Past Call for Participation
Past Call for Contributions and Participation
The Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education is a forum for disseminating experience and information on developing and delivering programs and courses broadly defined in computer science, computer technology, or information systems. The conference aims to bring together educators, industrial partners, and government officials interested in the instruction and delivery of computing-related courses and the development and evolution of computing education.
This year, we are continuing to broaden participation among Canadian computing educators. To foster this interchange of ideas, the organizers of WCCCE 2025 welcome papers, posters, nifty assignments, and special sessions on the following (non-exhaustive) list of topics:
New or experimental computing-education curricula at any level, including K-12
Teaching methods or tools for specific concepts or courses, general methods and tools for computing-related courses
Methods, tools, and effective structures for designing, teaching and grading, including automation tools
Experience reports on the use of new techniques or technology
Applications and techniques to support distance and/or distributed learning
Broadening participation and improving student wellbeing
School outreach programs or high-school programs for computer programming and/or computational thinking
Computing education research
We intend to have the Conference Proceedings published in the ACM Digital Library or an equivalent venue. Further details on the Proceedings publication will be posted once confirmed.
If you effectively use unique methods to teach a computing-related topic or have successfully adopted a new tool or technology in your computing-related courses or labs, this is an opportunity to tell people about it. If you have developed a tool that improves the instructional quality of your courses or provides insight into the learning process, this is the place to demonstrate it. Even if you have tried methods or tools in your instruction with little success, we are still eager to hear about it. Your experience can help us all.
Student Research Showcase
This year, WCCCE has added a separate submission track for student research in any of the categories below. All works created primarily by students (undergraduate or graduate) and which will be presented by a student author are eligible, and you will be given the option to opt-in to this submission track when you make your submission.
Work that may be considered for this may include: senior projects; summer projects; projects from USRAs, Mitacs, etc. where the student presenting the work has made significant contributions to the work in question.
Submission and Review Procedure
The deadline for all submissions has passed. ('Twas Tuesday, March 4th, 2025, 11:59 pm Anywhere on Earth.)
WCCCE 2025 will be run in an in-person format only, and presenters are required to register for and attend the conference to be eligible to present.
Except for panel and special session submissions, any identifying information, such as authors’ names, institution names, or identifying references, must be replaced by the authors with placeholders so the papers can be anonymously reviewed. Submissions which are not properly anonymized will be disregarded. The authors of accepted papers will have the opportunity to modify their submissions, considering the reviewers’ comments, and to replace any placeholders with the proper identifiers, before publication.
Please let us know if you are willing to serve as a reviewer.
Submission Categories
The following categories of submissions are available.
All long paper submissions must follow the ACM’s publication guidelines. Papers may contain up to six pages plus one page for references and acknowledgments. Authors will have 25 minutes to present their work (including time for questions) at the conference.
Links to the article templates for LaTeX (strongly recommended) and Microsoft Word, along with a description of the submission format, can be found at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. When preparing your submission, use the ACM reference formats for various citation types as described at https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/reference-formatting.
A short paper (or extended abstract) is a lightweight way to engage the WCCCE audience with some aspect of computing education you are excited about and passionate about. The authors of each accepted short paper will have approximately 15 minutes to present their work (including time for questions) during a conference session.
Short papers must follow the submission guidelines for long papers concerning formatting and anonymization. Short papers must not exceed two pages in overall length (references included).
Panels provide an opportunity to present multiple perspectives on a specific topic and engage the audience in active discussion about an issue. To allow each panelist sufficient time to present their perspective and still enable audience participation, a panel will normally have at most four panelists. Panel submissions are not to exceed two pages and are to contain the following information:
- A descriptive title for the session.
- A short description of the panel topic that clearly indicates how/why this panel would be of interest.
- A list of panelists with their affiliations.
- The proposed duration for the panel (between 45 and 75 minutes)
Posters provide an opportunity to present work (or work-in-progress) to other conference participants in an informal and conversational setting. We invite poster proposals related to new results or preliminary findings in any of the topic areas listed above. Submissions will consist of a one- or two-page extended abstract including the title, list of authors, summary of the content of the work and relevant references.
