Yael Gertner

Select Scholarly Activities

Designing Autograded Tools For Teaching Theory of Computing
Discrete Mathematics, algorithms, and theory of computation form the foundations of computer science. They are essential for retention and transferring into the field. Yet the skills required to do well in these topics are novel and very different from those needed in programming classes that students are more familiar with. We design and evaluate autograded tools that provide students with immediate feedback and scaffold them through the process of problem solving in the context of writing proofs and designing algorithms.

Poulsen, S., Gertner, Y., Chen, H., Cosman, B., West, M. & Herman, G.L.(2024) Disentangling the Learning Gains from Reading a Book Chapter and Completing Proof Blocks Problems. Proc. of the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.
Erickson, J., Xia, J., Robson, E.W., Do, T., Glickman, A., Jia, Z., Jin, E., Lee, J., Lin, P., Pan, S., Ruggerio, S., Sakurayama, T., Yin, A., Gertner, Y., and Solomon, B.. (2023). Auto-graded scaffolding exercises for theoretical computer science. Proc. of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Poulsen, S., Gertner, Y., Cosman, B., West, M., & Herman, G.. (2023). Efficiency of Learning from Proof Blocks versus writing Proofs. Proc. of the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pages 472-478.

Identifying Study Strategies for Success in Conceptual Problem Solving Courses
Some students struggle in gateway CS and Engineering courses and midterm grades come too late in the term to make an actionable difference. In this project, we identify study skills needed to succeed in conceptual courses in engineering such as Discrete Mathematics, Conservation Principles for Bioengineering, and Analog Circuits & Systems. Skills required in these courses are unique and unfamiliar to most students. We conduct interviews about how students spend their time studying. We measure how these skills interact with student motivation and background. We ask whether students that don’t have a mathematical background but that exhibit certain study skills can succeed as measured by final grades. We also ask whether other features that have been demonstrated in the literature as predictors of success, such as motivation and social interactions, are sufficient predictors of success in such conceptual engineering classes.

Gertner, Y., Alvarez, J., Cosman, B., & Amos, J. (2024). Work in Progress: How do students spend their time studying in a CS Discrete Math course? Proc. of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Amos, J. Gertner, Y., Alvarez, J., Cosman, B., (2024). WIP: Exploring Disposition in a Foundational Conservation Principles of Bioengineering Course. Proc. of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Gertner, Y., Alvarez, J., Cosman, B., & Amos, J. (2023). Identifying Student Profiles Related to Success in Discrete Math CS Courses. Proc. of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Alvarez, J., Gertner, Y., Cosman, B., & Amos, J., (2023). Identifying Student Profiles Related to Success in an Analog Signal Processing course. Proc. of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Gertner, Y., Amos, J., Alvarez, J., & Cosman, B. (2022). Understanding student self-regulated behaviors in introductory problem solving computing and engineering classes. Proc. of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education.

K-12 Curriculum Design and Development
We are developing a high school CS+X topics course. This course centers on the varied ways computer science can impact society and would broaden the populations of students interested in computing. It surveys the less traditional interdisciplinary “CS+X” degrees offered at the University of Illinois. This includes CS+Linguistics, CS+Advertising, CS+Philosophy, CS+Anthropology, CS+Agriculture, and CS+Music. The course included intro to programming, projects, and lecture content about each of the topics. The content is modular and can be incorporated into existing courses. In a participatory design project, we are working with high school teachers to integrate our projects (from our CS+X class) into their classroom.

Isenegger, K., Fowler, M., Gertner, Y., Hegeman-Davis, R. & Pitt, L. (2024). Designing and Piloting a High School CS+X Topics Course. Proc. of the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.
Isenegger, K., Fowler, M., Gertner, Y., Hegeman Davis, R., Pitt, L. (June 2023). Designing a CS+X survey course for high school students. Presented at the Illinois Computer Science Summer Teaching Workshop. Virtual.

Mentoring High School Students in Computer Science
We are developing a model for a high school CS research experience program. Our model specifies the process and amount of engagement as well as how to design a successful project. We have piloted this program with CS faculty members serving as students’ mentors in summer 2022, 2023 and 2024. Overall we engaged 35 students and 15 faculty. We have evaluated the model through surveys and interviews.

Isenegger, K. Perdriau, C,, Tabares, S., Solomon, B, Gertner, Y. (June 2024) Mentoring High School Students in Computer Science, Presented at the Illinois Computer Science Summer Teaching Workshop. Virtual.