1. National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
Analysis of Informatics in General Education
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
Next I am going to explain the result of the survey type C, analysis of Informatics in General Education. Since Professor Takahashi, the first author of this paper, cannot attend this conference, I am going to make a presentation in place of her.
Naoko Takahashi／ Tetsuro Kakeshita

2. Four types of computing education in Japanese universities: A～D
3-rd year
2-nd year
1-st year
C： Informatics in General Education A B D
4-th year
IT Department Non-IT Department
IT Education for
High School Teacher License on IT
IT Education as a Major Field of Study
IT Education　as non-Major Subject
The target of the survey type C is the informatics in general education. This type of education is provided by a university or a faculty as a common education for the students belonging to the university or the faculty. Such general education is typically carried out at the first or second academic year as a fundamental of the specialized education at each department or course.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

3. Response Rate Analysis of TypeC
# of Responses ・・・739
Response from entire universities ・・・447
Response from faculties or campuses ・・・292
Response Rate to Survey Type C
70.5% of the Universities in Japan
Standpoint of the Respondent
Secretariat staff・・・ 69.2%
University Type
National
Public
Private
Total
# of Responses 69 58
403
530
We collected 739 answers from 530 universities through the survey type C. Among the responses 447 are the responses from the university are the responses from a faculty or a single campus of a university. The number of responded universities is This is 70.5% of the universities in Japan so that we collected enough number of responses to analyze the entire picture of informatics in general education in Japan.
About 70% of the responses are provided by secretariat staff. Since informatics in general education is administrated by a university or a faculty, a secretariat staff can answer the questions on behalf of the faculty members in charge. Secretariat staff also has various information of the computing subjects.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

4. National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
Overview
Total number of Students learning Informatics in General Education ・・・247,112
Larger than the number of students (87,261) learning computing subject at non-IT department and course
Required Credits of Computing Subjects for Graduation
No Credit: 35.5%
Lecture (mandatory): 2 credits
Exercise (mandatory): 1-2 credits
Elective subject: 2 credits
According to the survey, the total number of students learning informatics in general education is about 247,000. This number is even larger than the number of students learning computing subjects at non-IT department and courses.
About 1/3 of the universities do not require any credits on informatics in general education. The number of required credits for graduation is 2 for mandatory lecture and 1-2 for mandatory exercise. Other than these two mandatory subjects, some of the universities impose students to get more than 2 credits of the elective computing subjects. Such data is an important restriction to develop standard curriculum guideline for informatics in general education.
Frequent Answers
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

5. Knowledge and Skill Level Definition
Knowledge Level Definition
Skill Level Definition
Not taught (unnecessary or already taught at general computing education) 1
Not taught because of the time limitation or because the level of the contents is too high.
Taught at class with simple exercise. 2
Taught at class. Students know each term.
Taught at class with some exercise. Students can perform the topic if detailed instruction is provided. 3
Taught at class. Students can explain the meaning of each term.
Taught at experiment with more complex exercise. Students can perform the topic with simplified instruction. 4
Taught at class. Students can explain relationship and/or difference among related terms
Students perform combined research project containing the topic so that the students can autonomously perform the topic. 5
Taught at class or graduation research project. Students can teach related domain or subject of the terms to the others.
Students perform combined research theme containing the topic. Students can teach how to perform the topic to others.
This is the definition of the levels for knowledge and skill. These are the same as the definition which I explained in the previous presentation.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

6. Effort Analysis for Each GEBOK Areas
This is the effort distribution of skill and knowledge for each area of GEBOK, our current body of knowledge for informatics in general education. There is a strong correlation between the skill effort and knowledge efforts. You can also observe that universities are most focus on teaching computer literacy. The second and the third focus is on teaching information network and information security. These topics can be considered as the main topics of current informatics in general information. In other words, more advanced topics such as computer programming is usually taught at independent department or course as a part of their specialized education.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

7. Average Levels of Each Area of Informatics in General Education
This is the average level of each area of informatics in general education. The average knowledge levels for computer literacy and information security is about three. This means that students can explain the concepts. The average knowledge levels are around 2 for the other areas. So we can expect that the students only know the topics. For the skill, the achievement level of computer literacy exceeds two. This means that most of the current computing exercise is devoted to teach computer literacy skill. When we develop model curriculum for general education, the current teaching level of each topic should be considered.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

8. Faculty Members Teaching Informatics in General Education
Faculty member classification
Total
# of computing department graduates
# of faculty members specialized in informatics
Full-time faculty members (non fixed-term)
2,467
550 （24.1%）
318 （13.4 %）
Full-time faculty members (fixed term)
361
77 （21.3 %）
130 （41.1 %）
Part-time faculty members (within Univ.)
1,247
282 （22.6 %）
443 （35.5 %）
Part-time faculty
members (Outside Univ.)
1,874
567 （30.6 %）
891 （48.2 %）
5,849
1,476
1,782
This table represents the number of faculty members teaching informatics in general education. Among the 6000 faculty members, 40% are hired as full time faculty members. 60% of the faculty members are hired as part time members within the university or outside of the university. The ratio of computing department graduates is not high as in the case of the previous presentation. Since computing education is required at many aspects of the university education, systematic development and skill up of the faculty members is quite important to improve computing education.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

