Workshops and Exhibitor Demonstrations


Exhibitor Demonstrations

Creating a Successful Full Stack Course for Beginning Students


Greg Anderson
Brigham Young University

Jaret Wilson
myEducator

Scott Pectol
myEducator

Overview:This presentation demonstrates how you can implement a Full Stack development course. The term "Full Stack" can seem intimidating and even more so for students just learning how to program websites. However, it can also be a motivating phrase since the skills in this course can help them apply for entry level development jobs as they continue in their academic progress. This course has been successfully implemented at a western university for students thinking of pursuing an Information Systems degree. The course uses either Python/Django/PostgreSQL or JavaScript/Node/Express. The basics of HTML/CSS are also covered along with a simple introduction to databases. The course teaches through readings, videos, quizzes, exams and projects, the fundamentals of the language, OOP, and step by step the creation of a full stack website. The course also shows how to deploy the website and database on the Internet for peers to see and admire!

Friday at 10:20 a.m.

Teaching Python Programming with Animation and Analogies


Daniel Groner
Fordham University

Beth Lang Golub
Prospect Press VT

Overview:Students new to learning a programming language can benefit from seeing example code in animations. In this presentation we'll show a code animation tool that allows students to see relationships between statements, variables, inputs, outputs, and overall flow. These animations have been integrated with a textbook to help students see program dynamics.

Additionally, students with spreadsheet experience can benefit from comparing and contrasting spreadsheet modeling with programming. In this presentation, we'll also look at analogies between spreadsheets and programming.

Friday at 1:50 p.m.


Learning Workshops

Workshop Chair

Mark Frydenburg
Bentley University


Practical Uses of DevOps in the Classroom with GitLab for Education


PJ Metz
GitLab

Christina Hupy
GitLab

Objectives
DevOps, a culture shift in the methodology of software development, is beginning to transform teaching, learning, and research in higher education the same way it transformed software companies. A student of information systems or computer science who wants to remain competitive in this market should make sure they are familiar with DevOps, and a great place to start is with GitLab's One DevOps Platform. GitLab is a top choice of enterprise companies around the world for building their DevOps solutions. In this 90-minute workshop, participants will learn how to use GitLab in a classroom setting. First, we'll discuss DevOps history and its relationship to Agile, as well as concepts that are used in tech companies as well as how these same concepts can be applied to classroom learning and work. Then, join us for a hands-on UI walkthrough of important features and an example classroom setup to show how other educators have used GitLab in their own classrooms. Participants will walk away with a set of ideas they can begin to apply on their campus as soon as they return as well as hands-on experience with GitLab and the skills needed to help colleagues and students navigate GitLab and understand its features.

Targeted Attendees
Participants should create a free GitLab account and, if possible, go through with the Credit Card Identity verification for CI/CD. Your card will not be charged but a $1 hold will happen and disappear after a few days.

Thursday at 10:20 a.m.

The Easy Button: A Hands-on Workshop on Utilizing Microsoft Azure to Teach High-Demand Skills


Manuel Garriga
Principle Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft Corporation

Craig Froehlich
Microsoft Corporation

Objectives
Bring your laptop and your creativity to this hands-on workshop that will guide you through 'the art of the possible' with using Microsoft Azure to teach modern, in-demand skills. Highlights include an overview of Azure, how to get started quickly, free resources and services available to faculty, staff and students, a spotlight on data/AI and cognitive services plus information on training, certification and curriculum resources. Walk away with a new perspective (and toolset!) for using Azure in your classroom!

Targeted Attendees
All Attendees

Friday at 10:20 a.m.

AI Natural Language Processing With Google Dialogflow


Thuan Nguyen
The University of North Texas

Objectives
Researchers and practitioners in the Natural language processing (NLP) field have recently achieved many outstanding achievements by taking advantage of the advanced features of deep learning neural networks. The resulting technologies have been implemented in many enterprise services offered for business employment. A prominent enterprise product of this category is Google's lifelike conversational Dialogflow, an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) focusing on NLP.

One of the most popular applications of NLP is creating a chatbot that can communicate with users via some interfaces, either text or voice. Creating a chatbot is not hard. However, creating a powerful chatbot is not simple at all, not to say, extremely hard, especially for companies that have limited human resources with a high-level of talent in the artificial intelligence field. That is where GCP Dialogflow, with AI NLP capabilities, comes into the picture. It offers advanced NLP features and is integrated with popular communication services such as Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and Slack, to name a few.

The workshop provides hands-on, step-by-step experiences of setting up the main components of the Dialogflow system, such as Agents, Intents, and Entities, to create a powerful, lifelike conversational AI chatbot. Then, the workshop shows how to build the communication flow to accomplish some real-world business tasks using Google Dialogflow API without requiring any coding or programming skills.

Friday at 3:45 p.m.

Integrating Citizen Development into Individual Courses and Across Programs of Study


Victor Berardi
Vaneet Kaur
Gregory Blundell

Kent State University at Stark

Objectives
Organizations are having a hard time finding qualified individuals for all their needs just as automation is being implemented at breathtaking pace and is expected to remain so from many years. At the same time, low-code technologies and platforms are becoming prevalent in businesses and organizations, where entry-level low-code tools are often free. Relatedly, The World Economic Forum (WEC), is calling for the upskilling of a billion individuals by 2025. Higher education writ large, which is under criticism and pressure from multiple directions, could bring significant value by integrating low-code exercises and examples into individual courses and across the curriculum map encouraging citizen development amongst its students. This workshop is for the absolute beginner to low-code technologies through more advanced users seeking teaching examples, insights and ideas. After a 10-minute introduction to low-code technologies and citizen development, workshop participants will choose their own path of activities to complete, from a collection we have developed over time. Examples from marketing, general management, supply chain, operations, human resources, et al. are included. Programming concepts such as looping, conditional branching, and data protection are integrated into these problem-focused exercises. In addition, capabilities, such as approval processes, incorporating WFAs into phone and web apps, and building AI-augmented flows are also represented.

Saturday at 8:45 a.m.