Students of initial level programming courses generally face difficulties while learning the programming concepts. The learning analytics studies, in these courses, are mostly anecdotal on the aspect of assessment as less or no attention is given to assess learning at various cognitive levels of specific concepts. Furthermore, the existing work reflects deficiencies in examining the effect of learners’ cognitive performance on subsequent stages of the course. This gap needs to be addressed by introducing more granular and methodical approaches of cognitive analysis for sustaining the programming courses effectively in computer science and associated disciplines. In this article, a framework-based approach is proposed for cognitive learning analytics on the concepts taught in initial level programming courses. The framework serves as a platform that provides structure to the concept data using the technique of concept mapping and examines learners’ cognitive propagation on related concepts using assessment data. Learners’ performance prediction has been examined on relatively higher-level programming concepts through the metrics established from the cognitive maps of learners, acquired by deploying the related layers of framework. Overall maximum prediction accuracy range obtained was 64.81% to 90.86%, which was better than the prediction accuracies presented in most of the related studies.

Project management learning involves realization of the project management's knowledge areas, familiarity with advanced tools as well as developing abilities like critical thinking and decision-making. The majority of inexperienced project managers struggle to achieve these essential skills. Teaching project management is sometimes difficult due to the involvement of practical implementation along with delivering the theoretical concepts. The subject has been explored in a variety of ways by the research community covering the improvisations in teaching methodologies and curricula as well as the applications of alternative approaches such as blended learning and gamification. This article presents the review of the state-of-the-art research in project management education by carefully reviewing the selected research articles published between 2015 and 2022. The primary goal of this study is to summarize the impact of blended learning, curriculum and gamification in project management education by examining the empirically verified research. The key findings represent that "evaluation research" and "solution proposal" are the two most used research categories. Furthermore, this study proposes a taxonomy, which is designed to summarize the fundamental components of blended learning along with their advantages. Moreover, the challenges and gaps as open issues are also presented in the area of project management education. Additionally, this research suggests a project centric model to enhance the learning outcomes of project management courses and provides guidelines for instructors to improve the blended learning and gamification experience for students of project management courses. Finally, the prospects of future research have been offered to the fellow researchers and practitioners engaged in project management education.