J. Ben Schafer Professor, Department of Computer Science Program Coordinator, CSED@UNI University of Northern Iowa 32 East Bartlett (Office) 221 Lang Hall (CSEd Lab) Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0507 (319)-273-2187

Current Schedule

To view my teaching schedule and how to schedule a meeting with me please click here.

Teaching

Fall 2024

• CSED 1320, Fundamentals of Programming
• CSED 5133, Fundamentals of Programming [For in-service teachers - Cohort 24]
• CSED 5320, Data Structures and Algorithms [For in-service teachers - Cohort 23]

Other Courses I have taught (last time taught)

• CSED 1310, Programming Environments for Elementary Education (Spring 2024)
• CSED 1320, Fundamentals of Programming (Fall 2022)
• CSED 2310, Foundational Concepts of Computer Science (Spring 2023)
• CSED 3310, Teaching and Learning Programming (Spring 2023)
• CSED 3320, Data Structures and Algorithms (Fall 2022)
• CSED 4330, Methods of Computer Science (Spring 2022)
• CSED 5133, Foundational Concepts of Computer Science (Summer 2024)
• CSED 5133, Fundamentals of Programming (Fall 2023)
• CSED 5310, Teaching and Learning Programming (Spring 2024)
• CSED 5320, Data Structures and Algorithms (Fall 2023)
• CSED 5330, Methods of Computer Science (Summer 2024)
• CS 1120, Media Computation (Spring 2014)
• CS 1800, Discrete Structures (Spring 2024)
• CS 1510, Introduction to Computing (Spring 2013)
• CS 1520, Data Structures (Fall 2009)
• CS 2530, Intermediate Computing (Fall 2018)
• CS 3120, User Interface Design (Fall 2017)
• CS 3610, Artificial Intelligence (Fall 2020)
• CS 3610, (4th credit), Robotics Laboratory (Fall 2010)
• CS 4620, Intelligent Systems (Spring 2023)

Research

Historically, my research interests involved recommender systems, collaborative information systems, and agent assisted interfaces.  This draws from the fields of information retrieval, artificial intelligence (AI), and human computer interaction (HCI).  I was very involved with this line of research until about 2008 and while I haven't published in this area in a while, it is still very much a part of my interest set. The work I did between 1998 and 2008 continues to be consistently cited as foundational work in the discipline.

However, for over a decade I have been working almost exclusively in computer science education, the use of computers in education, and teaching strategies for computer science education.  This includes curriculum work (for which I now chair the Computer Science Education team at UNI), classroom teaching strategies (including curriculum development for POGIL and Peer-Instruction), and equitable grading practices.

• My publications.