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References from my Computing Education Practice in Pakistan (PkCEP) talk on 26 July 2025. Andrei, O., Barr, M., Nabi, S. W., Morrison, A. (2025). Understanding Skill Transfer Between University and Workplace Through Reflective Practice: A Software Engineering Work-Based Learning Continue reading
Blog post based on the following paper, presented at ITiCSE 2025: Andrei, O., Barr, M., Nabi, S. W., Morrison, A. (2025). Understanding Skill Transfer Between University and Workplace Through Reflective Practice: A Software Engineering Work-Based Learning Experience. Proceedings of Continue reading
Our book, Approaches to Work-Based Learning in Higher Education, is out now! My own chapter, The Design and Delivery of Work-Based Degree Programmes, offers a range of insights from practitioners involved in the design and delivery of university-level apprenticeships (degree Continue reading
One of the obvious advantages of an apprenticeship is the opportunity to develop transferable skills in the workplace. These employability skills, sometimes called meta-skills, are closely related to graduate attributes, and include the ability to communicate, collaborate, and adapt. In Continue reading
Blog post based on the following paper: Barr, M., Kallia, M. (2022). Why Students Drop Computing Science: Using Models of Motivation to Understand Student Attrition and Retention. Koli Calling ’22: 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, Continue reading
Reproduced from Arts 2020, 9(4), 131; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts9040131 Abstract The Star Wars films have probably spawned more video game adaptations than any other franchise. From the 1982 release of The Empire Strikes Back on the Atari 2600 to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Continue reading
The following is an excerpt from a new paper, Playing Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Effects on Players’ Well-Being, published in Games and Culture. In the paper, we identify seven ways that video games have helped players cope Continue reading
Video games are not widely used to develop graduate skills, but they are utilised by some educators to support the teaching of subject material. Using games in such a manner does not preclude skills development, however, and those educators who Continue reading
Through interviews with the developers behind commercial titles including Borderlands, Portal and Lara Croft, Chapter 7 explores how such games are designed to exercise certain skills and competencies in players, which may also be valuable beyond the games. Here s an Continue reading
In Chapter 5, the empirical data presented in previous chapters are discussed, exploring how this work aligns with established theories of game-based learning. A range of graduate attributes are considered in turn, and ancillary benefits such as stress relief are Continue reading