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Mr .. Simon

Work Phone (02) 4348 4666
Fax (02) 4348 4145
Email
Position Senior Lecturer
School of Design Communication and IT
The University of Newcastle, Australia
Office SO:E1.44, Science Offices

Biography

For much of my early academic career I was a 'gentle' researcher, averaging one conference paper a year. In the last few years I have become strongly involved in multi-institutional multi-national research projects, in which I have become recognised as a significant contributor and sometimes a leader, and which has led to a marked growth in my research output.

Qualifications

  • Master of Mathematics, University of Newcastle, 1985
  • Diploma of Computer Science, University of Newcastle
  • Bachelor of Arts, James Cook University
  • Bachelor of Science, James Cook University

Research

Research keywords

  • Academic integrity
  • Bibliometrics
  • Computing education

Research expertise

Computing education: researching the difficulties that some students have grasping computing subject matter, particularly programming education, and possible ways of overcoming those difficulties.

Bibliometrics: researching the emergence of computing education as a field of research; specifically within that area, analysing the body of published papers within computing education and identifying the increased proportion of those papers that are clearly research papers.

Academic integrity: investigating ways that students cheat and ways of detecting and overcoming the cheating.

Collaboration

Much of my recent research is in collaboration with various subgroups of an international group of computing education researchers. Members of the group come from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States, Finland, Sweden, and elsewhere.

Languages

  • English

Fields of Research

Code Description Percentage
089999 Information And Computing Sciences Not Elsewhere Classified 55
109999 Technology Not Elsewhere Classified 25
080599 Distributed Computing Not Elsewhere Classified 20

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

  • Member - ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education
  • Member - Special Interest Group on Computing Education - Founding member and Executive member of Australasian Chapter

Conference Chair

  • Australasian Computing Education Conference
  • International Computing Education Research Workshop - Submissions Chair

Editorial Board.

  • Editor - Australasian Computing Education Conference
  • Editor - Computer Science Education (based in UK)
  • Editor - Koli Calling Conference on Computing Education Research
  • Editor - ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

Administrative

Administrative expertise

Deputy Head of School, 2009-present

Head of IT Discipline, 2009-present

Student Academic Conduct Officer, 2004-present

Ourimbah Campus OH&S Committee, 1999-2007; Chair 2001-2006

Faculty of Science & IT OH&S Committee, 2004-2006

University OH&S Committee, Chair 2004-2006

University Human Research Ethics Committee, 2007-2008; Deputy Chair 2008

Teaching

Teaching keywords

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Natural language processing
  • Programming
  • Programming languages

Teaching expertise

Have taught in most areas of computer science and information technology.

Currently, most of my teaching time involves computer programming courses.

Teaching interests

Simon has taught in a wide range of areas in IT and computer science. His current teaching focuses mainly on computer programming in various guises.

Programs

Courses