9. Learning Management System (LMS)
LMS Product Name
# of Answers
Moodle 92
WebClass 27
manaba 25
Blackboard 19
Course Power 13
Universal Passport 10
One characteristics of informatics in general education is the utilization of learning management system. Half of the universities are utilizing LMS. This is mainly because the number of enrolled students is large and the number of teachers and teaching staff is limited so that automated education using IT become necessary.
One possible solution to improve computing education is to utilize e-learning system and to promote sharing of the teaching contents among different universities. In order to realize these, more effort is necessary to develop common computing curriculum for general education and to solve copyright issues of the contributors who develop the shared teaching contents.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

10. Utilization of IT Certifications
IT Certification/Qualification
# of Answers
IT Passport Examination（ITEE） 25
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) 14
Nissho PC Qualifying examinations
　（by Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry） 5
.com Master 2
ICT Proficiency
Information Security Management
Total
59（8%）
This is the list of IT certifications or qualifications utilized for informatics in general education. The IT passport examination is run by the Japanese ministry of industry and is well accepted in Japan as a proof of fundamental knowledge about computing discipline. Many students are willing to take the exam in order to prepare for the job hunting and many universities are encouraging students to take the examination. Although not many, but some universities accept the certification as an evidence to get a credit.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

11. National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
Summary
Informatics in General Education is widely taught at Japanese universities
530 universities among 750
247,000 students among 620,000
Typically 2-4 credits are assigned for computing subject
Focus on
Computer Literacy, Information Network, Information Security
Partly focus on computer programming
Lack of Teaching Staff majored in Computing
Utilization of LMS, IT certification, etc.
Survey result will be utilized for curriculum development
This is the summary of the presentation. Informatics in general education is widely taught at Japanese universities. At least 40% of the students are learning informatics in general education. But the contents of the education is quite limited. The assigned credits are typically 2 to 4 so that the education must focus on computer literacy and information network. Programming education is performed only partially due to the lack of teaching staff majored in computing discipline. One possible approach to solve the difficulty is to utilize e-learning and sharing of teaching materials. The information processing society of Japan will utilize the survey result to develop new curriculum for informatics in general education.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

12. Thank you for the attention. Any Questions or Comments?
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

13. National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

14. Answer Distribution of Each Area
Computer Literacy
Information Network
These are the distributions of the achievement levels of computer literacy and information network which are the main topic of informatics in general education. By observing the distribution of levels, each university can assess their own position among Japanese universities. If their achievement level is higher than the average, the corresponding topics are their strong points. The distribution can also be utilized to determine reasonable accreditation criteria, i.e. minimum requirement of each area. If the achievement level is lower than the minimum requirement, the educational program need improvement.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

15. Answer Distribution of Each Area
Algorithm and Programming
Information Ethics and Security
These are other distributions for computer programming and information security. You can observe that there are some universities teaching computer programming within general education. The achievement levels of information security are rather different depending on the universities. The educational need is quite high for information security. But many universities cannot assign appropriate professionals of information security to teach the topic. Such situation can be considered as the reason of the differences.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

16. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (TOP TEN)
 Ranking
Languages 1 C 2
Visual Basic/VBA 3
Java 4
JavaScript 5
C++
 Ranking
Languages 6
Ruby 7
Fortran 8
SQL 9
Python 10
PHP
This is the list of popular programming languages used for computing education. The ranking is essentially the same as the case of computing education for non-IT departments. Thus we can expect that the teaching materials for the popular programming languages can be shared among the universities. We often find programming education which only teach programming language grammar. Sharing of the teaching material will be useful to improve such type of programming education.
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

17. National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
contents
Outline of Survey
Four types of computing education in Japanese universities: A～D
The list of areas of　J07-GEBOK
Knowledge and Skill Level Definition
Response Rate Summary (Overall)
Faculty Members in Charge of General Computing Education
Effort Analysis for Each GEBOK Areas
Average Levels of Each Area of Informatics in General Education
Answer Distribution of Each Area
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES (TOP TEN)
Educational environment（LMS）
Cooperation with educational Certifications
Remarks
説明しやすいように、並べ替えてくださってかまいません
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

18. National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
1.Outline of Survey
調査の概要が必要であれば入れてください
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

19. Response Rate Summary (Overall)
National
Public
Private
Total
♯ of Requested Universities 82 86
590
758
# of Registered Universities 79 72
498
649
Ｎ／Ａ 7
Response Rate
96.3％
83.7％
85.6％
86.5％
Ｔｙｐｅ
National
Public
Private
Total A 84 35
177
296 Ｂ
302 64
631
997 Ｃ 96 69
571
736 Ｄ 85 17
234
336
Ｔｏｔａｌ
695
256
1,979
2,930
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

20. The list of areas of J07-GEBOK
Information and Communication
Digitalization of the Information
Computing Elements and Structure
Algorithms and Programming
Data Modeling and Operation
Information Network
Information Systems
Information Ethics and Security
Computer Literacy（PC Skills）
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12

21. Level distribution of knowledge and skill level in each item of GEBOK
National Survey of Japanese Universities on Computing Education
2017/9/12