From a National Meeting to an International Conference: A Scientometric Case Study of a Finnish Computing Education Conference

Abstract

Computerisation and digitalisation are shaping the world in fundamental and unpredictable ways, which highlights the importance of computing education research (CER). As part of understanding the roots of CER, it is crucial to investigate the evolution of CER as a research discipline. In this paper we present a case study of a Finnish CER conference called Koli Calling, which was launched in 2001, and which has become a central publication venue of CER. We investigate the evolution of Koli Calling's scholarly communities and zoom in on it's publication habits and internalisation process. We explore the narrative of the development and scholarly agenda behind changes in the conference submission categories from the perspective of some of the conference chairs over the years. We then take a qualitative perspective, analysing the conference publications based on a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. The outcomes include classification of important research clusters of authors in the community of conference contributors. Interestingly, we find traces of important events in the historical development of CER. In particular, we find clusters emerging from specific research capacity building initiatives and we can trace how these connect research spanning the world CER community from Finland to Sweden and then further to the USA, Australia and New Zealand. This paper makes an important strategic contribution to the evolution of CER as a research discipline, from the perspective of one central event and publication venue, providing a broad perspective on the role of the conference in connecting research clusters and establishing a truly international research community. This work contributes insights to researchers in one specific CER community and how they shape the future of computing education.

Intercultural Communication Competence Improvement of Students under the International Education Management Model

“…With the development of globalization, international education has become an important component of higher education [1,2]. Students have more opportunities to study abroad, communicate, and do internships, which provides them with a unique intercultural experience [3][4][5][6]. At the same time, intercultural communication competence (ICC) gets more and more attention and has been considered a necessary skill to help students better adapt and integrate into different cultural backgrounds [7,8].…”