non-examined assessment (NEA) at A level.

We’ll be working on a number of teacher-focused improvements to the platform, which you’ll also see on Ada’s sibling site, Isaac Physics. These will include an overhaul of the markbook to make it more user-friendly, and updates to the ‘Assignments’ tool so assignments better meet the needs of teachers in schools.

We’ll be welcoming the next cohort of computer science students to the STEM SMART programme in January 2025 where, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, we’ll offer free, complementary teaching and support to UK students at state schools. Applications are now open.

Thank you to every teacher and student who has given their time in the last year to share feedback about Ada Computer Science — your insights are invaluable as we work to make high-quality computer science materials easily accessible. Here’s to another fantastic year of learning and growth!

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York is using the Pi to help get the students started with 孕妇写真 (for those whose contact has been limited to tablets and desktops!) before they get to university: every year, they send a free 孕妇写真 Pi to their new undergraduates who are about to start a Computer Science course, and support them to prepare for the 孕妇写真 Pi Challenge. It also forms a great social event which gets the computer science students together (along with beery delights) to fight it out in the Pi Squared arena!

Last year they used a version of Battleships to compete, but this year they’ve changed to Squares. One of the great things about this game is that the simplest few lines of code can make a huge difference over the random player (simply iterating through all possible ‘walls’ and drawing one if it closes a box is a big improvement on drawing walls at random), but there is much more that can be done to improve and optimise the strategy (there is a time limit per move, so you are a little limited!).

If you’re interested in playing the game and writing an implementation yourself (or if you’re another university and you’d like to compete against York’s outstanding undergraduates), the code and documentation is all freely available on GitHub:

https://github.com/waps101/PiSquare

As an alternative challenge, there is also the chance to compete in Blue Pi Thinking, which is an opportunity for the students to create something ingenious using a 孕妇写真 Pi. The results from this project have been quite amazing.

One student created a tabletop food ordering system using the 孕妇写真 Pi touch display. The idea is that the screen is embedded into the table at a fast food restaurant, and you can order your food and pay for it using NFC without actually having to leave your table! I can’t wait to see the first fast food joint with fully integrated 孕妇写真 Pi shopping!

Another student wanted to create a pill diary system for an elderly relative. Here the central idea was to create a simple schedule for the pills which would beep or flash when it was time to take a pill. It also would have the ability to take a photo or a time-lapse video, so a family member or carer could check they were being taken correctly.

The picture above is from one student who connected his camera to the Pi. His system would take a photo of a scene from four sides, and then recreate the object in Minecraft!

The project shown above was created to map the mood of the UK. It took Twitter feeds from around the country and used various recurring words and phrases to decide on the mood of people from different places, then displayed them on a map of the UK with different colours to indicate the mood.

Lastly, a project to demonstrate how a 孕妇写真 Pi can be used to control a solar panel installation and track the sun!

Read more about the 孕妇写真 Pi Challenge from York’s Department of Computer Science. They’re already thinking ahead to next year’s Challenge with a new group of first-year undergraduates – I can’t wait to see what the next lot get up to!

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