Workshop and tutorial sessions provide a structured way for domain experts to present new and novel techniques to an interested -- and technically capable -- audience. These proposals, which will be assessed by the Program Committee, should include:
- A descriptive title for the session.
- Expected duration.
- The presenter(s), and a brief description of their background(s) with respect to the proposed topic.
- A short description of the workshop/tutorial topic and the format of the session, including expected learning outcomes and sample activities.
A tutorial / workshop proposal may not exceed two pages.
A Blizzard Talk is the Canadian equivalent of a lightning talk. Presenters will be given 5 minutes to present on any topic of potential interest to the WCCCE community. For example, this would be an excellent way for you to tell us about:
- work in progress, including new teaching tools
- your opinions on pedagogical topics
- new course development ideas
- studies you would like to conduct
- projects where you seek collaboration
- innovative teaching methods
- strategies for promoting diversity and inclusion
- integrating ethics into computing education
- using emerging technologies in teaching
- supporting student well-being
- interdisciplinary approaches in computing education
- effective practices for remote and hybrid learning
The above are just examples, and anything that you think would interest the WCCCE community is appropriate. We are asking everyone who is interested to submit a short description (200 words max) of what the presentation will be about. This will help us order the presentations and, if needed, decide who will get a slot. You may submit multiple proposals if you want to present multiple things, but combining them into one blizzard presentation would be impractical.
Blizzard abstracts will be posted on the website but not included in the conference proceedings.
WCCCE will also allow educators to share assignments they have previously used to assess students in novel and engaging ways. For more information on what constitutes a “nifty assignment,” please visit http://nifty.stanford.edu/info.html.
Accepted assignments will be presented in the Nifty Assignments session at the conference. The assignment materials will be hosted on the WCCCE website so that they are available to other educators for years to come, and a brief description of the assignment will be published in the conference proceedings. Submissions to this track must not have been previously published in another nifty assignment or similar session.
The content of a nifty assignment submission will vary depending on the nature of the assignment. Submitters are encouraged to include the (non-exhaustive) list of items below, as appropriate to their particular assignment, so that it can be refereed effectively. Submissions should not include information on the authors or their affiliations for the blind review process.
A description of the assignment and what makes it nifty. This could include:
- The strengths/positive aspects of the assignment.
- The assignment assessed the topics and learning goals.
- The assignment’s level of difficulty.
- The course in which the assignment was used.
- The language students used to implement their solutions.
- Any weaknesses or challenges associated with the assignment.
- Any technological or educational dependencies (such as a particular library).
- Any assignment handouts provided to students.
- Any starter code, data files, or other materials needed to complete the assignment.
- Grading criteria (optional).
- A runnable sample solution (optional).
Nifty assignment submissions should include a 2-page extended abstract which summarizes the assignment, reflects on its impact and describes what makes it nifty. Extended abstracts will be included in the conference proceedings. Authors may also submit a zip file containing supplemental materials such as handouts, starter codes, and grading scripts. The extended abstract, as well as the contents of the zip file, should be anonymized for review.
A Special Session allows you to share your work and ideas uniquely. Participants are allowed to craft the session as they see fit. The only constraints are location and time: the sessions will be scheduled by default in standard conference rooms and can range from 25 to 75 minutes in length. The format can resemble a panel, birds of a feather session, reflective practice, courseware demo, tutorial, workshop, or roundtable, to name a few. Special Session submission proposals are not to exceed three pages and are to contain the following information:
- A descriptive title for the session.
- A description of the topic that indicates how/why this session would interest attendees and justifies how this session adds something new to the program that the predefined session formats (papers, blizzard talks, and nifty assignments) do not provide.
- The time required and an outline of how that time will be utilized.
- An explanation of the expectations of participants and how participants will be actively engaged.
- Any special requests that would improve the session (e.g., equipment, room configuration) along with a backup plan should we be unable to accommodate them.
- References (if applicable).
- A list of presenters with affiliations and short biographies explaining their expertise in the session’s topic.
Special session submissions are to include author and presenter information and do not require anonymous submission. Special session abstracts will be included in the conference proceedings.
